Make a homemade sushi burrito in 5 simple steps

by Kimberley Doerksen

It seems like every week there’s a new food trend, “superfood”, or must-have meal. While I’m a sucker for all of the above, it’s always interesting to see which ones catch on. Some weeks I struggle to find something inspiring to cook – that’s when requests come in incredibly handy. This week I was asked if I could do a write-up on sushi burritos which are apparently all the rage in Toronto right now. I’ve seen and heard about them, but had never tried one myself. There is a fairly new restaurant in downtown Vancouver called Pokérrito that does a mean sushi burrito. Essentially it’s a sushi roll that isn’t sliced into perfect bite sized pieces. It takes all the flavours and ingredients of sushi, wrapped in rice and seaweed, then encased in foil and served for a perfect on-the-go meal.

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At most restaurants or food trucks, sashimi is a main player in anything sushi related. For food safety sake, I chose to make the burritos with crab and smoked salmon. The beauty of any kind of wrap is that any flavour combination works – just choose what you like the most. I opted for smoked salmon, mango, veggies, and avocado. It was delicious and incredibly filling. Here’s how to make your own:

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Sushi burritos

INGREDIENTS
Sushi Rice
2 cups (325g) uncooked short-grain rice, or about 5 cups cooked rice
3 cups water
pinch of kosher salt
Filling
1 small orange pepper, seeded and sliced
1 avocado, peeled and sliced
½ cucumber, cut to matchsticks
1 mango, peeled and sliced
smoked salmon, or any other protein (crab, chicken, tofu, etc.)
4 sheets of roasted sushi seaweed (nori)

DIRECTIONS
1. To cook sushi rice, rinse the rice until it the water runs clear. Add rice and water in a pot, let soak for 30 minutes.

2. Bring soaked rice and water to a boil, then turn down to a simmer and cook for 20 minutes. Once done, remove the pot from the heat and let it steam for 10 minutes – do NOT remove the lid!

3. Fluff rice with a fork and spread onto baking sheet to cool off. You don’t want to roll sushi with hot rice.

4. Between rice cooking steps, take that time to prep desired fillings.

5. Lay sushi mat on your counter. Take a sheet of roasted sushi seaweed, and lay the shinier side down. Spread about a cup of cooked rice on top, making sure that the rice covers the entire surface of the seaweed. Lay vegetables, and protein on the rice making sure to span the entire width. Roll up sushi burrito. Serve immediately.

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