Springtime Wild Sushi Rolls
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In honor of International Sushi Day, I made some fun and easy-to-make springtime maki rolls with foraged ingredients.
For these rolls, I harvested some wild asparagus, fiddleheads, milkweed shoots, ramps (wild leeks), and dandelion flower petals, but you could make them with lots of other fun wild edibles, like blanched nettles, lambsquarters, cattail shoots, hostas, wild onions, edible flowers, mallow, dandelion leaves, chickweed, etc.
Note: Fiddleheads and milkweed shoots harbor some toxicity when eaten raw, so be sure to cook them in boiling water as I instruct in the recipe.
The flavor of these rolls is quite elegant and straightforward – what you’re getting is the flavor of the wild ingredient nestled in seasoned rice, and not much more. I think simple preparations like this are great for delicious spring wild edibles. If you’d like to make them more interesting, try adding pickles or poached seafood.
Serves: 4
Time to make: 1.5 hours
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Springtime Wild Sushi Rolls
4
servings1
hour30
minutesKeep the screen of your device on
Ingredients
1.5 cups raw sushi rice
3 cups water
2 teaspoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
2 stalks asparagus, tough ends cut off
8 ramp leaves (wild leeks)
4 milkweed shoots
1 cup fiddleheads
1 cup dandelion flower petals (no green parts)
5 nori (seaweed) sheets
Japanese soy sauce to serve
Preparation
- Rinse the rice until the water runs mostly clear. Add the rice, water, sugar, and salt to a medium pot and bring to a boil, stirring so the rice doesn’t stick to the bottom. Cover, reduce heat to low, and cook without disturbing for 15 minutes (or whatever the package instructs).
- Once done, remove from heat and let rest (without removing the lid) for 5 minutes. Stir in the rice wine vinegar, then transfer rice to a baking sheet or large container to cool down.
- Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to a boil and add a big pinch of salt. Fill a large bowl with cold water and ice cubes.
- Add the asparagus to the boiling water and cook for 1 minute. Transfer to bowl.
- Add the ramps to the boiling water and cook for 30 seconds. Transfer to bowl.
- Add the milkweed shoots to the boiling water and cook for 5 minutes. Transfer to bowl.
- Add the fiddleheads to the boiling water and cook for 10 minutes. Transfer to bowl.
- Discard the water.
- Lay out 1 nori sheet, shiny-side-up, and use a wet spoon to spread the cooled rice across the bottom 2/3rds of the nori sheet (the open section will be facing away from you). You want the layer of rice to be thin, but still a tad fluffy. Now lay down the two asparagus stalks on the side closest to you. Roll the bottom of the nori sheet over the asparagus and roll to the other side. Place a few grains of cooked rice along the top edge (these act like a glue to keep it from unrolling) and finish the roll. Lay it seam-side down while you make the others.
Repeat with the other ingredients. - For the ramp roll, follow the same directions with the rice, but lay the blanched leaves down, overlapping, so they cover the rice. Roll.
- Save the dandelion flowers for last. Once the other items are rolled, mix the petals into the remaining rice, then follow the rolling instructions.
- Use a very sharp knife (I recommend a fish fillet knife that has been wetted) to slice the rolls into sushi. Keep in mind that you’ll want to eat them in one bite, so don’t make them too big.
- Serve with Japanese soy sauce to dip. Enjoy!
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That looks so good! I have to try making it.
Awesome! Let me know how it turns out!