Sushi is a delicious treat to have. However, most of us have this impression that it’s something we can’t make at home. I’m here to squish that theory. Although at first, it may be tricky to get the hang of sushi rolling. Following the right steps would make you all the sushi you want and just as delicious as you would get from a £3 Tesco meal deal! If you find yourself asking yourself questions such as “How do I make sushi at home?” or “What's a easy homemade sushi recipe?” then keep on reading.

*Homemade sushi roll photo for how to make sushi.*

Sushi can be easy to make. Easy, simple homemade sushi is something achievable for any level of home chef. You would be surprised at just how easy it is to make simple homemade sushi.

You will need a few ingredients which will be listed below, everything else is personal preference. That's what makes homemade sushi so delicious! You have full control over how to make your sushi. Tweaking and changing the recipe and fillings to fit your personal sushi roll preferences!

With that being said there are just a few basics of homemade sushi/how to make sushi that we need to cover; The sushi rice, sushi ingredients and equipment needed to make sushi. After that you can fill your sushi rolls with whatever fillings you like.

I’ve included three sushi roll recipes at the bottom of this post which you can use as inspiration. A spicy tuna sushi recipe, A vegetarian sushi recipe and a salmon and avocado sushi recipe.

What is sushi rice

Sushi rice is sold in most Asian shops and supermarkets as well as most large supermarkets such as Tesco and Asda. Which makes it very easy to find. Especially since they are labelled “Sushi rice”

Sushi rice is a short grained, starch filled rice which is similar in its look to risotto rice. However, just because it looks like risotto rice doesn’t mean you can substitute sushi rice for risotto rice. When cooked, sushi rice is extremely sticky. Which makes it perfect for wrapping.

If you were to substitute sushi rice for risotto rice you wouldn’t achieve that level of stickiness in your rice. Meaning your sushi rolls would just fall apart. All your fillings would fall out. Sushi rice holds its form. You can however substitute sushi rice for pudding rice.

*easy homemade sushi recipe photo | How to make sushi photo.*

How to cook Sushi rice

Cooking sushi rice is relatively easy to do. So easy in fact it takes four steps to cook your sushi rice to perfection.

Step one

Weigh and wash your sushi rice. For this we will use 250 grams of sushi rice. This will give you enough sushi to feed a small family. You need to wash off any excess starch on your sushi. You can do this either adding your sushi to a bowl of cold water, letting it sit then straining out the water and repeating the process 3 or 4 times.

Or, if you have a fine mesh strainer or sieve you can run your sushi rice under a tap of cold water until the water coming off your sushi runs clear.

Step Two

Add your 250 grams of sushi rice to a pan and pour over 330ml of cold water. Bring to a boil then simmer with a lid on. If you don’t have a lid for your pan you can use a small plate.

Just keep in mind when you remove your plate it will be very hot! So use a towel when removing the plate lid. A lid is important to steam your rice and achieve the desired stickiness.

Step Three

Allow your sushi rice to simmer for 10 minutes. This should be plenty of time for your rice to absorb the majority if not all of the water you added. Turn off the heat and leave your sushi to cool for 25/30 minutes keeping the lid on.

If you remove the lid all the steam will escape and wont give your rice that perfect sticky texture. So make sure the lid stays on the pan as your rice is cooling.

Step Four

Season your sushi rice. Add 2tbsp of rice wine vinegar, sugar and salt to your rice and fold throughout the rice.

Seaweed

Roasted seaweed is the rich, savoury, umami flavour that’s used to wrap your sushi. You can get these roasted seaweed sheets from almost any chinese or japanese shop. Or rather cheaply at most supermarkets.

Tesco and Asda sell the “Yutaka Sushi Nori” roasted seaweed. Yutaka means “Good harvest” in Japanese and Nori is made from a sea vegetable known as laver in English.

Although you can make sushi without the seaweed wrap. It’s with that wrap that we will be making it in this recipe, due to the easiness of it. This after all is the easy homemade sushi method. Using the wrap keeps everything nicely together. Perfect for easy homemade sushi. With the roasted seaweed there is less of a chance of you frustratingly messing up your sushi.

When using these to make sushi. You will notice they have a rough side and a shiny, smooth side. You want to place your seaweed sheet with the shiny side down and the rough side pointing up. It’s the rough side we will add our sushi fillings too.

Sushi Making Equipment needed

There are a number of things you will need for making Sushi. Most of them are common household objects and utensils you will already have in your kitchen. Such as the following;

A Pan, to cook your sushi rice
A sieve to wash your sushi rice
A bowl to mix and season your sushi rice
A knife to cut your sushi rolls
Scales to weigh out your Sushi rice if you’re not eyeing it

However, there is one piece of equipment that although you can make do without. Will vastly improve your sushi making experience. And that is a bamboo sushi mat.

This is needed to roll your sushi. Without it, you will have a difficult time. Luckily they are very cheap to buy. As Well as getting them from pretty much any Chinese or Japanese shops. You can also get them from the majority of larger supermarkets, Sainsbury’s sells one for £1.30 or just grab one from Amazon.

Top tip

Struggling to get your bamboo sushi mat? You can substitute it for a tea towel. Fold it in half and use the same way you would use the sushi mat

Sushi Ingredients

As for the ingredients needed to make your easy homemade sushi. I will break that down in two sections. The required and the optional ingredients. Due to the fact you can add any fillings you want in your sushi rolls!

Required ingredients

Sushi rice
Nori roasted seaweed sheets

Optional ingredients

Soy sauce for dipping
Sesame seeds
Sushi fillings, the most popular being cucumber, carrots, avocado, salmon and tuna.

How to Make Sushi Rolls Step by Step

Now we have our Sushi ingredients prepped and ready to go, we are ready for the fun part. Rolling out your sushi. What i will say, is this can be fiddly if you’ve never done it before. Keep in mind that your first roll, maybe your second, maybe even your third might only be fit for the bin. At Least whilst you’re getting the hang of rolling it out. So with that in mind, prep a little extra to account for these “practise” ones.

With that being said let's get into the how to make sushi bit. The easy homemade recipe.

Step One

Cook your Sushi rice to the packet instructions or to my above instructions in the “how to cook sushi rice” section

Go for a cup of tea or watch a bit of T.V whilst your sushi rice is cooling. Once your rice is fully cooled get your sushi mat ready and a bowl of cold water to wet your hands before handling the rice (This will keep it from sticking to your hands)finally, get a wet towel ready (you will see why shortly)