Vegetarian Sushi Pizza recipe from Japan

Flourless no bake Japanese vegetarian “pizza” with rice.

No seaweed was used at the bottom nor anywhere else in this version of the recipe.
It is not baked in the oven as a traditional pizza.
The dough is rice – no flour is used, we could say no dough is used.

Sushi is a Japanese dish of prepared vinegared rice, usually with some sugar and salt, plus a variety of ingredients, such as vegetables, and any meat, but most commonly seafood.

While traveling in Japan, we visited Konohana family community near Mt. Fuji.
We really loved our stay with them.
We ate with them, and often we also helped out in the kitchen out of our own interest.
One evening the main dish was called “Sushi Pizza” – vegetarian style.
Is it a pizza? Actually not, but in Japan this kind of sushi dish can be sometimes called loosely as sushi pizza to distinguish it from other traditional sushi dishes.

These are the ingredients:

  • Rice
  • Rice vinegar
  • Sugar
  • Salt
  • Lotus roots
  • Eggs
  • Carrots
  • Radish
  • Purple daikon radish, or white radish / Japanese radish
  • Red onions
  • Sugar snap pea

Instead of using rice vinegar + sugar + salt, when preparing this dish you can also use a seasoned rice vinegar – then you don’t add more sugar and salt, because it already contains it.

The ratio of salt to sugar and vinegar for sushi per cup of (dry) rice you’re cooking is: 2 tablespoons rice vinegar, 2 teaspoons sugar, and 1/2 teaspoon salt mixed until sugar and salt are fully dissolved.
But feel free to use a different ratio after your own research and experience and liking.

Optional addon/sides ingredients ideas:

  • Roasted sesame seeds
  • Avocado
  • Cucumber: fresh and/or pickled
  • Sweet potato cooked or baked
  • Chives chopped
  • Sprouts
  • Kimchi
  • Wasabi
  • Pickled ginger
  • Cheese (for people who love cheese, and cannot imagine a pizza named dish without cheese)
  • Sauces: spicy mayo, tartar sauce, soy sauce

A suitable second dish combination is Miso Soup.

How to make it:

Cook the rice.
Make scrambled eggs.
Cook lotus roots.
Cook purple or white radish: before that you can create/cut out some nice shapes with a form for example cut out stars shapes pieces and add vinegar to them while cooking (they will slightly change their color).

Create a mixture of rice vinegar + sugar + salt.
Pour the mixture of rice vinegar + sugar + salt over the rice and carefully mix it, avoid squashing the rice too much. While doing it use a small fan or something similar to let the rice cool down and remove the steam quicker from it.
Add cooked scrambled eggs and cooked lotus roots. Mix it.

Put the mixture into a container (the finished dish will be served from it) flattened out, where it can spread out and the height is only a few centimeters tall.
Now nicely decorate with: carrots, scrambled eggs, radish, cooked white radish, snap peas, red onions.

Enjoy your meal for example with a salad, baked sweet potatoes, and a sauce (mayo, sour cream onion dip, …), miso soup, and a hot tea!

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