Recipe: Vegan Quinoa Sushi Salad

Like all of the best ones, this recipe came about completely by accident. It has since become one of my go-to recipes for weekday lunches. It's chock-full of protein, omega fats, and vitamin B12 - all that good stuff that vegans love!

Over the summer, I made these vegan sushi rolls for a friend's birthday picnic. It took a few practice rolls to get the process right. I tossed those practice rolls into a container and later had it as a snack. Turned out those sloppy, falling-apart rolls became an awesome salad. I decided to play around with the ingredients a little and came up with this recipe.

For my salad, I used a Florida avocado instead of the more common California avocado. Florida avocados are bigger and are sometimes labeled as "Lite" avocados or "Slimcados." They have fewer calories and fat per ounce than a California or Hass avocado. They're not as creamy, but the flavor of the Florida avocado is perfect and delicious in this salad.

There are a variety of packaged seaweed products available, but I found that the sushi-style nori sheets tasted best for this recipe. It really made the salad taste more like sushi. Seaweed is one of the few vegetarian sources of vitamin B12, which is often lacking in vegan and vegetarian diets.

The ingredient that really put this recipe over the top was the vegan "caviar." I'd been wanting to try it for a while so when I saw the Carviart on sale on Vegan Cuts, I was all over it! I had tried making my own vegan caviar or "roe" in the past using amaranth seed and beet juice (recipe here.) It lacked the salty flavor of the real thing. The Caviart comes a lot closer to the real deal.

You can sign up for a Vegan Cuts account if you want to try some for yourself. For more information about Caviart, check out this page.

Vegan Quinoa Sushi Salad

Quinoa Sushi Salad

Dressing:

• 4 tbsp rice vinegar
• 2 tbsp water
• 2 tsp honey
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 1 tsp low sodium soy sauce

- Combine ingredients at set aside.

Salad:

• 1 cup of quinoa - rinsed well
• 2 cups water
• 1 Florida avocado, sliced
• 1 cucumber, sliced
• 2 tbsp sesame seeds
• 2 sheets of nori sushi, broken/chopped into 1" pieces
• vegan caviar

1. Cook the quinoa by combining it with the water and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook until quinoa is translucent. About 15 minutes. Allow to cool.
2. Add dressing to quinoa along with seaweed, and sesame seeds. Toss to combine.
3. Top with avocado, cucumber, and caviar.

Further reading
http://nutritiondiva.quickanddirtytips.com/difference-between-california-and-florida-avocados.aspx
http://www.livestrong.com/article/18578-health-benefits-eating-seaweed/
http://www.veganhealth.org/b12/plant#seaweeds
http://thebroccolihut.com/florida-vs-california-battle-of-the-avocado/