Onigiri
Onigiri—small, filled rice balls or triangles—are a popular snack and bento box staple in Japan. Here, they’re made with cooled sushi rice and decorated with scissor-cut nori shapes. Extras can be saved for lunch boxes the next day. If your kids are open to something salty and tart, add three…
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Onigiri—small, filled rice balls or triangles—are a popular snack and bento box staple in Japan. Here, they’re made with cooled sushi rice and decorated with scissor-cut nori shapes. Extras can be saved for lunch boxes the next day. If your kids are open to something salty and tart, add three pickled umeboshi plums (pitted and halved) to the mix. They’re a traditional onigiri filling that Japanese kids love.
Ingredients
- 1 cup sushi rice
- 2 Tbs. unseasoned rice vinegar
- 1 Tbs. sugar
- 1 tsp. salt
- 3–4 sheets nori
- 3–4 ears canned baby corn, drained and cut into 1/2-inch-thick pieces, or 1/4 cup corn kernels
- 1/2 avocado, diced
- 12 shelled edamame beans
Preparation
1. Rinse and drain rice several times until water runs clear. Place in saucepan with 1 1/2 cups water, and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer 12 minutes, or until all liquid is absorbed. Remove from heat, and let stand 1 minute.
2. Whisk together rice vinegar, sugar, and salt in bowl. Add hot rice to bowl, and mix with spatula until rice has absorbed vinegar mixture. Spread on baking sheet, and let cool 5 minutes.
3. Cut nori into eyes, noses, arms, ears, hair, whiskers, hats, etc., with scissors.
4. Place square of plastic wrap over 1/2 cup ramekin or small bowl. Scoop 1/4 cup rice into center of plastic wrap. Press indentation in center with thumb, and fill indentation with baby corn piece, avocado cube, and 2 edamame beans. Cover with small plug of rice, and pull up sides of plastic wrap. Twist and squeeze plastic wrap around rice to make tight, smooth ball of rice around filling. Unwrap plastic wrap, and transfer onigiri to plate. Repeat with remaining ingredients. 5. Decorate onigiri with nori, using drops of water as glue, if necessary.
Nutrition Information
- Calories 168
- Carbohydrate Content 35 g
- Cholesterol Content 0 mg
- Fat Content 2 g
- Fiber Content 2 g
- Protein Content 3 g
- Saturated Fat Content 0.5 g
- Sodium Content 444 mg
- Sugar Content 2 g