Can Vegan Sushi Satisfy A Sushi Lover?

This is so good I could eat it every day if you say all you can eat my next words will be

sushi

which is like the equivalent of wagging your tail. I feel like hello everyone, what's up? She is your girl merle and today we are. I'm going to make it

vegan

from home, it may look a little different but it'll still be totally fun and we'll make it work, so today I'll have my very good friend Jasmine Pack on the show which is very exciting. You may know her as the producer of Giant Food Time.

Bring me, she's a huge foodie and I happen to know that her favorite food is

sushi

, so today I'm sending her from sushi from my favorite

vegan

sushi place and then. I'm going to show her how to make her own homemade vegan sushi and we'll see which one she likes. It's ring ring oh, it's so good to see your shiny face. I just want to pinch your cheek, yes, pinch me, it's real. right jasmine straight up you love sushi tell me talk to me about how much you love sushi and why you love sushi. Merl, it's so good, I got my face really close, you know, I'm serious if you say all you can eat.

My next words will be sushi, all you can eat, yeah, no, if you've had sugary fish in Los Angeles, it's thebomb.com. I could eat it every day, sometimes I do if you've had their tuna roll, it's super soft, tender and pliable. I can cut it like butter. I also love the eel roll that Lou Mommy has. I think it has a unique flavor and you can't not eat eel when you go to eat sushi, so you are painting a very nice picture for me here. a modern Bob Ross, okay, so today we're going to try some vegan sushi from Shogun, which is a 100 percent plant-based sushi place.

I know what you're thinking: it's vegan and sushi, what is that? But listen, I think it's I'll blow your mind, Jasmine, oh, I'm so excited because the last time you made me fish and chips with celery root, it tasted exactly the same. Okay, similar to zero fish. Okay, okay with the tone. You can see it well. It just wasn't the same. You know, it's funny. you should say that, a little bird, tells me you have a special delivery, oh my god, okay, let's eat, okay, jasmine, let me tell you a little about why I love shogen so much, yeah, sell it to me, they pride themselves on use it.

Only the highest quality ingredients that are organic when possible and avoid refined sugar, table salt and gluten. Okay, Jasmine, so first we'll try the dynamite roll, which is one of their best-selling items. Let's do it, this roll contains spicy tofu. which is tuna and also includes spicy avocado mayonnaise and beetroot sauce. Okay, my goodness, what I appreciate is the complexity and the flavors working together and I know it's made with tofu, which I can really taste, but I love tofu. I actually love this. I can't lie, it doesn't taste fishy nor does it just taste like really good sushi.

I agree, now we are going to try their other most popular product which is their hand baked crab cake and this one has crab cake made from enoki. avocado and mushroom vegenaise and a sweet and smoky tamari sauce that's good hmm, it sounds like you're not believing it. I think it's this. I have a very sensitive palate and I love mushrooms, so it doesn't even taste like shit to me as much as I can. the taste is like it's a delicious fried enoki, many types of concoctions, if you're not fooled, but it's delicious, yes, I thought it was super good, but I don't think everyone has a vegan sushi place near them, it's funny , you should say I'm going. to teach you how to make it in your own kitchen, yeah, I mean, let's hope mine lives up to your expectations now that I've given you this delicious vegan sushi.

I don't know how you're going to show Jen, damn it. Don't spare my feelings, okay, as you know, it shows that Jen used tofu to recreate the tuna in her role, but what we're going to do today is use tomatoes, so we're going to use tomatoes to make the tuna listen. I'm right, okay, it will be delicious, so the first thing we're going to do with our tomatoes is take a sharp knife and make a small X-shaped incision on the bottom. there and then on top you're just going to use the pointy tip of your knife and pour in the tomatoes as well.

We have a pot of boiling water here, we're just going to put our tomatoes right there in the boil water for about 60 to 90 seconds and then once you start to notice the skin peeling off that little X on the bottom, you can transfer it with a spoon to your ice bath. Well, the first thing we're going to do with your tomatoes, you're going to take them out of the ice bath and then we're going to gently peel off the skin. It's so fun, it reminds me of when you put glue on your hands, you know, oh yeah, okay, so now that You're stripped to the bone.

You'll take the tomatoes and cut them into quarters so you can follow those X's you made at the bottom all the way to the end. Can you see where we're going with this? 1000 percent sushi, it really looks like tuna, and then once you've cut them into quarters, we're going to remove the seeds. I know this is a vegan show, but my cutting board looks like crime. scene, I feel like Dexter, yeah, this looks awful, okay, now that we have all of our tomatoes in place, we want to make our marinade and our marinade is going to consist of half a cup of low sodium soy sauce and then we're going to make half cup of rice vinegar and half a cup of neutral oil it smells like sushi we are cooking miracles here I feel good and then we are going to make a teaspoon and a half of granulated sugar and finally to Give it the real fishy touch that we are going to put on a sheet of nori.

Remember when you made salmon with carrots. I sure am proud of that recipe. If this one is as good as that one, I'll abandon it. vegan sushi, what a week, okay, now we're going to mix them up and drop them right there and then we're going to put these sleeping beauties in the refrigerator to marinate, so Jasmine, we're not done yet. We're going to make something that looks like the eel sushi you said you liked so much using eggplant, wow, that was a lot more badass, okay, so the first thing we're going to do is remove the top, the next step is to peel the whole eggplant. , which I know you're thinking, oh, that's a lot of work, but listen, I've got something to keep your mind busy while we do it, oh yeah, I think it's time to go vegan, 70 percent yes, that's right, according to a Greenpeace report what is the biggest plastic polluter in our oceans today I would say microplastics or discarded plastic water bottles fishing gear estimates that six hundred and forty thousand tons of commercial fishing lines gear Nets, traps and pots are discarded into the ocean every year in a single year, which is equivalent to the weight of 55,000 double-decker buses every year in our oceans and that is just commercial, so it doesn't even include private plastic in our oceans, it is not the only problem with fishing;

There is also bycatch and of course, Bycatch basically means that we accidentally catch other marine life and disturb marine ecosystems while trying to get the fish we want to eat. OMG, now it doesn't even matter if this tastes good, I'm making it anyway. Okay, first we're going to cut the eggplant in half, so we have two pieces here and then with each half, we're going to cut them into about 1/3 inch slices, which is 1/3 inch. Oh nice, well now you have your slices and I'm going to put a cloth on it, better use a cloth or a reusable one if you can, so I'm going to put my slices on and I'm going to put salt on the first side and then I'm going to turn them over and I'm going to put salt on them too on the other hand.

Okay, I'll add salt. Good job Jasmine, we'll let them sit here for about 30 minutes and in the meantime we'll preheat our oven. at 375 degrees Fahrenheit i.e. 190 degrees Celsius, are you ready for this ready? Okay, great, now for our sauce we're going to use 1/3 cup sake 1/3 cup maple syrup 1/2 cup mirin and then 1/2 cup more low sodium soy sauce, so let's go to mix this until it's very well blended okay now this is simmering and after about 20 or 25 minutes we're going to take it off the heat once it's reduced by about half so now we just remove our sauce from the stove and let it cool a little bit and finally we're going to pat dry our eggplants and then we're going to cut them like boards into quarters if you have a smaller one then you can cut it into thirds and then you'll transfer it to your baking mat.

Now that we have everything nice and evenly distributed on the mat, we will take about a quarter of our mixture and spread it evenly over all of our pieces, then we will turn them over and do the same with another quarter of the mixture on the other side if you find that It is incredibly tedious to turn each individual piece as I have decided. Actually, once you have the frosting, you can mix them together like you would a ski roller cake, make a skating rink. Well, we'll put them in the oven for about 10 minutes and then we'll use the rest. our sauce and cover them once more and then put them back in the oven for 10 more minutes.

We've done a lot today, it's been a busy day, but now that we've reached the final stage, it's time to prepare these little sushi. friends, for those of you who don't know, a little tip is to wet your hands a little before handling the sushi rice because, oh, it gets sticky, it gets really sticky, so we're going to shape it a little bit. oblong shape I think I got my hands too wet now it's falling apart here's another interesting tip if you want to keep your little tomato so it sticks on top, better put a very small dot of wasabi there, especially if I don't like them the spices because they have a touch and a half, so we're going to put our vegan tuna on top, now we're going to take our seaweed and we're going to wrap it in a little package of love, oh my goodness.

I'm taking this little guy to prom with me. I'm very excited about this. Well, it's ok. I'm going to move on to my second serving of sushi. This seems good. You've been chosen as a tribute and then we're going to brush just a little. a little bit of our leftover sauce on top now I'm going to wrap it up tight so the moment of truth has come Jasmine you've got your three sushi options there you've got your favorite sushi the tried and true the ten in your sugary fish book and then you have the ones we got from shogen today and then of course you have our homemade versions that we just made.

I'm so excited. Okay, Jasmine. I'm going to ask you to go ahead and try your sugared fish sushi first, I don't care if I do, it's like the equivalent of tail wagging. I feel so good that sugary fish never lets me down. I mean, come on, eel is incomparably edgy, no, go ahead and try the gin again mmm. I mean, the spicy tuna roll, like I said before, may still taste like tofu, but it also reminds me of spicy tuna and still reminds me of the sushi experience, okay, what are we going to try first? I'm going to make the tomato thinking about the feelings, good, visually beautiful, an incredible experience.

It tastes impeccable but not too much, it's not good, it's okay, I mean, it's not tuna, but you don't think it tastes like tuna, no, there's a bite to the tomato, that sugary fish tuna doesn't have what I love about it. sugary fish tuna. The thing is that it is super soft and the tuna with tomato cleans like butter. I enjoy it as it is. I don't think it tastes exactly like tuna, but I would feel like I had a sushi experience. I am satisfied with that, now I will win it. If you try the eel Wow, okay, it feels like an eel, no, I feel slimy, the eggplant eel is really good.

You could put each of them over sushi rice like a bowl and just devour them. The experience of eating eggplant eel is very similar. to eat performance because it looks like visually it's just that everyone is there, so the sauce is on point yeah, okay, now I feel a little more confident, okay, it's free time to choose, just tell me what you're thinking about both. Of your options here, the Shoji was super good. I'm super happy you introduced it to me, while I thought the spicy tuna was amazing. I wasn't in love with the imitation crab roll and could still taste the tofu in the spicy tuna. roll for the ones we made today I could taste the tomato in the tuna but the eggplant and eel sauce changed my life so what are you going to write these two shogen taking everything into account I give it an 8 oh wow and for the ones we made today I leave it for seven point seven six no I shouldn't have encouraged you to be honest it's respectable and I understand that I thought the Shoguns were amazing too okay but I need to clarify it okay even though I gave a shogen a higher number I still like. eggplant will be made today more than me shogen imitation crab roll interesting so you really like the tofu one from the show Jen, that was the one that pushed you over the edge yeah, it's so innovative, there are so many different flavors, this one is healthy , there are proteins, it is complex, which I don't love.

I don't feel it's necessary to imitate foods, so if it's an imitation crab roll, why not just call it fried milk hand roll? Because I might appreciate it. for what it is and the ones we made today, if you just called it marinated tomato you wouldn't have ordered it, I would have enjoyed it. I understand what you aresaying. I think it's a very good point about innovation over imitation and I think many non-vegans may think this will resonate with them in general, although the ones we made today are absolutely delicious. I wouldn't mind switching them out a couple of times a month just to reduce my sushi consumption.

Okay, I'm glad you had fun and honestly, thank you so much for being on the show. a pleasure every time I talk to you thank you for making you learn so much thank you so much for watching if there is anyone that you would like to see on the show to try to veganize their favorite dish or if there is a certain dish that you would like to see me make vegan, let us know in the comments below, bye.