Spicy salmon rolls wrapped in sushi rice, nori sheets, and sriracha mayo. Easy and quick to make, this recipe is superior to takeout! Discover how to make these salmon rolls today.
Salmon rolls are a sushi classic, rolled in nori seaweed sheets and served with soy sauce and wasabi paste. This American spin on uramaki sushi contains fresh salmon and avocado, lined with a delicious spicy sriracha-mayonnaise sauce for a tangy hit of flavor.
This is an excellent recipe for homemade sushi beginners because it only takes thirty minutes to put together and employs classic techniques like nori rolling in a bamboo sheet. After you’ve done it once, you’ll be a bonafide sushi pro.
From salmon prep to nori sheet rolling, discover how to make these spicy salmon rolls from scratch with our easy sushi recipe. Let’s get into it!
Main Ingredients
These key ingredients will ensure you make the best salmon sushi rolls possible. Find out exactly what to get, as well as quick ingredient alternatives in case of emergency.
- Salmon: The best salmon for making sushi is sashimi-grade salmon. Alternatively, you can use smoked or canned salmon instead.
- Rice: Use Japanese short-grain rice in a 1:1 ratio with water. While I often add a little more water for long-grain rice, it’s imperative that you keep to 1:1 for sushi rice. The rice will remain fluffy, even after being rolled.
- Sushi Vinegar: Sushi rice is uniquely seasoned once it’s cooked with a vinegar blend that gives it its unmistakably sweet flavor while also keeping the rice intact. Store-bought vinegar is widely available online, or you can make your own with a blend of kombu (kelp), rice vinegar, salt, and sugar.
- Nori: These paper-thin dried seaweed sheets are integral to rolling sushi and keeping each roll’s shape. Each sheet has a beautiful umami flavor with a touch of sweetness. Cheap nori isn’t pleasant to taste, so we urge you to take the extra effort in getting good quality sheets.
- Spicy Sauce: For our spicy mayo recipe we use a simple blend of sriracha and mayonnaise in a 1:2 ratio, with a squeeze of lime juice for some added zest. If you’d prefer a sriracha substitute, try using chili garlic sauce or sambal oelek (an Indonesian hot sauce).
Quick Tips
- Rice will easily stick to your hands, but you can avoid this by rinsing your hands in a mixture of rice vinegar and water.
- You can wrap leftover sushi in an airtight plastic wrap and then put it in an airtight container before putting it in the fridge. Enjoy with 1-2 days.
- Sushi rice is high in starch, and while starch is important for shaping the rolls, too much will ruin the texture and make it too chewy. Remove excess starch by rinsing the rice prior to cooking. Place your sushi rice in a colander and wash until the water runs clear.
Spicy Salmon Rolls
Equipment
- rice cooker
- bamboo mat
- plastic wrap
Ingredients
- ½ lb sashimi-grade salmon
- 1 ½ cups Japanese short-grain rice
- 2 tbsp sushi vinegar see notes
- 1 avocado skin removed and thinly sliced
- 2 nori sheets
- 1 tbsp black sesame seeds
Spicy Sauce
- 4 tsp sriracha
- 2 tsp mayonnaise
Serving
- soy sauce
- wasabi paste
- tobiko sauce
- 2 green onions finely chopped
Instructions
- Add short-grain rice to the rice cooker with water as per your cooker’s instructions, in a 1:1 ratio. Once cooked, remove from heat and add sushi vinegar.
- Cut salmon fillets into ½-inch slices
- In a small bowl, add the sriracha sauce and mayonnaise. Stir until pink-orange in color and well combined.
- Add salmon slices to sriracha-mayo sauce and combine well
- Place bamboo mat flat out on a counter surface and add a single layer of plastic wrap on top
- Place one nori sheet on the bamboo and gently spread rice on the sheet, creating an even layer of rice out to the sheet’s edges. Cover any big gaps with more rice and sprinkle on black sesame seeds.
- Carefully turn the nori sheet over so that the rice is facing down on the bamboo mat. Arrange salmon and avocado slices towards the edge of the sheet nearest you.
- Gently lift up the mat edge nearest you and carefully roll the mat away from you, wrapping the nori and rice. Ensure that you don’t roll the mat into the sushi. Remove the mat and plastic wrap.
- Garnish with extra spicy mayo and green onion. Slice the sushi to serve.
Notes
- To make your own sushi vinegar, combine 1 ½ tbsp rice vinegar, ½ tbsp sugar, and ½ tsp salt.
