I am ever-captivated by the creativity and extravagance of Japanese cuisine. I could stare at this set of photos for hours on end, mesmerised and intrigued by the mysterious ingredients and the form they take. Only the Japanese can make food so aesthetic, vibrant, and unique – all at the same time. The combination of ancient traditions and brave modernism bring their food culture to untouched heights.
Here, we combined maki-sushi rolling techniques with our favourite spicy Thai wrap recipe.
The result was exactly what I’ve imagined and dreamed of making – a flavourful and striking dish. This particular rolling technique is called Rokusha or colour wheel, a very appropriate title.
The colourful wrappers alone can be eaten as a snack, kid-approved by Paloma. (The same recipe was used to make the edible leaves that accompanied our Halloween cookies).
I am always in a state of excitement when cooking, but preparing this dish left me especially exhilarated – so much visual stimulation!
Green Wrapper
3 cups zucchini – cubed
meat of 1 fresh young Thai coconut
1/4 cup water of young Thai coconut
1/4 cup ground golden flax seeds
1 bunch cilantro
salt and pepper to taste
Yellow Wrapper
flesh of 2 ripe mangos
2 1/2 medium carrots
meat of 1 fresh young Thai coconut
1/4 cup water of young Thai coconut
1/4 cup ground golden flax seeds
1 teaspoon turmeric
Purple Wrapper
1 small papaya OR 1 large mango
1/2 small beet root
meat of 1 fresh young coconut
1/4 cup ground golden flax seeds
If you decide to make the rolls exactly like ours, you might need to double the amount of ingredients for your wrappers in order to have enough wrapping material for each group of ingredients within each colour roll.
Blend all the ingredients for each colour wrap separately in a high speed blender. Spread thickly on Teflex sheet-lined dehydrator trays, and dehydrate for about 3-4 hours, or until dry to touch. Flip and peel away the Teflex sheets. Dehydrate for another 30 minutes to an hour, until the underside is completely dry, but the wraps are still pliable. The dehydration time, thickness, and final colour can vary significantly, depending on the quality of produce used.
Filling
(adapted from Raw Food/Real World)
1/2 cup chopped raw cashews
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 cup agave syrup
1/2 cup lemon juice
2 tablespoon chopped ginger
1 small chili – seeded and chopped
11/2 tablespoon nama shoyu
1 cup raw almond butter
1/2 head savoy cabbage – shredded
1 handful cilantro
1 handful basil – torn
1 handful mint leaves
1 large carrot – cut into thin strips
1 large mango – cut into strips
1 cucumber – seeded and cut into strips
Mix cashews with sesame oil and salt. Set aside.
Puree the next 5 ingredients in a high speed blender. Add the almond butter while the blender is still running, at a low speed.
Using your hands, thoroughly combine the shredded cabbage with the blended mixture, salted cashews, and herbs.The rolling technique used here is called Rokusha or colour wheel, and you can find step-by step rolling instructions in a sushi encyclopedia. Start with rolling the spicy cabbage for the center in any color wrap you prefer. Then roll each of the remaining ingredients individually. Arrange them around the center as shown in the photos. Using a sushi mat, roll everything together into one whole wrap. Wet the edges of the wrappers to help them stay together. Let the rolls sit in refrigerator for at least 30 minutes. Using a very sharp knife, cut into pieces of desired thickness, or eat whole as a wrap.
Sara Tanner says
those. look. amazing.
Iris Larisa Kogan says
Prosto fantasticheski!!!!
vlp08 says
Wow. Those are so cool.
Happy Chef says
The most amazing sushi rolls I’ve ever seen anywhere and in any country. No need to worry about old fish either. Photos are incredibly vibrant and enticing. Great job and I’m sure great tasting!
Neeta Bali says
Stunning!!!
heidi says
beautiful (and healthy!!!). I want to eat them right away.
Dom at Belleau Kitchen says
so beautiful… I learnt to make sushi years ago on a specialist course, but I haven’t made it for years… perhaps you’ve inspired me to get the sushi mat out!
VeganLisa says
Swoon.
Every post is a work of art. I am totally inspired to give this a try. Thank you Golubka!
Vanille says
What a fun healthy and beautiful food !
Sue says
Those look sooooo beautiful, and really, really, delicious, too!!
Kara Lamb says
They so appeal to the artist in me!! color wheel raw food – love it!!! :) :)
Kasi Bern says
OMG… GOLUBKA is BACK !!! with a rainbow of colours ♥
Carolyn Lieschke says
Want to check these out!
Gourmande says
They look really gorgeous.
Do you think it’s possible to make the sheets on a hot plate like the nori sheets and the rice paper ?
Anonymous says
I love the look of these!! Is there any way to make them without young coconut?
alyssa says
You are driving me crazy! I want to eat/make ALL of your recipes soo bad, but feel that I don’t have the time, patience or creativity! Everything is just spectacular on your blog!! <3
Jennifurla says
what a pleasure to even look at these, very cool
Callie! says
Your creativity always blows me away – Beautifully done!
Silani Wahlgren says
Golubka, you rock! Love the colour and also, for filling, adding sesame oil to cashews (I’m assuming they were soaked?) sounds delicious.
Marianne Callaghan says
Beautiful healthy and delicious.
by Joanna DeVoe says
LOVE LOVE LOVE!!! Total gorgeousness.
Vegolicious says
Wow, these wraps are works of art and so creative!
I’d love for you to submit one of your beautiful photos, and a link to your post, to my new vegetarian photo gallery showcasing the best vegetarian dishes and recipes on the web.
Coco says
These will be perfect for a little dinner party we are having this week! I have some young coco’s in the fridge :) Thank you for the beautiful recipe!
ahealthyendeavor says
Wow! These pictures are great =) I can’t wait to try some of these fillings!
sisinpacific says
Those are beautiful. Well done!
Anonymous says
I`m a Japaese.
Your blog is amazing !!
I`m very happy that you like japanese food and ingredients.
Kimberly says
this is fantastic. I love these pictures and this idea is so wonderful.
thank you for sharing
susanna says
Oh my Golubka, this is Magic and pure Love!
Stunning creations and mouthwatering recipes
Bravo!
Marty says
OMG – I don’t think I’ve seen anything so beautiful in my life! I wish I had the nerve to try them or patience!
greenandjuicy says
Just stunning. I’m in love with your blog! I hope you don’t mind, but I’ve added it to the ‘blogs I love’ tab on my site. :)
http://greenandjuicy.wordpress.com
Jorge says
Dear Friend,
We have known your work and it seems interesting.
We are a newly created website dedicated to the vegetarian theme.
The sense of creation is to communicate the vision been a vegetarian
world cuisine. We are a nonprofit organization.
So far we have achieved the first 3.000 visitors and the interest of
photographers and bloggers kitchen, who decided to join our project
and wanted to collaborate on the “recetas” (recipes on Spanish).
At the moment the site is written in Spanish, although some recipes
are in English.
We can send you a PDF example of what I’m telling you.
We would like to have your valuable cooperation.
You just have to give us permission to publish your photos and
vegetarian recipes. As you can see in the example, we inform about the
author of the photos and the recipe, and includes a link to your
website.We can take care of preparing the format of the recipe with
the material you submit. The idea is to publish a book in the future.
We hope to hear from you, Yours sincerely,
J. Jorge Contreras
Golubka says
Thanks everyone for your lovely comments!
Dom: Great, hope you got the chance to!
Gourmande: Thank you. I think it’s worth a try, although I can’t say for sure.
Anonymous 11:35 – Thank you. Unfortunately, these particular wraps wouldn’t be the same without young coconut.
Anonymous 2:28 – Oh how wonderful, thanks so much! Japanese cuisine blows me away :)
Greenandjuicy: Thank you, we don’t mind at all :)
Jorge: Thanks for your interest! You can post our recipes as long as you link back to Golubka.
Ravenous Rowie says
So much color! I love them! beautiful photography!
bonnesante says
I had the fortune of stumbling across your blog yesterday and spent about an hour trawling through your old posts, because they are so amazingly beautiful! Wonderful, wonderful photography. I’m inspired!
valerie from familyblog says
so beautiful
Pauline. says
Just … Beautiful and amazing !
They are very colourful, I want to eat one them now ..!
Ria says
Wow looks soooo pretty.
Luise says
PERFECTION! I love it -as always btw! If only we had a dehydrator…
mark says
truely puzzeld i am, while delicious it look, i wonder why it is labled thai. there is nothing thai about it beside its name,,,,,,
yafa says
omg amazing. I want to use all of your recipes on our retreats!
Jane Macdonald says
beautiful…food as art! ♥
Alejandro says
Would you happen to have any famliy photo’s that were taken in Sterling that you would be willing to share? I live in Sterling and am interested in the history. Any photo’s that also include buildings are of interest.I remember your Aunt Francis and Uncle Dugan and Butch, they lived down the road from me when I was growing up.
sn says
Question:
If I make the wrappers without doubling the ingredients, how many wrappers will I have in each color? And how many rolled colour wheel wraps will I have once assembled?
Thank you for your help :) I would like to make these for an upcoming brunch :) They are so beautiful!
Stacy
melandjoycook says
Just joined Pinterest and came across this, I love it! Really beautiful. I’m going to try to make them at home but I have a feeling they won’t look half as good.
vannetj says
This is such a yummie blog! Thanx for sharing… x
Anonymous says
All of your pictures are amazing, you are truly food artists! There’s a lot of your recipe that ask for the meat of one young coconut, but I wonder what quantity it represents. I can only find this product frozen in bags. May you tell me a volume or a weight equivalent to one young coconut? Thanks!
martha starfish says
oh. my. gooooOooOooodness. seriously? will you marry me when i grow up? these are amazing. i love the art of beautiful spring rolls, but this? you made the wrappers? whuuuuut? you deserve a girlscout patch for your sash….
Louise says
This looks SO good.
Is it possible to make the wrappers the day before and then roll them the day after?
Anya says
Hi Louise, thank you for your kind words. Since this was 6 years ago (I can’t believe it!), I don’t exactly remember how those wraps behaved, whether they dried out and became less flexible with time. To be safe, I would roll them the same day. Best of luck :)