Welcome the Virtual Vegan Potluck!  I’m happy to be joining so many other cooks today in serving up a bountiful vegan feast.  Warm thanks to An Unrefined Vegan for planning our party.  At the bottom of this post you will find links to take you forward and backward through the offerings, or you can start at the beginning and see all your choices right here.

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If you’ve been here before, you won’t be surprised to find that this recipe is full of shortcuts to make it easy to cook a dish that might seem daunting at first.  For starters, this is unabashedly a cheater’s sushi rice: you just cook a pot of short-grain brown rice and stir in rice vinegar, sugar and salt.  It isn’t the rice that sushi masters spend years perfecting, but it tastes great and suits our needs nicely.  Second, don’t worry for a moment about how to roll your sushi.  You’re not going to impress anyone here–you’re just going to pile nori, rice, and assorted toppings on the table and let your dining companions impress you instead.  J & I used to throw parties where we’d roll and slice a gajillion sushi rolls–so much work!  And then we were guests in a home in Japan where everyone selected their own fillings and rolled their own sushi at the table.  We’ve never looked back, and neither will you.Vegetarian Brown Rice Sushi: First make your rice by cooking 2 c. short-grain brown rice in 3 c. water (bring to a boil, then lower heat and simmer until the water is all absorbed, then turn off the heat and put a towel under the pot’s lid for 15 minutes to absorb some of the remaining moisture).  Meanwhile, whisk 1/4 c. rice vinegar with 1/4 c. sugar and 2 tsp. salt.  Spread the rice in a shallow pan and add the vinegar mixture, stirring for a few minutes to cool the rice a bit.  Set the rice aside.  Thinly slice your filling ingredients–feel free to go crazy here, but I used pan-fried tofu, red pepper, cucumber, avocado, green onions, and white and black sesame seeds.  Serve your rice and fillings with a plate of toasted nori for rolling (I cut my sheets of nori in half to make each roll more manageable), and don’t forget the soy sauce, wasabi paste, and pickled ginger.

Bon appetit and bon voyage as you continue on through the Virtual Vegan Potluck!