Egg, Carrot & Kohlrabi Sushi

Japanese-style rolled omelet with farm share kohlrabi and carrots make a vegetarian sushi roll.

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This blog is about how I'm feeding my family from our Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share to encourage you to try a farm share in your town. Typically the recipes I share are uncomplicated and use ingredients and tools found in regular stores. The food is generally nutritious, filling, and uses up items from the farm share box--but it's not usually fancy pants type food.

As often as I am embarrassed by the many iterations of brown food or fast & easy food on this blog, every once in a while I'm really proud of taking the time to create something pretty using the produce from our farm share. Today's recipe is more elevated compared to my standard fare. This is a terrific Spring/early summer seasonal sushi roll, and since the tantalizing glimpse of sunshine and warmth has me [and the dogs] wanting to lie on the brown grass in the back yard and dream of summer days, I'm sharing it now.

In addition to being a fan of eating from the farm share, I'm also a pretty frugal cook. Since my spouse and I can eat our ages in sushi--and the kids could probably exceed our consumption--it makes sense to roll our own and have sushi at home.  Just like with pizza, something that we like to eat often but don't like to shell out $$ for, sushi at home can be a wonderfully special meal.

I learned to make my own sushi while in my early 20's, living in Washington, DC. I've got a sushi 101 tutorial from the first month of this blog for reference--you can see it here. If you are a hands on learner, I would recommend taking a class. It's fun to learn along with other folks and you can get immediate answers to your questions. I've seen sushi-making classes offered at community centers, grocery stores and kitchenware stores. If you're interested, find a class and try it--then branch out on your own. There's no rule that says you need raw fish to have sushi, you just need a willingness to experiment and some raw materials!

For other recipes using carrots, please see my Carrot Recipes Collection. For other recipes using Kohlrabi, please see my Kohlrabi Recipes Collection (I'm pretty proud of it). These collections are part of the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient--a resource for ideas of what to do with farm share produce. For even more ideas, please feel free to follow my Pinterest boards--this is going on Awesome Veggie Apps and Snacks.

Egg, Carrot & Kohlrabi Sushi (makes enough for 4 to 6 people)

Ingredients

• 3 cups short grain rice which are then cooked according to package directions (I use a rice cooker because I burn it otherwise)
• ⅓ to ½ cup seasoned sushi rice vinegar
• 4 eggs
• 1 teaspoon salt (I use kosher)
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 to 3 teaspoons of olive oil
• nori seaweed sheets for sushi (start with at least 6 sheets)
• mayonnaise
• 2 cups shredded carrot (peels to the soup pack!)
• 2 cups kohlrabi sticks (cut off the top and tip, peel, and slice into thin sticks)
• to serve, wasabi sauce, panko, and soy sauce or tamari

Instructions

1. Once the rice is cooked, transfer it to a large bowl and use a rice paddle to mix in the seasoned sushi rice vinegar. After pouring the vinegar over the rice, I slice the paddle through then flip and fan the rice to help evaporate the vinegar so it clings to the rice grains, repeating the slicing/flipping/fanning motions until the rice is uniformly coated. Set aside.
2. In a small bowl beat eggs with salt and sugar. Preheat a skillet over medium to medium low heat, and add a bit of olive oil. Pour in ⅓ of the egg mixture. After a minute when the bottom is set, tip the skillet. I used to have a rectangular one like this which works terrific--but I left it at a beach house we rented (Amazon affiliate link--to the pan, not the beach house). 
3. Roll some the cooked portion of the omelet over the uncooked portion, allowing the liquid egg to flow away from the rolled portion. Keep repeating the rolling until the egg is set, then roll the omelet onto a cutting board. Repeat steps with another ⅓ of the egg mixture, then the final third. Slice into long thin strips and set aside.
4. When you have all your vegetables chopped, rice cooked and eggs sliced, you're ready to roll ! Have all ingredients accessible along with a damp paper towel and a small dish of water. You can see my set up here. 
5. Lay a piece of nori shiny side down on a rolling mat and spread a thin smear of mayonnaise across the edge closest to you. Dipping your hands frequently in the water to keep them from sticking onto the rice, spread an even layer of rice across the nori leaving a half inch border across the opposite side from you. 
6. Top with a thin layer of egg, carrot, and kohlrabi. 
7. Begin to roll up using the rolling mat and the edge closest to you, rolling away from you.  Once you've made a complete revolution, peel the mat back and continue rolling away from you. Moisten your finger with water and wipe the far, bare, edge of the nori. Once you've finished rolling up the sheet of nori, give it a squeeze to secure the contents. Set aside. 
8. When you've run out of nori, egg, rice or vegetables you're done! Use a serrated knife to slice each roll into ¾ inch to 1 inch pieces, wiping the blade with a damp paper towel in between cuts. 
9. Arrange on a platter, drizzle with wasabi sauce and scatter with panko for a bit of crunch if you like. Serve with soy sauce or tamari for dipping.

Here's a few other sushi recipes from the blog (links in the caption):

Smoked Salmon, Cream Cheese and Cucumber Sushi

Surimi Chirashi Sushi with Summer Vegetables

Maple Teriyaki Salmon Sushi with Apple and Carrot

Spam Musubi Chirashi Sushi

Pick a Veggie Sushi Rolls

Unagi and Avocado Rolls with Carrot Sushi Rice

Happy rolling!