It took a lot of tries before I got a picture of a beet juice-free plate of this sushi…
Boy was I was sick of beet salad. There’s just nothing gourmet and exciting about yet again shredding a few pounds of the juicy things and tossing it with apple cider vinegar, or lemon juice, or orange juice and making a slaw out of it. A whole meal of that? Every now and then that’s fine – great, even – but when you have about 5 lbs of beets to get through to make room in the fridge you need to get a little more creative.
That’s where the ultimate raw fallback comes in – sushi. Wrap it up in seaweed and suddenly it’s fancy. Looks complicated, but it sure isn’t. I peeled the 2lbs of beets (that’s the hardest part) and tossed them in the food processor with some ginger, garlic, 1 shallot (no need to go overboard), and the juice and zest of 1 lemon. It gets all diced up without any chopping effort. Then you use the beet filling like sushi rice and don’t add anything else. Or add some carrots inside if you want and aren’t quite as boring as I am. Here’s the wrapping technique.
This should be more of a snack than a meal, though. By the 10th piece you’re probably going to feel a little beet-bloated. Roll some just cucumber or just pepper or just avocado sushi (if you’re okay with non-local fillings), or a mix of two or three to round out the meal. Though I would say this is a perfect buffet food, as long as all the juicy pieces are chopped in advance. This can get a little messy.
Raw Beet Sushi
2 lbs beets, peeled
1″ piece of ginger (peeled if old and gnobbly)
1 clove garlic, peeled
Juice and zest of 1 lemon (lemon pith or membrane is fine. Or try an orange or a lime)
Directions: Dice everything in a food processor or work-horse of a blender (a lot of raw foodists have Vitamix blenders, but I don’t. If Vitamix wants to give me a blender to review, I’ll happily do it…I’m sure it will be favourable since I currently hate my immersion blender for dying when I made gnocchi). Either place the filling in a sieve to drain out some excess liquid or just deal with soggy sushi. Feel free to add other veggies or fruit – carrots, celeri-rave, cucumbers, peppers, strawberries, orange segments – or seeds or raw patés. Sesame seeds are fair game as long as you don’t toast them.
Dip these guys in…nothing! They’re a bit weird in raw tamari, so I’d recommend making more of a tempura sauce (it’s lighter and fruitier) by adding orange juice to the tamari. Or go with a tahini sauce to cut through the sweetness of the beets. Soaked creamy cashews and sesame seeds. Mmm…
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