【Reading】やさいずし

【English Name】Vegetable Sushi

In the world of sushi, where seafood toppings hold the mainstream, a group prepared around plant-based ingredients is yasai-zushi (vegetable sushi). It is not a term referring to a single specific dish, but rather a designation that broadly encompasses sushi dishes in which vegetables play the central role.

The roots of this category run deep. In the Sengoku and Shokuho periods, items using eggplant, myoga, and bamboo shoot as ingredients in narezushi can be confirmed in documents. On the Korean Peninsula, a food culture of pickling vegetables added to rice and fish has long continued, and some researchers point to a genealogical connection with izushi (rice-pickled sushi) rooted along the Sea of Japan coast. Kaburazushi of Ishikawa Prefecture—a regional delicacy in which yellowtail is sandwiched in turnip and fermentation is promoted with koji—is a representative example of sushi in which plants bear the framework.

In the world of nigiri as well, the technique of placing pickles of yamagobo, bamboo shoot, wild mountain vegetables, and eggplant as toppings has been handed down without interruption. Because inari-zushi and maki-zushi are constructions that hold up even without seafood, they have garnered broad support.

In recent years, conveyor-belt sushi chains and overseas restaurants have been actively rolling out creative vegetable sushi incorporating avocado and fresh vegetable salads. Against the backdrop of the growing vegetarian and vegan demographic, the devising of diverse vegetable toppings is accelerating.