Christmas food ideas 2012: Brown rice mango sushi

It is possible that this food idea will be better suited to those of you in southern hemisphere climates than northern hemisphere ones. Sushi for Christmas is a bit of an outlandish idea in its own right. If it is snowing outside, adding fresh mango to the mix may seem bizarre as well as impractical.

If you are somewhere cold, this may be one occasion when tinned mango could stand in. Otherwise, a pumpkin and tahini filling was a serious alternate contender for this, and I am pretty sure pumpkin will be easy to come by if it's winter where you are. (If anyone does try pumpkin and tahini, please let me know how it goes!)

In the form I made it, this easy dish has mango, carrot and tofu as the sushi fillings. I used brown rice instead of sushi rice and the result was a meal (or snack) I could happily eat every day. It's not traditional Christmas fare, but mango and Christmas go together in an Australian kind of way, and this would be perfect for any pre-Christmas events when finger food is required.

I actually used pre-flavoured tofu for this. I rarely buy those packets (on account of the cost), but when they're on sale I tend to stock up. This was a Thai flavoured block, which paired perfectly with the mango. If you were using plain tofu, a simple marinade of soy sauce, fresh grated ginger and chilli would work well. That had been my plan prior to finding the flavoured tofu, and I would stir-fry the tofu ahead of time so it can be cooled before the sushi rolling stage.

Really, though, you can modify this dish to suit whatever you have to hand. It is more of a concept than a recipe. You may want to use cucumber instead of carrot (I don't like cucumber), put avocado in (I don't like that either), or even skip the tofu altogether. Sushi is flexible like that.

Brown rice mango sushi

Easy, festive, and perfect for summer (or for dreaming of summer)
Makes about 20 sushi pieces
Vegan

Print recipe

Ingredients
1 cup brown rice

2 cups water

2 tbsp mirin or rice vinegar

3 sheets nori

1 large mango, cut into thin slices (you can use tinned if necessary)

1 large carrot, cut into thin slices

200g marinated and cooked tofu, cut into thin slices

Method
Ahead of time, cook the brown rice in the 2 cups of water using the absorption method (cover, bring to the boil, reduce heat, simmer for 15-20 minutes). Allow the rice to cool. Stir the mirin through the rice and refrigerate until needed.

Take one sheet of nori and spoon cooled rice into a strip, approximately 2 inches in from one end. Top the rice with sliced mango, carrot, and tofu. Roll in from the near end and use water to seal the other end after rolling.

Repeat for the other sheets of nori.

Allow the sushi to chill in the refrigerator before slicing with a sharp knife.

I am not sure if this will feature on our Christmas day, but it will definitely be appearing again either before Christmas, or as a staple of my summer lunches.

I am submitting this to Healthy Vegan Friday #21, hosted by Gabby, Shelby and Carrie.

Other 2012 Christmas food ideas: Chocolate, almond and goji berry truffle balls, and bejewelled couscous salad.
My 2011 Christmas food posts can be found here. 

How do you feel about non-traditional Christmas foods at Christmas time?

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