Recipe: California Roll Bowls

california roll in a white bowl on white background featured image

Perfectly cooked sushi rice is layers up with creamy crab salad, cucumbers, avocado, and seaweed. It’s just like your favorite roll, but way easier.

Course Dinner, Lunch, Main Course, Salad, Salads

Cuisine American, Asian Inspired, Japanese

Prep Time 20

Sushi Rice Plus Cooling 1 30

Total Time 1 50

Servings People

Calories 763kcal

Author Diana Reis

Ingredients

Sushi Rice Ingredients

2 Cups Sushi Rice
3 Cups Water
4 Tablespoons Rice Vinegar
2 Tablespoons Sugar

Imitation Crab Salad Ingedients

16 ounces Imitation Crab flaked
½ Cup Mayonnaise
1 Tablespoon Rice Vinegar
Sriracha Hot Sauce to Taste

California Roll Bowl Toppings

1 Seedless Cucumber diced
1 Avocado diced
Seaweed Sheets Korean snack style
Sesame Seeds garnish optional
Green Onions diced, garnish, optional

Instructions

Sushi Rice

Sushi rice is short grain rice and needs to be rinsed free of some of its starch. To reduce water use, I recommend soaking the rice in cold water for 15 minutes before rinsing in a colander.
Next, place rinsed sushi rice in a pot and add water. The ratio of rice to water is 1 cup of rice to 1 ½ Cups water. This recipe calls for 2 cups of rice and 3 cups of water.
Add rice vinegar and sugar to the water.
Then bring the rice to a low simmer, cover, and cook for 15 minutes.
Turn off the heat, and let it sit, covered, for 10 minutes.
Fluff the cooked sushi rice and spread on a cookie sheet to cool quickly in the refrigerator. (If you do this farther ahead of time, you can transfer the rice to a bowl and leave it loosely covered in the fridge until you are ready to use it.)

Imitation Crab Salad

Make the crab salad by shredding the imitation crab pieces into bite sized shreds. This can be done by pulling it apart with two forks.
Add mayonnaise, rice vinegar, and sriracha hot sauce and stir together until you have a nice creamy mixture.

Assembly

Next, cut up the cucumber, seaweed snack sheets, avocado, and green onion.
Organize all of your California roll bowl ingredients to create a little assembly line.
Then, build the bowls by placing a layer of rice on the bottom of the bowl and adding your crab salad and California roll ingredients to the top.
Sprinkle a few sesame seeds on top with a drizzle of soy sauce and serve.

Notes

Tips for Success

Rinse the rice thoroughly. The water should get pretty close to clear if you’ve soaked it long enough.

You can make the crab salad with as little or as much hot sauce as you like. Add a few extra squeezes and you can have a spicy California Roll in a Bowl.

Make Ahead and Storage

California Roll Bowls are a great make ahead meal. The rice and crab salad can be kept in separate containers in the refrigerator for up to three days. The cucumbers and green onions can be cut and stored as well.

For best results, add fresh avocado and seaweed pieces each day.

Nutrition