Sushi Rice / 酢飯

Learn how to make the best sushi rice at home!

Making sushi rice may be daunting. We’ve all had it: bad sushi rice that ends up too dry and hard to entirely too mushy. There are very few ingredients involved but technique is super important when making this perfectly seasoned and fluffy rice.

What is sushi rice?

Sushi rice is steamed Japanese rice that is flavored with rice vinegar and other ingredients. It is most commonly used with sushi, although it is also often used with raw fish donburi (rice bowls).

While many western countries label regular Japanese rice as “sushi rice,” it isn’t actually sushi rice unless it’s seasoned (it’s just plain rice).

Let’s talk ingredients

Ingredients for sushi rice is important as there aren’t too many ingredients involved.

1. What kind of rice do I use?

You NEED to use a Japanese rice, either short grain or medium grain. Short grain is the most traditional type of rice used but recently, especially in the west, Californian-grown medium grain Japanese rice is often used. Other rice like long-grain rice, jasmine rice, etc. will not work for sushi rice. The rice needs to have a higher moisture content to give it some stickiness and bite.

For the rice, you want to make sure that you wash the rice well to remove the excess starch. For short-grain Japanese rice (grown in Japan), you want to wash it until the water is almost completely clear and then let it soak for 30 minutes prior to cooking. For California-grown medium grain rice, you do not need to soak it prior to cooking.

You can cook the rice in a rice cooker or on the stovetop. Make sure to add slightly less water than you would for when you make normal rice. The moisture needs to be controlled or the rice will become mushy (especially cause you will be adding more liquid with the sushi rice vinegar).

You can head to my Pantry or down to the “Shop this post” section to see some rice recommendations.

2. Seasonings

To season the rice, you either need to make a mixture of seasonings and plain rice vinegar, or you can use seasoned rice vinegar.

My favorite thing to use is Seasoned or Sushi Rice Vinegar. This is rice vinegar that is pre-mixed with all the ingredients so you can just add this to the rice and be done. I have this linked in my Pantry as well as down below in the “Shop this post” section. This makes making sushi rice extremely easy.

However, if you do not have seasoned rice vinegar or have regular rice vinegar that you would like to use, you can make the seasoned rice vinegar yourself using:

• 4 tbsp rice vinegar (plain, unseasoned)
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt

Just combine those ingredients and you now have seasoned rice vinegar (the amount is good for 2 rice cooker cups of rice).

Let’s talk Tools

1. Sushi Oke (Hangiri)

A traditional wooden sushi oke is a round and fairly flat mixing bowl used to make sushi rice. You basically need to use something with a fairly wide bottom so you can spread out the rice in a thin layer to let the steam and moisture out while mixing or the rice will become mushy.
Alternatives: A very large plate or a sheet pan (put parchment paper down before putting the rice on).

2. Shamoji (rice paddle)

A shamoji is a traditional rice paddle used to stir and serve rice. It’s flat and thin so it doesn’t crush the rice while mixing.
Alternatives: Thin spatula, large metal spoon

3. Uchiwa (fan)

An uchiwa is a traditional Japanese fan that usually is used to keep cool in hot weather. It is also, however, used in cooking situations like when cooling down rice or when maintaining temperature when cooking yakitori. The fanning of the rice while mixing will help the rice from becoming mushy or too wet from the steam.
Alternatives: Any other hand fan, piece of paper

Other tips

If you are not using the rice immediately but will do so later in the day, use a wet towel to cover your rice. I do not recommend refrigerating as it will affect the texture of the rice.

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