Vegan Onigiri - Japanese Rice Balls

The perfect snack or light meal. Eat it crispy, with the nutty and earthy flavour of sesame seeds, or eat it soft, with the fresh taste of corn and spring onion.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup of medium or short grain rice

• 1 drained cup of corn

• 2 spring onions

• sesame seeds

• nigella seeds

• kosher salt

INSTRUCTIONS

RICE

1. Wash your rice. Don't do it more than two or three times, because you still need some of that starch to make it sticky

2. Add it to a low pot. For every cup of rice, you add about one and a half cup of water. You can also use the finger method to measure your water to rice ratio. If you have a rice cooker, just use that!

3. Bring it to a boil and once the water hits the rice (touches the rice) and starts forming bubbles in the rice, lower the heat and cover your rice.

4. Remove the pan from the pot and let it steam for a few more minutes

5. Add your sesame seeds, nigella seeds and a pinch of salt to your rice

6. Now add your drained corn and cut your spring onions

ONIGIRI

For the onigiri, I'm using a small bowl to help me form the onigiri, but it's not a necessary step.

TIP: wet your hands so the rice doesn't stick to your hands. You can also place the rice in plastic foil to help form the onigiri without having sticky rice hands.

1. First check if your rice mixture is cool enough to handle. Once it is, moisten both of your hands with water

2. Spread out about half a cup of rice out on the palm of one hand (or the small bowl if you're using one)

3. Start forming a little ball. You can eat it as is or fry it in a pan

4. Add about 1 tablespoon of neutral oil to your pan and add your onigiri to your pan on medium heat

5. When one side of the onigiri gets crispy, turn it around

6. Brush your onigiri with sesame oil and enjoy!!