I have made donuts exactly once, and it was just last year. Yup, these Raspberry Baked Donuts with a Raspberry Glaze were my first time, and the silicone molds have been sitting and gathering dust ever since then. I hate wasting anything, so I was delighted to find a way to put them to use with this Easy Sushi Donuts recipe. I know sushi and donuts aren’t a good combo at first glance, but we’re talking donut shape with sushi ingredients. Trust me, no baked goods are mixed with the fish! Sound better? I thought so. Now let’s give this odd sounding recipe a try!
These Easy Sushi Donuts are way healthier than the sweet variety! They’re made with all of the traditional sushi ingredients, but packed into cute little donut shapes for an irresistible and healthy dinner that’s as fun to make as it is to eat!
The Ingredients
The ingredients list for these Easy Sushi Donuts isn’t too long, but it is incomplete. I might have missed that if I hadn’t made sushi rice before. Whew! Fortunately I had, so I knew I also needed rice vinegar, sugar, and salt.
I had all of them on hand (usually do), as well as the wasabi, pickled ginger, and soy sauce. I had to buy the rest which meant two grocery store trips plus one online order. My regular store had everything but the salmon roe so that was the extra grocery store trip.
Actually, two extra grocery store trips. I discovered the tuna had oxidized (turned brown) when I went to photograph the ingredients two days after I bought it. I asked my husband to run to the store the next day and get more, but he got it for me that night. Yup, it oxidized overnight.
I don’t recall ever having this problem with tuna steaks, but neither piece I bought was cut as a steak. Instead, they were smaller pieces labeled “special cut”. A little reading told me fresh tuna is prone to turn brown quickly unless treated with carbon monoxide. But treated and pink or untreated and oxidized, my tuna was still fresh and edible. Maybe not as pretty, but I got over it. Tip: Buy your fish the same day you plan to use it if brown tuna bothers you.
Customizing my Sushi Donuts
This recipe’s notes invite customization, and I fully embraced that! First, I replaced the radishes with avocado. My husband doesn’t like radishes, and I felt like they didn’t work with sushi.
Next, I decided to add some spicy Japanese mayo. My regular store was out of the premixed stuff, so I had to order some Kewpie Mayonnaise online and spice it up with a bit of sriracha. You can find plenty of spicy Japanese mayo recipes online, but I improvised two parts mayo to one part hot sauce.
The Process
This recipe is divided into three sections: toppings prep, sushi rice prep, and donut assembly (respectively). I like that, but I changed the order so the rice was first, giving it time to cool while I prepped the toppings. Here’s how my time was spent:
- 38 minutes to make and cool the sushi rice
- 19 minutes to prep the toppings
- 8 minutes to assemble
- 5 minutes to chill
- 1 hour 10 minutes total
I don’t have a rice cooker, but I think that sped things up because the total time listed on the recipe is 1 hour 45 minutes. That or I time traveled LOL!
Sushi Rice
I used the stovetop recipe from the Spicy Salmon Sushi Bowls I made a few weeks ago. It’s not shown in the ingredients photo with this recipe, but I did add nori to the rice for flavor per that recipe since I had it on hand (this recipe does not call for it).
Once the rice was done, I spread it onto a sheet pan to cool. I set the sheet pan onto a cooling rack hoping it would speed things up (it did).
Toppings
This is the part that made me a little nervous. I have always heard cutting sushi is very specialized. Now I doubt I’m going to find work as a sushi chef, but I think I managed. I also thought getting the avocado thin enough would be a challenge, but it went very smoothly.
While the fish and avocado didn’t give me any trouble, the cucumber was a little more challenging. It needs to be pretty thin to be flexible enough to bend to the donut mold. Mine might have been a touch too thick, but I sliced it all getting the thickness setting on my mandoline right. Ugh!
Finally, I moved onto toasting the sesame seeds. I poured 12 tablespoon of each color into a small skillet and slowly toasted them over medium heat. When they began to get fragrant and brown (7 minutes), I poured them into a small ceramic bowl to cool. Prep was done!
Assembly
I placed the silicone donut molds onto a sheet pan and got started on assembly. They are way too floppy and need firm foundation. The instructions made this part pretty easy to follow, and I didn’t have any trouble at all.
I began with the salmon, then tuna, and so on in the order listed, replacing the radishes with the avocado. I must have overbought because I was able to make eight sushi donuts.
Once they were assembled, I moved the entire sheet pan into the refrigerator so they could chill. That gave me plenty of time to mix up the spicy mayo and dispense the pickled ginger, wasabi, and soy sauce.
When the donuts were done chilling, I placed a cutting board on top of each silicone mold, turned it over, and gently removed it to find nearly perfect sushi donuts. A wide spatula mde moving them onto serving plates intact easy. All that was left was to add the garnishes and serve.
Next time I will make sure the cucumber is thinner and press the rice a little harder. Otherwise, I was pretty happy with the results!
