Spring is here in a big way, and what better way to welcome the warm weather than with a refreshing, tangy, little-bit spicy sushi roll bowl? These Cali Roll Sushi Roll Bowls are the perfect way to make your work-from-home lunch easy, fancy, and delicious!
So heeeeeeyyyyyyyy y’all! I’m back! It’s been a while – like a couple months a while. I’m absolutely sorry for that but thrilled as heck that you all have been building traffic in my old recipes while I’ve been off the net. Thank you!!!!
You might remember that I meant to retire from the Army this summer. The Army said “no” to that idea, because I was unfortunate enough to build expertise in a very niche subject, but they agreed to meet me and my family in the middle and let us move to Florida as long as I basically keep doing what I’m doing. Can I complain? No. My job is awesome. I absolutely love doing what I do. But at the same time – we’ve had to drop everything and get our house prepped to move.
So that’s where we’ve been. Work (loooooooong hours of work lately!), taking care of our soon-to-be-3-year-old, and replacing floors, putting in backsplash, decluttering and donating, and figuring out how to pack up and move when we don’t have a receiving unit on the other end (it’s not totally new, we did it when I was in grad school, but it’s still tricky!).
But I have been missing this space in a huge way! I’ve been itching to come back. Just not with the recipes we’ve been cooking lately. We’ve been making old family favorites and lots of things we either throw on a pan and forget about or throw in a pot and forget about. Although I’m starting to think some of those things would come in handy for all of you who are trying to balance family, work, and trying to make home-cooked meals as well. The crock-pot is your friend there.
Although lately for us, since our crock-pot stoneware broke, this beautiful All-Clad Slow Cooker has been our best friend, and I will totally recommend it!
But let’s talk about these sushi bowls.
I’ve been working on the idea for these forever, mostly because I miss being able to get great poke bowls when we lived in Hawaii (has it honestly been five years since we moved?). We had a poke cart that came to my building and we could go and get fresh cooked rice and super fresh poke for lunch.
You can’t always get sashimi grade ahi around here for poke, so I made up a California roll version of a poke bowl with rice, carrots, cucumber, avocado, imitation crab, nori, fresh ginger, sesame seeds, and spices and it turned out to be an awesome lunch option! No cooking, just a little chopping and tossing, and you’re set for an awesome meal!
Could you do this with other sushi combinations? Absolutely. I am dying for someone to make a unagi version – who wouldn’t want a dragon roll bowl?
Cali Roll Sushi Bowl
Ingredients
- 2 cups rice cooked
- 2 tbsp rice vinegar
- 1/2 tbsp sugar
- 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1/4 cup low sodium soy sauce
- 10 oz imitation crab
- 1 1/2 cups cucumber chopped
- 3/4 cups carrot chopped
- 1 1/2 tbsp ginger chopped
- 1 avocado chopped
- sesame seeds
Instructions
- If you haven't done so already, cook the rice.
- Combine the vinegar and sugar in a saucepan. When sugar dissolves, toss with the rice to coat and set aside.
- Toss the imitation crab with the cucumber, carrot, ginger, cayenne, avocado, and soy sauce.
- Divide the rice into bowls or bentos. Top with the crab and vegetable mixture.
- Serve and enjoy!
Nutrition
There is so much to love about this dish. But I’m also looking to experiment with it to find other sushi variations that I love in bowl form.
I’d love to hear what you think about this! What other kind of sushi recipes would you love to turn into a lunchtime bowl?
Happy spring, friends!
I tried sushi before and it was really good, even though I have a preference to tempura.
This still looks nice.
Anyway… I’m glad that you and your family are doing well down there. I wish you the best of good luck on getting your new house.
Ohhhhhhhhh I have a soft spot in my heart for tempura. Making tempura is definitely something I want to take a class in one of these days.
I’m glad you’re back!
Thank you so much! It’s been ridiculously busy around here but I so missed this space!
I didn’t know the Army could say “no” to a retirement request! Goes to show what I know.
On the subject of sushi…several places near us do a spicy crab roll — crab, jalapeno, avocado, and usually some sort spicy mayo. It’s delicious.
They can retiree recall you if they need your skill set. They can’t really stop you from retiring. However, this was more of a “hey, let’s negotiate!” than a no and I liked what they offered!