Sushi Rice Bowl Recipe (2024)

Sushi lovers, unite! Sushi rice bowls, or chirashi-don, let us enjoy those classic, clean Japanese flavors without the fuss of rolling or hand-shaping rice.

If your supermarket carries sushi-grade fish, you’re halfway to making a sushi rice bowl your yuppie neighbors would gladly shell out for!

The sushi-grade tuna is accompanied by the normal sushi players: seasoned Japanese short-grainedrice, bite-sized chunks of crunchy cucumber and creamy avocado. The dishis adornedwith slivers of seaweed.

To serve, top with a dollop of the spicy mayonnaise and drizzle with a little wasabi-soy sauce, which I like to dilute with a few drops of water. I find that straight soy sauce is too thick and salty poured directly on rice.

This sushi rice bowl recipe comes from a fellow Tuttle Publishing author, Debra Samuels (my first cookbook, The Steamy Kitchen Cookbook was published by Tuttle.) Debra has lived in Japan for periods totaling over 10 years since the 1970’s, and studied Japanese cuisine throughout her stays.

Debra is also a food journalist for The Boston Globeand also authoredMy Korean Table Cookbook. Her recipes aresimpleand comforting. You won’t find fancy techniques or exotic ingredients in Debra’s books, just honest, homestyle cooking based on ingredients you’ll find at most well-stocked grocery stores.

The book we are featuring today is MyJapanese Table. Featured recipes include:

• Spicy Tuna Tartar
• Step by step how to roll sushi
• Fried Cabbage and Pork Noodles (Yakisoba)
• How to host a Yakitori party
• Succulent Salmon Teriyaki
• How to make a Bento box
• And, alas!: chirashi don, aka a sushi rice bowl!

Is your mouth watering yet?

I chose this sushi rice bowlrecipe, featuring fresh tuna, cucumber, avocado and spicy mayonnaise, because it’s a simple way to enjoy “sushi” without having to learn how to roll sushi. All ingredients can be found at most grocery stores, so no need to visit an Asian market.

In Debra’s words:

This chirashi-don recipe combines two of my favorite fresh tuna dishes: the first is the tuna tartar set on top of rice under a coating of grated Japanese yam (yamakake); the second being a striking appetizer of layered fresh tuna and avocado cubes with a Spicy Mayonnaise dressing that I discovered with Miho Nakajima, once a teenaged neighbor and now an elegant banker in central Tokyo. You won’t season the rice necessarily. As for seaweed, you’ll cut it into shreds and place it directly on the tuna rather than wrapping it. The result is a mouthful of goodness.

How to Choose Sushi Tuna

(Tuna image from Monterey Bay Seafood Watch)

Choose your fish carefully – the tuna should be labeled “sushi-grade;” ask your fishmonger these questions:

• When was this fish defrosted? (all tuna arrives frozen)
• Ask to smell the fish (it should smell “fresh from the ocean”, not “fishy”)
• Ask your fishmonger to gently press the flesh of the fish, it should spring back up (old fish will be tacky, sticky and stay indented)
• Ask where is the fish from and how was it caught? Choose environmentally friendly tuna, like troll/pole caught Albacore from the U.S. See Monterey Bay’s Seafood Watch Guide for an entire list of fish, graded by sustainability metrics. Here is the tuna page.

If you can, I’d highly recommend some miso soup to go alongside a sushi rice bowl! What are you more interested in?

• • I’d like to explore Four Ways to Make Miso Soup
  • I’ll go straight ahead with Miso Soup with Mushrooms!

Alternatively, the Japanese love pairing chirashi, or any raw fish, with something crispy and light like this Crispy Tofu with Citrus Soy Sauce

Go a sushi streak going? Why not try your hand at Hand rolls (temaki)?

Did you try this recipe? Please leave a star rating in the recipe card below and leave a review in the comment section! I always appreciate your feedback and I know other readers do, too!

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