Everything You Need to Make Homemade Sushi

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So if you have read some of my other posts you may know I just recently took the MCAT. I studied for 6 months and finally taking it was a huge weight of my shoulders and called for celebration! AKA just planning something fun for George and I to do together. Since I have been incredibly obsessed with sushi lately I decided making homemade sushi was what I wanted to do!  

I was very overwhelmed and thought homemade sushi would require a million things and had no idea where to start. What materials, where do we get them, what type of rolls should we make? SO many questions! 

Despite a lack of planning, did some googling, YouTube video watching, and figured out what to get and how the heck to make a sushi roll!  

So below are the 10 things you need so you can do the same! Additionally, I linked two recipes and a YouTube video with helpful tips for making homemade sushi. This post is basically your one stop shop for all the info you need (something I wish I had)! 

So let’s get started…

1. Bamboo Mat

The mat is what you will use to roll up your sushi so this is very important and likely is not something you have lying around the kitchen.

Buy it: $6.99 Bamboo Sushi Mats, 2 pc

2. Nori

Nori sheets are thin squares of seaweed. Think, a tortilla for a burrito is like a nori sheet for sushi!

Buy it: $13.99 Sushi Nori (50 full sheets)

3. Sushi rice

Even if you have never made sushi, I’m sure you know you need rice! The catch is that you have to make sure you get a certain type of rice. You want to look for either short-grain Japanese rice or medium grain California rice. Or just look for a bag that says sushi rice and it will most likely be one of those types.

Buy it: $6.73 Nishiki Medium Grain Rice

4. Sashimi Grade Fish

We are lucky enough to have found the perfect place to find sashimi at a local grocery store. If you live in a big city and have never bought sashimi, I would suggest asking around! Ask if your coworkers or friends have made their own sushi before, and if so, where they got their sashimi. If you happen to live near Seattle, Uwajamaya is where we went and it had everything we needed. For other locations, I would suggest googling “asian supermarket near me” and see if there is something close to you.

Lastly, there is always the option to ship it overnight but this is obviously the most pricey option. George’s sister had a family homemade sushi night and they ordered their sashimi from Catalina Offshore Products. Despite the $50 shipping fee if you don’t live in California, you get fresh fish shipped overnight from San Diego so it is definitely going to be as fresh as can be and great quality!

5. Saran Wrap

The bamboo mat has to be wrapped in Saran Wrap otherwise everything will stick to it! This is a common kitchen item, but double check that you aren’t out of it. Trying to wrap your roll without Saran Wrap would just turn into a big mess!

Buy it: $6.99 Saran wrap, 100 sq ft

6. Cutting Board

If you don’t already have a cutting board, this is also important to get! After wrapping your sushi, you’ll need to cut it into sections before serving.

Buy it: $17.99 Bamboo Cutting Board

7. Knife

If trying homemade sushi is a one time thing you can definitely get away with using a knife you already have in the kitchen. If you think you want to do it on a regular basis, you can get a knife made well for cutting sashimi and sushi rolls. A knife that is good for sashimi basically means a sharp balde and a one edge ?. That includes all purpose knives that you can get for $25 to high quality knives specifically made for sashimi that can be up to $250. Below is an all purpose knife rated #2 in product diggers review of the top 11 sushi knives and is very affordable! https://productdiggers.com/best-sushi-knife/

Buy it: $25 PAUDIN Pro Kitchen Knife

8. Serving Dish

If you really want to have the restaurant feeling at home, a serving dish set is the perfect idea. These are the perfect plates for your sushi that come with soy sauce dipping cups and chopsticks!

Buy it: $39.99 Japanese Sushi Plate Set

9. Chopsticks

Unlike the serving bowls that you don’t necessarily need to buy, at least having chopsticks is a must! I have personally tried to eat sushi with a fork many times… Uber Eats makes you select the option if you need utensils these days. Well, every once in a while when we order sushi, either George or me forgets to select that option and get sent sushi with no chopsticks! Forks are the worst, so make sure you have some chopsticks to use!

Buy it: $9.99 Set of Wood Chopsticks

10. Easy Recipe

Last but not least you need a recipe! We kept it simple and made two rainbow rolls and two tempura rolls. You can find the recipe for a rainbow roll here. It has great step by step pictures that are awesome if this is your first time making homemade sushi!

For the tempura roll, we didn’t really use a recipe. Since the rainbow roll has crab in the middle we wanted to make a roll with salmon and avocado in the middle. Then we just read this article on how to fry it with tempura that you can find here. Instead of making tempura batter we just bought it premixed and skipped the panko. Basically, do whatever sounds good to you! You don’t have to follow any recipes to a tee, you just have to learn how to roll everything up and you can get creative from there!

We also watched a YouTube video called 6 Hacks to Make Better Sushi at Home and it was super helpful! It shows you things like how to wrap the bamboo mat in Saran Wrap, how much rice to put on your nori sheet, and other really helpful tips.

There you have it! A list of materials and the info you need to make your own homemade sushi. I hope it turns out great or turns out horribly but you have a blast trying something new anyway! Making sushi with your SO was one of my date night ideas in the post you can find here if you would like to read about more!

Comment below and let me know how it goes or if you found other good recipes that were simple to follow!