Quinoa Sushi

Quinoa is an amazing gluten free seed. It is packed with protein and vitamins and has numerous health benefits. In sushi, it makes for a much lighter meal with far more protein and less sugar than rice. It is easy to prepare and comes in white and red varieties. If you have never tried to roll sushi it can be a little tricky at first. Check out this video that I found really helpful: How to roll sushi                                                                                  

Yield: 4 rolls - 32 small pieces, 16 big pieces

Ingredients

• 1 cup of white quinoa, thoroughly rinsed. 
• Rice wine vinegar
• Thinly sliced BBQ chicken
• 100g of fresh tuna, thinly sliced
• Finely sliced red capsicum
• Finely sliced cucumber
• Sliced avocado
• Nori seaweed sheets
• Pickled ginger
• Wasabi paste
• Soy sauce
• A glass of warm to hot water

Directions

1.  Prepare to cook with love.
2. In a small saucepan, place 2 cups of water and one cup of rinsed quinoa. Bring to the boil. Cover and place on a low heat and cook for 10-12 minutes or until almost all the water has been absorbed. Remove from heat and allow to sit with the lid on for 5 minutes then transfer to a bowl and allow to cool for 30 minutes to 1 hour. 
3. Once quinoa has cooled add 1-2 tbsps of rice wine vinegar and stir through. This will give the quinoa that sushi taste and help it stick together.
4. For a tip on how to build and roll sushi watch this video  - How to roll sushi.
5. Cover your bamboo roller with glad wrap. Place one nori sheet with the smooth side down on the bamboo mat. Use 1/4 of the quinoa and evenly press onto the nori sheet. Make sure to spread it out to all 4 edges but leave a small strip of nori at the top without any quinoa. 
6. At the end closest to you (the bottom of your nori) and about 2cms in, lay out strips of your sliced veggies with some fresh tuna or chicken. Make sure the filling reaches from side to side. Less is more here. 
7. Remember the little strip of nori sheet that you didn't cover with quinoa? Lightly wet that part with some warm water. 
8. Using the bamboo roller (and the tips in the video above) begin to roll up your sushi. Use the bamboo roller to pull all the ingredients in nice and tight. Once you reach the wet end, press it down on the outside of the sushi roll to seal it. 
9. Take a sharp knife and dip it into a glass of hot water. Cut the sushi roll in the middle. Dip the knife in the water again, remove excess water and cut the rolls in half again. Repeat both steps until you have either 8 small pieces of sushi or 4 big pieces of sushi. 
10. Make 3 more sushi rolls using the above process. 
11. Serve your sushi rolls on a platter with some pickled ginger, wasabi and soy sauce. 
12. Eat and enjoy.

Note

The combinations of ingredients I used for the photo above are: 1) Chicken, avocado, and cucumber. 2) Chicken, avocado and red capsicum. 3) Tuna and avocado. 4) Tuna, avocado, and cucumber. Play around with your favourite ingredients.