Sushi and Herbed Cream Cheese

I was craving some fresh herbs. I was craving sushi.

So I gathered some organic fresh herbs, vegetables and some tofutti cream cheese and went to town.

 I began the evening with chopping the fresh herbs. The aroma of sage and rosemary and thyme inspired a bit of Simon and a bit of Garfunkle... and I found myself longing for parsley.... but I was glad that I chose basil instead.

I sprinkled chopped red pepper on the cream cheese and a dash of garlic powder and sea salt as well. After a bit of whipping.......

For this roll I soaked slivers of daikon for several hours in a mixture of lemon juice, umeboshi plum vinegar, braggs aminos, sriracha and a bit of mirin. I sliced the delightful rainbow carrots you see pictured above and placed them inside as well. I also added a sliver of cucumber and some of my fresh herbed cream cheese.

I am a yogaholic.... so Im a fan of stretching beyond your comfort zone. I have tried to experiment with a variety of different ways to fill my sushi rolls beyond rice. This roll was a result of that experimentation. What I do to create this roll is boil a few beets with a bit of miso in the water until they are nice and soft and ready to mash. I drain the water and then let the beets 'air' dry with a bit of sprinkled oregano. While the beets rest a bit before the next part of their journey I bake a sweet potato with basil and sea salt and a few teaspoons of a sauce "Steviyaki" I purchase at a local restaurant called Tokyo Joes. It is a teriyaki sauce made with stevia and is one of my favorite condiments.

When the sweet potato is soft and mashable I mix the beets with a tiny bit of potato for the perfect consistency to fill the sushi roll. I place the beet mash in the same position that rice would go in the roll. For the filling of this roll I used avacado, mango, green onion sweet potato and sesame seeds.

Unfortunately I did not get any great pictures this time around of the beet sushi rolls.... but I make them regularly - so one day soon I will post an update of the picture. I had a disaster that involved a hungry cat that jumped up and smashed the roll to pieces before it had been cut....so I improvised to recreate another roll from the leftover similar ingredients - but alas, while it tasted delicious. It was not a pretty sight.

This roll was nice n hot. I sprinkled some dried thai chili seasoning over the rice and added jalapeno, mango, avacado, some krispy gardein strips and instead of  herbed cream cheese some hickory smoked 'we can't say its cheese' spread. I finished it off with a good strong squeee or two of 'Ass Reaper' hot sauce.