Easy homemade sushi bowls without the fuss! No need for fancy rolling skills, just gather your ingredients, pop them in a bowl and enjoy. Healthy, flavour-packed and FAST!
In this post you’ll learn
Quick sushi bowls – healthy AND delicious
This is our favourite easy-mode meal during or after a busy day, when we don’t have much energy left but still want to eat something delicious AND healthy. You can whip them up super quickly and make each bowl unique every time depending on the ingredients you choose.
It’s deceptively impressive, with lots of bright colours, textures and flavours you won’t believe it’s so simple to prepare.
The best part is getting to enjoy all the yummy flavours of sushi at home with zero effort. No rolling, no slicing – just your fave sushi ingredients – deconstructed! Top with a few garnishes or sauces and enjoy. (Hint hint: it’s a great way to save money AND use up leftovers!)
Related: Temaki Sushi / Hiyayakko (Quick Cold Tofu)
Have more time? Try these upgrades:
Our full recipe below is for quick and easy sushi bowls, but here are a few upgrade ideas to make them even more epic.
Ingredients and substitutes
Here are some very common sushi ingredients to get you started, but you can treat it as a guide and use just about anything you feel like when making them at home.
- Rice – You can use pretty much any variety of short grain rice for this recipe. We most often make it with sushi rice of course, but jasmine rice or brown rice work well too. We like to cook up a big batch of rice to store in portions in the freezer, making sushi bowls even quicker to prepare. Sub quinoa if you prefer.
- Veggies / Greens – Our most commonly used base veggies are thinly sliced or diced cucumber, lettuce, carrot and avocado, since you also find these in store-bought sushi rolls. Feel free to experiment here with your own fave mix of veggies. We’ll sometimes add spring onion / green onion, tomato, kale, seasoned spinach or kimchi (fermented cabbage), snow peas, beans or bean sprouts, leftover roast veggies, etc… literally whatever we have in the fridge that we need to use up.
- Protein – Your choice! We love this with quick teriyaki tofu (diced or minced – tastes like chicken!) for a vegan bowl. Another common option is to make a quick mix of tuna with Kewpie mayo, or serve it with chopped up teriyaki chicken or leftover BBQ / rotisserie chicken (great for an extra quick prep).
- Garnishes – This is a really easy way to make a totally different sushi bowl flavour every time. Our favourite options are pickled ginger, furikake (rice seasoning), gomashio sesame salt, toasted sesame seeds or shichimi togarashi (Japanese chilli powder). You might like to add a few strips of nori seaweed, a dab of wasabi paste for a burst of flavour, or a scoop of takuan pickles or homemade sauerkraut for extra crunch.
- Sauce – Creamy sesame dressing or sriracha mayo are our go-to sauces. Otherwise, use kewpie mayo, goma dare or even just a quick splash of soy sauce or ponzu.
Let’s make sushi bowls!
- Place the cooked sushi rice into serving bowls. Top with veggies such as diced cucumber, lettuce, carrot and avocado slices.
- Add teriyaki tofu or your other chosen protein.
- Drizzle with sesame mayo and your choice of toppings such as furikake rice seasoning, pickled ginger and shichimi togarashi.
Quick Tips
Storage
Store leftovers in the fridge for a day or so in an airtight container. For best results, store ingredients separately so you can reheat the rice or proteins without wilting any of your crisp salad veggies. We don’t recommend freezing sushi bowls, but you can certainly freeze pre-cooked rice portions to make it really quick and easy to serve dinner in a flash.
FAQs & Troubleshooting
Yep, you can make sushi bowls the night before to take to work the next day. If you do, make sure the rice and all cooked proteins are cooled before assembling into your containers, then store in the fridge. Tip: Keep garnishes and sauces separate so they’ll be nice and fresh when you’re ready to eat.
Somewhere in the middle is best. Too warm and the more salad-style veggies will start to wilt, losing their crispiness. Of course, if you’re using cooked veggies they can be as warm as you like. Too cold and the rice will be too chewy and not so pleasant.
You sure can, and it will add an extra depth of flavour to the sushi bowl, but it’s not essential. You can find out more about how to cook and season rice in our full guide to sushi rice.
Variations
- Add Heat – Add a few drops of rayu sesame chilli oil or slather with spicy gochujang mayo.
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Equipment
Ingredients
Main Ingredients:
- 2 cups sushi rice cooked
- 1/4 cucumber finely diced
- 2-3 lettuce leaves diced
- 1 carrot grated or julienne sliced
- 1 avocado sliced or mashed
- 1 cup teriyaki tofu sub chicken, tuna and mayo etc
Optional Seasonings:
- 2 tbsp kewpie mayonnaise sub with sesame mayo, goma dare etc
- 2 tsp rice seasoning furikake
- 2 tsp beni shoga / red pickled ginger
- shichimi togarashi to taste
Instructions
- Place the cooked sushi rice into serving bowls. Top with cucumber, lettuce, carrot and avocado slices.2 cups sushi rice, 1/4 cucumber, 2-3 lettuce leaves, 1 carrot, 1 avocado
- Add teriyaki tofu or your other favourite protein.1 cup teriyaki tofu
- Drizzle with sesame dressing and your choice of toppings such as furikake rice seasoning, pickled ginger and shichimi togarashi.2 tbsp kewpie mayonnaise, 2 tsp rice seasoning, shichimi togarashi, 2 tsp beni shoga / red pickled ginger
Video
Recipe Notes
- Rice – You can use pretty much any variety of short grain rice for this recipe. We most often make it with sushi rice of course, but jasmine rice or brown rice work well too. Sub quinoa if you prefer.
- Save Even More Time – Keep frozen sushi rice on hand that you can reheat just before serving. Serve with rotisserie chicken or canned tuna (we prefer tuna in spring water or olive oil so we can add our own flavourings) to cut down prep time.Â
- Storage – Store leftovers in the fridge for a day or so in an airtight container. For best results, store ingredients separately so you can reheat the rice or proteins without wilting any of your crisp salad veggies. We don’t recommend freezing sushi bowls, but you can certainly freeze pre-cooked rice portions to make it really quick and easy to serve dinner in a flash.Â
Nutrition
This recipe was originally published in May 2021. It has since been republished with new content.
2 Comments
Janet
26/06/2021 at 7:15 amThanks Gurls! <3
Wandercooks
30/06/2021 at 9:15 amYou’re welcome Janet! Hope you enjoyed 😀