These sushi rolls are based on a recipe from the book Raw Food Real World , by Matthew Kenney and Sarma Melngailis. I don’t change the recipes because I think I’m better than the original chefs, but because I like to be creative and I don’t always have the called-for ingredients. So, here we go…

Ingredients:

Nori sheets (seaweed)- preferably untoasted

sushi ginger or thinly sliced ginger

For the Rice:

3 cups jicama

1/4 cup raw pine nuts (or pignolias)

1/2 Tbsp. sea salt

2 Tbsp. rice wine vinegar

1 1/2 Tbsp. agave nectar

Fillings:

mushrooms

2 Tbsp.  Olive Oil

1/4 cup Nama Shoyu (like soy sauce)

pea sprouts (or any kind of sprouts)

sliced cucumber

sliced carrots

watercress

Preparation:

Step 1: Soak mushrooms

Soak mushrooms in Nama Shoyu and  Olive Oil, and let  sit for about an hour. This will be one of our tasty fillings.

Step 2: Soak ginger

If you don’t have already prepared sushi ginger, you can soak sliced fresh ginger in rice wine vinegar, agave nectar, and a beet slice (for color). Just don’t let it sit with the beet for too long, or it will start to taste a little too beet-ish. I had some air dried ginger from Trader Joe’s, so I let that soak in the ginger for about an hour. Fresh ginger would probably take more time.

Step 3: Make jicama “rice”

The ingredients are approximate, so use more or less to suit your taste.

A. Cut the jicama into small chunks to make it easier on your food processor. Jicama is kind of hard to cut, so be careful and use a sharp knife.

B. Process the jicama and pine nuts.

This is how it should look when it’s done being processed.

C. Jicama has very high water content, so I placed it on a clean towel after processing and patted it to get out a lot of the moisture.

D. Add the remaining ingredients ( sea salt, rice wine vinegar, agave nectar) and mix in by hand

E. Spread the jicama mixture onto the dehydrator and dehydrate at 115-125 degrees for about 2 hours. Stir the mixture occasionally, because the edges dry more quickly.

Step 4: Putting it all together

A. Spread jicama mixture over 1/2 to 2/3rds of a sheet of nori

B. Gather your fillings…

C. Layer the fillings on the middle of the jicama “rice.”

You can let some of the fillings stick out of the end so they look pretty when you arrange the rolls for serving.

You can choose to put the marinated ginger inside the sushi rolls, or save it to put on top of the sushi later. I tried it both ways, because I’m a risk-taker.

Step 5: Roll and Cut

A. Use your bamboo sushi mat (or the bamboo placemat that you got at Wal-Mart because you couldn’t find a sushi mat) to roll it all up. If you really need help figuring out how to roll it up, search youtube for “how to roll sushi” and plenty of videos will come up.

B. Dab your fingertip in water and run it along the nori roll where you want the end to stick. Next, slice the roll with a sharp knife.

Viola! Finished rolls

I sprinkled sesame seeds on the rolls and put some wasabi paste into a dipping dish with extra nama shoyu. The extra ginger went into another dish. Of course, Tim and I ate this with chopsticks.

Enjoy!