While eating a full rice cup of rice can often be difficult because, well, it's a lot of rice, with onigirazus, we can just devour them like they're nothing. A perfect symphony of fresh and savory flavors in tandem with tender, creamy, and crunchy textures, you'll also find yourself scarfing down this onigirazu and reaching for more without a second thought. Of course, these flavors and textures are enhanced with the inclusion of our vegan pork floss, an easy add on that makes a world of a difference to the entire onigirazu experience. Once you try it, onigirazus will no longer be complete without the vegan pork floss.
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 40 minutes
Assembly Time: 10 minutes
Servings: 2 (onigirazus - can easily be devoured by 1 person because it's so good.)
Rice Ingredients:
- 1 cup (rice cup) of rice (ideally sushi rice, otherwise short grained rice - if you have neither, no worries - it'll still mostly stick if you cook it with a little more water so that it's softer/more mushy)
- 1 cup (rice cup) of water (again, just a smidge more if you're not using sushi or short grained rice)
- 4 tablespoons of vinegar
- 1 teaspoon of sugar
Wrap & Filling Ingredients:
- 2 sheets of sushi nori
- Baby spinach leaves
- Avocado
- 1 box of the firmest tofu you can find
- 1/3 to 1/2 cup soy sauce (depending on how salty you like things) mixed into 1 cup of water
- Vegan mayonnaise
- Vegan Pork Floss (Seaweed or Kelp)
Prepping & Cooking Instructions:
- Wash rice (Place your rice in a large bowl and fill with water until all grains are covered by about half an inch to an inch of water. Using your hand, swirl the rice around until the water becomes cloudy. Drain the water and make sure all of the rice grains stay in the bowl. Repeat until the water is clear (about three to four rinses).
- Put clean rice in rice cooker pot and pour in water. Shake the pot around to make sure the rice is even in the pot. Most rice cookers also need the pot completely dry on the outside so as to not burn the pot so you may want to wipe down the outside of the pot as well to make sure it is completely dry.
- Start the rice cooker.
- While the rice cooks, prep the filling.
- Remove your tofu from its box, rinse, and pat dry
- Cut into approximately 4"x4" "steaks" that are about 1" thick (no need to be too exact, just try not to make them too thin. if you aren't able to get them 4"x4" no worries - I pieced together a 3"x4" and a 1"x4" so as long as they're the same thickness and not a bunch of small crumbles it'll be fine)
- Oil and heat up a flat pan on medium heat.
- Place the tofu "steaks" into the pan and pan fry until golden brown on the bottom before flipping.
- Once the tofu is golden brown on both sides, pour in the soy sauce water mix and keep it at a low boil until all the liquid evaporates. You may want to flip the tofu from time to time to make sure the flavor cooks in evenly. Once the liquid has all evaporated, you can pan fry it a little longer to slightly crispen the outside or go ahead and move the tofu into a plate.
- If your baby spinach was not prewashed, wash a couple times (make sure you get all the dirt and sand out), drain thoroughly, and set aside
- Cut your avocado in half from the long direction, remove the pit with your knife, and use a spoon to carve the avocado out from the skin. Try to keep the avocado as intact as possible but really it's getting wrapped into the onigirazu so keeping it intact is not a huge deal.
- Cut the avocado into thin slices (the long direction will save you some cuts but it'll be fine no matter the direction as long as you cut them nice and thin).
- As the rice is finishing up, mix the vinegar and sugar for the rice together in a small pot or pan. Heat up and stir over low heat without letting the vinegar boil. Stir to dissolve the sugar. Once the sugar is dissolved, remove it from the heat.
- Once the rice is done and has slightly cooled, pour the vinegar and sugar mix into the rice as you gently fold the rice with a spatula. Continue gently folding the rice until the vinegar is completely mixed in.
Assembly Instructions:
- Mix some salt into a bowl of warm water.
- Lay out a sushi nori sheet in front of you like a diamond (so that a corner is point at you).
- Slightly moisten your hands with the salt water.
- Scoop small scoops of rice and lay them onto the center of the nori sheet, spreading and flattening into a thin square (offset from the nori so that while the nori is a diamond, the rice is a square with the edges facing the nori's corners) as you go. Continue until you get a thin square about 4"x4" (or until the corners of the rice square are about 2" away from the edges of the nori diamond).
- Spread a thin layer of vegan mayonnaise over the rice.
- Scoop some Vegan Pork Floss (Seaweed or Kelp) onto the rice to form a layer of vegan pork floss.
- Place slices of avocado over the layer of vegan pork floss to form a layer of avocado - you can make this layer thinner or thicker according to your preferences.
- Place the tofu "steak" on top of layer of avocado.
- Place the baby spinach leaves on top the tofu "steak" to form a layer of baby spinach - you can may this layer thinner or thicker according to your preferences.
- If you don't want too much rice, you can start wrapping the onigirazu now but if you do want another layer of rice, make sure you thoroughly moisten your hands with salt water first.
- For the final layer of rice, it will be easier to shape a 4"x4" square patty of rice with your hand than to try to scoop and shape it on your spinach. Start by scooping about a handful of rice into your moistened hand. Flatten and shape it and add more rice as you go until you have a 4"x4" square layer of rice. Place the patty on top of the spinach.
- Before wrapping the onigirazu, lightly moisten about 2"-3" of each nori corner - this will help them stick together and seal as you wrap the onigirazu.
- Start by gently holding down the filling with one hand and, with your other hand, lifting the nori corner closest to you over the filling. As the nori corner reaches over the filling, move the hand that was holding down the filling to the other side of the filling. Gently tighten the nori around the filling while gently pushing the filling (really more of stopping the filling from moving) into the nori.
- While holding down the first corner, lift the left or right corner (whichever you want to do next) to wrap it over the filling. As you do so, fold in the edge of the nori connecting the first corner with the one you're now lifting. Gently pull the second corner over to tighten over the filling and meet the first corner.
- Repeat for the third and fourth corners. Note that for the fourth corner, you will need to fold in two edges as you wrap it over the filling. If any corners or edges aren't quite sticking, just dab them with some water and they should stick just fine.
- Cut in half, snap a photo to share on Instagram with @yangkeetrading tagged, and enjoy.