October is finally here, and my vegan Halloween onigiri is perfect to celebrate the spooky season!
Onigiri (お握り) is essentially a rice ball shaped into a triangle or cylindrical shape that can be filled with various ingredients. This dish was a way to preserve rice by adding salt and pickled ingredients when there was no refrigeration.
The most common fillings for onigiri are;
Tuna mayo
Umeboshi (salted plum)
Bonito fish flakes
Pollock roe
Salted fish
Salted seaweed
Natto (fermented soybeans)
I have chosen to fill my onigiri with my chuna (chickpea tuna) mayo which I will link to this recipe.
You can be as inventive as you want for your Halloween onigiri - there are even special molds you can by to help you with shaping. Using a triangle mold and my hands I came up with a Ghost, Black Cat and Mummy onigiri (I also make some King Boo ones for my childrens' Mario birthday party this year!)
Ingredients
2 cups sushi rice
salt, for forming the onigiri
2 sheets of Nori
Method
Prepare your rice as per the packet instructions. I use a rice cooker and allow the rice to steam for 10 minutes after the rice cooker has finished
Put your cooked sushi rice in a bowl and cover with a towel allowing the rice to cool.
Wet your hands and rub together with a small amount of salt sprinkled on your hands. Mould the rice into oblongs (ghost), balls (mummy), or triangles (cat) approximately 8cm wide.
Create a small well in the centre of the rice and put in the chuna mayo. Then mould the rice with your hands around the well to cover your filling completely. (Note: If you are using a plastic mould, fill the mould up half way, put the filling inside, put more rice ontop to cover the filling and press)
For the nori decoration for the onigiri:
Ghost - Cut out circles for eyes for the ghosts and different shapes for the mouth (You can do a smile, large circle for a wailing ghost or triangle fangs for a vampire ghost
Mummy - Cut two circles for eyes, the cut long thin strips of nori to wrap around the onigiri ball making sure the strips cross to look like mummy bandages.
Cat - Cut thick strips of nori and then cut into the ends making cat ears, wrap the nori around the triangle onigiri and use thin, small strips of nori to make cat whiskers. I decorated further by using a chopstick to place vegan mayo and black sesame seeds on the nori for cat eyes.
This is a fun recipe to make for parties, a great spooky seasonal activity with little ones or just to enjoy some Halloween Onigiri with some sriracha blood by yourself. Whatever you do please make sure you tag me in your frightfully delightful creations on Instagram!
Blessed be,