How to Make Sushi Without a Mat

great recipe fast and easy to prepare

I’m still learning from you, as I’m making my way to the top as well. I absolutely love reading everything that is posted on your blog.Keep the information coming. I enjoyed it!

Awesome! Definitely going to try this! Thank you! Added bonus that the rice recipe is here too. :)

This is a good recipe for beginners, but to make your sushi more restaurant quality I’d recommend using a half sheet of nori, and using much less rice in the rolls. The rice should be in a layer thin enough to just cover the nori.

Great tip with the dish towel, and thank you for taking / showing an authentic picture of what you made. It’s obvious that is the roll you made, and not some magazine-prepped thing that you don’t know where it came from (like most people’s 5-star absolutely perfect pictures).

Except your just wasting plastic wrap instead of investing in something that can be used repeatedly and long term – I’ll go with the mat thanks.

Great recipe! My husband, my two daughters and myself all made our own sushi rolls! This recipe sparked lots of great conversation, laughs and photos. Thank you!

Just finished making this and it turned out to be stellar! That paired with coconut aminos/Braggs Liquid Aminos = delicious combo. Thanks again Dana!

sushi!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! sushi is the best!

Great article…I will use this for a family cook night. Thanks!!!!

Whoever commented on short grain rice was right on the money.When you order sticky rice it always short grain or also called calrose rice in the grocery store. Long grain is when you want fluffy seperated grains. Also rinsing the rice before cooking takes away from the stickiness as well- I would not rinse rice I was trying to make sticky.

Bummer that plastic wrap is so bad for the enviroment! We are trying to eliminate plastic in our home. We don’t use plastic wrap or bags. Guess we will buy a bamboo sushi mat:)

Dana, thank you so much for this recipe! I made it for dinner tonight, This was our first time making sushi.

Thank you so much for this blog post! Too many recipes put a lot of emphasis on the necessity of a bamboo mat for making sushi rolls. You’ve really made homemade sushi a reality for me with this easy how-to guide for the everyday cook. Can’t wait to try making some avocado rolls!

Your awesome!?

My husband and I made this last night for the first time, along with your recipe for miso soup and they both turned out AMAZING! As much sushi as we eat, it’s hard to believe that it was so easy! Thank you! Your site has been a wonderful resource for my family. We’re transitioning to a vegan diet and your recipes have helped to keep meals fun and yet unpredictable! ☺

My boyfriend and I have everything ready to start making sushi tonight but we don’t have the rice vinegar or white wine vinegar. All we have is balsamic vinegar and white vinegar. Should we give it a try and maybe add a few steps to change the flavor of those or just wait until we have the right ingredients at another time? Thanks

Thank you! I just had the brilliant idea “let’s try sushi at home!” and went online to see about kits. $30? For a once in a while thing? No thank you. Towel. Yup. Sign me up. Thanks for sharing :) I doubt mine will come out as pretty as yours, but here’s hoping! Any idea, would a silicone baking mat work fine too?

I did this with my kids after reading about it on your site and we had a blast. It was fun, easy and we just used wax paper because it was in the cabinet no towel or plastic wrap. Worked fine. Costs about $1 per roll per person. That’s my kind of sushi. You’ve brought sushi into the hinge of the everyday person. Congrats, minimalist baker, you’re my hero.

Dana, thank you so much for this recipe! I made it for dinner tonight – the first time I made sushi ever – and it got a big thumbs up from my husband and I. We LOVE sushi but it’s obviously expensive so we were pretty excited to find out we could make our own! We’re thinking next time we’ll try adding tempura fried fish! Thank you!

OMGoodness!!!! This is delicious and I’m sorry I waited to so long in making this! Sooooooo easy!! I put shrimp, crab and cream cheese in mine. I also mixedsome siracha sauce with yum-yum sauce and put it in and on. In heaven!!! Thanks!!

This was our first time making sushi.
Avocado, red peppers, carrots, cucumbers.
Simple.
Not a fortune.
So exciting to see the finished product!
Thank you for this.

Very well explained. It turned just right for us! God Bless!!

This worked so well and was much easier than I thought it would be. Thank you for sharing the towel tip; I had put off making sushi until now simply since I was without bamboo mat.

Nice post. But, honestly, those bamboo mats cost almost nothing and they strike me as being very minimalist. They have a stiffness to them and they’re designed for the task at hand. And, in my opinion, wiping stains off a small bamboo mat is easier than getting them off a towel.
If you completely encase your mat in clear plastic, which is what you do with inside-out rolls, then you don’t even have to wash the mat after you’re done.
As for rice, I would suggest opting for medium-grain rice (short grain is ideal) from a Japanese market. The surface of your rolls will be smoother and not on the prickly side, which is what you get by using long-grain rice. And I definitely would spoon the rice into a separate bowl after it’s cooked, because it will continue to cook in your hot pot. Some Japanese even cool the rice with a fan as they’re mixing in the vinegar mixture with the rice.
I’ve found that wrapping a separate sheet of clear plastic over the finished roll like a sausage helps tremendously in the final cutting step. You’ll get nice clean cuts that, again, give your presentation a professional touch. BTW, the video tutorial shows a person using a full nori sheet to make an inside-out roll. I’ve often seen chefs cut the sheet in half (length-wise) to make the resulting rolls more bite-sized.

I’m vegan and don’t like raw veggies (gasp). However, I loved this recipe. I was very skeptical I would like it because the vinegar/sugar/salt combination smelled so much like vinegar, and because of my dislike of raw peppers and avocados. The only changes I made were the cucumber was omitted, and I used coconut sugar instead of table sugar. It was so delicious. I haven’t been able to have sushi in over five years and have made this recipes many times since. Thank you for making it so simple!

Just made my dinner using this no mat method and it ended up very well !!! I made salmon, avocado a cucumber rolls…. Yummy!!!! Great blog!

Tried this with my teen’s they loved it!
We can make it all the time now !

First attempt tonight making sushi. Used your recipe, turned out great. Hubby loved it, and he’s picky.

Go lighter on the rice? maybe?

I see from your cut roll pic that the rice is catching on your blade.
Traditional sushi knives are thin (top to bottom) so the opposite of a normal french chef’s blade which is pretty much the only blade I use in the kitchen these days. But if I were a stickler, I’d use something that looks more like a fillet knife as it presents less drag to the individual rice kernels. Also, my mom always had a wet rag nearby to wipe both sides of the blade after a couple strokes. The operative word is “wet” as this will lubricate the blade and again, leave a much cleaner cut without the rice being dragged out from the cut. Not that important when eating at home, but if preparing for others it adds to the presentation of a skilled chef. Neat idea with the towel.

Can you make using the same approach with brown rice? I’ve been trying to stick with that over white rice! Thank you for your easy recipes!

I am in love with each and every recipe you make and I will start learning new recipes from you. This is my number 1 food site!

Samantha x

Have I ever attempted to make sushi or even sticky rice in my life? No.
Did I just wow my family with delicious, restaurant-worthy veggie rolls? Yes.
Your blog is amazing!

Is there any way to make the California rolls without seaweed?

Found this tutorial as I didn’t have a mat. Very helpful! One thing I will mention though, if you are using traditional sushi rice, you may want to use less water. Following this recipe with my sushi rice I ended up with very mushy rice. I looked on the bag and noticed that it called for only 1 1/2 cups of water instead of the 2 cups recommended by this recipe.

Oh my goodness! You have saved my little pregnant self. I have been CRAVING sushi for the longest time, but it is so expensive! So, my husband and I decided to make it together on Valentine’s Day using your tutorial and recipe and we fell in love with it! It was so much easier than I thought it would be and your tutorial was so helpful. Thanks for the recipe and for helping my husband and I make some wonderful Valentine’s Day memories. :)

Oh, lawd. My boyfriend and I used this recipe to make sushi for our anniversary dinner, and everything turned out incredible. Homemade sushi is an aphrodisiac, apparently. WHO KNEW?

We took our newly discovered sushi skills on the road last weekend and had a sushi & Star Trek party at a friend’s house. As young folk drowning in college debt, we’ve found roll-your-own to be a revelation. We have seen the light. All hail homemade sushi.

This is great! Thank you.
Would you be able to post a recipe on how to make sticky rice?

This is sooo great! I’ve always been afraid of sushi at home, but not anymore! Totally going to try your technique!!! Thanks!

Ooh, interesting idea! Now I have one more reason to actually give sushi-making a try. Thanks for the tip!

Simply stunning visuals…and a concise tutorial…Merci!!!

Please do tell that you are planning a sequel with a Sashimi offering!…Paleoite present in-home (moi)…but I suppose I COULD sub “riced” celery root or choufleur/cauliflower for the sweet rice?….

The beauty of your blog consistently awes!!!

This is great! I’ve always avoided making sushi at home because I didn’t have the ‘tools’… now I can give it a try!

Sushi wins the beautiful food prize. If such a prize didn’t exist already it does now and I declare your sushi the winner.

I love making sushi. I think it gets a bad rap – seems complicated at first but once you get the hang of it, it’s one of the more easier dinners to make. I have mats but don’t use them, I’d love to try this towel method!

Your sushi is so pretty! I only tried making it for the first time recently but it turned out pretty well. Thanks for all your tips, I’d love to try the inside out rolls :)
Oh, and I LOVE pickled ginger

You are my hero! Definitely making sushi this weekend!!!

My fave is sushi with the rice on the outside–I find it easier to eat. And I love your minimalist approach to everything–including NOT using a traditional mat. My kinda style, I tell ya. Lovely.

What an inspired idea. Can’t believe I never thought of this! I’ve been considering making sushi for a while but keep forgetting to buy a mat – now I don’t need one!

This is amazing! I’ve wanted to make my own sushi for years I am going to have to give this a try!

This is pretty brilliant. I was just making sushi the other night, and was reminded how annoying it is when little bits of rice get stuck in my mat that I then have to clean out. Next time I’m trying mat-free.

oh snap…it’s going down.