These sushi rolls might look daunting to make but once you’ve prepped your veggies and fillings all it takes is a little practice to master rolling.

What you will need

• Short grain or sushi rice
• Carrot
• Cucumber
• Nori sheets for rolling
• Rice wine vinegar
• Salt
• Sugar
• Water
• Mock Duck (or other replacement protein such as tofu)
• Vegan butter (we use Nuttelex)
• A bamboo rolling mat (you can buy these super cheap from super markets or Asian grocery stores)

First get your rice cooking up. Cook your rice to packet instructions, I use a rice cooker so generally I go for 1 cup rice to 1 and a half / two cups water so my rice isn’t too dry.

Once is it finished cooking, spread it out on a plate or tray and add  rice wine vinegar, salt and sugar to taste. I sometimes don’t bother with the sugar as I don’t like my rice too sweet. Make sure you season it while it’s hot and as I said, spread it out so it can cool Taste your rice to judge whether you want more salt and then leave to cool while you prep your veggies.

Rice is something I am still working on, good sushi rice should be a little damp and sticky and not too dry or it ends up falling out, especially if you want to cut your rolls up to serve them. Keep practicing, and eventually you’ll get the perfect sushi rolls!

Slice your carrots and cucumber in to matchsticks. You can use the julienne attachment on a kitchen slicer if you like, I like mine chunky so I cut them by hand.

Now cook up your mock duck. I usually cook ours from frozen or part defrosted as it is has the same taste and texture either way. Fry it in a little vegan butter such as Nuttelex, flip and make sure both sides are nice and crispy. The inside will stay nice and juicy!

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Take these off and leave to cool before slicing into centremeter thick slices. Put these aside with your veggies.

When your rice is cooked, grab your bamboo mat and your nori sheets. One side of the nori will be shiny, one is textured. You want to lay your nori sheet textured side up, as this will be the inside. Place your sheet on your rolling mat like so.

Wet your hands, and grab some sushi rice. Place it along the middle of your nori and spread it towards you. You can fill the sheet, but leave a gap at the top furthest away from you. This is to allow the nori to stick to its self and seal the roll.

Once your rice is spread out, place some strips of carrot and cucumber down, some of your mock duck or other protein, and then get ready to roll.

Pick up your bamboo mat closest to you, and tilt it forward. Begin rolling, you can use your fingers to keep the filling close to the centre of the roll by tucking it towards you.

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Keep rolling, then as the bamboo mat rolls all the way over, raise it up and roll the sushi to the end of the rice. Wet the free edge of your nori to make sure the roll sticks when your finishing up, then roll all the way to the end of the nori. Squeeze the roll to make sure it’s all tight and sealed, and remove the bamboo mat.

Wet your knife and cut your sushi in half, and then into smaller pieces if you prefer. I like to serve mine as long rolls.

These go great with a Hoisin dipping sauce, or even just a soy sauce. If you prefer something creamy a sriracha mayo could really spice these up!

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