How to make sushi rice – the complete recipe
Preparing sushi rice may seem complicated, but once you get started, you’ll find out that it is a bit like cooking ordinary rice, but with vinegar added to it, and a dash of Japanese technique. There are four key steps to making sushi rice: washing, soaking, cooking, and seasoning. Let’s review everything you need to know:
Choosing the right rice
Japanese short-grain rice has a higher starch content than long-grain rice and takes a different amount of water than long-grain rice. Short-grain rice is stickier and better for holding its shape when rolled into sushi. Long-grain (‘regular’) rice just isn’t sticky enough for sushi-making. Here is what a bag of sushi rice should look like.
Measuring sushi rice
Prepare 1 cup of sushi rice per 3 sushi rolls. Each roll makes up 6-8 little sushi pieces. 2 rolls are recommended per person, depending on personal preferences. Wash the rice (1 cup = 3 rolls) with running water for 1-2 minutes until there is no more starch coming out of it. For best results, let the rice soak in water for 30 minutes to help soften it.
After washing the rice, place it gently in a pot and add more water than rice. It should be about 1.2:1 in favor of the water. That is 20% more water compared to the rice. Do not add more water or you will end up with dough instead of rice.
Still not sure? Check out our Quantity Calculator.Cooking the rice
Cook the rice on high heat at first, stirring every minute or two until the water boils. Then, lower the heat to low and cover the pot. After 6-8 minutes, check the water level – if there is no more water, only bigger grains of rice in the pot, the rice is ready. If not, check back every minute, making sure not to burn the rice at the bottom.
Quantity calculator
We are here to help with all the calculations. Select how much you will be making, and the calculator will provide you with the quantities. Have a go!
Units:
Taking out the rice
When taking the rice out of the pot, only use a wooden spoon to handle the cooked rice. A metal spoon will cause the rice to be damaged, and it can also react with the vinegar that we will be adding later.
Second, do not scrape the rice out from the bottom of the pot. If it comes out easily, that is great. Otherwise, do not use it. The rice will taste bad. Put it in wooden or plastic bowls to chill.
Seasoning the rice
Rice vinegar mixed with sugar and salt is essential for giving sushi its distinct combination of flavors. If you neglect this part, your sushi won’t quite taste like sushi should. It is not recommended to substitute rice vinegar as most types of vinegar are much too strong. Rice vinegar is more delicate and blends in perfectly with the rice.
How to season the rice
- For 3 cups of dry sushi rice, use 0.5 cup of rice vinegar, 2 tablespoons of sugar, and 2 teaspoons of salt. Use only rice vinegar! Any other kind of vinegar will taste bad. Alternatively, you could use sushi rice seasoning powder.
- Mix together in a small pot on medium heat until all the solids are mixed together.
- Pour the mixture onto the rice and mix well. That should take a minute or two.
- Let the rice cool down for a few minutes until it reaches room temperature. Don’t put the rice in the fridge to make it cool faster – that will damage the rice. You can, however, use a fan, A/C, or put it by the window.
Important tip – Some people prefer less seasoned sushi rice. Also, the strength of rice vinegar can vary depending on the brand. If it is your first time making sushi rice, or you are uncertain, prepare half the amount of seasoning described above. Mix it with the rice and taste.
Trust your own palette if you want to use the full amount or not.
Final thoughts
That’s it, you’ve made it! For the sake of the internet, please take a moment to share your experience in the comments section below. Did it turn out as you expected? Better? Ask any questions you have, somebody will be able to answer, and it might even help other folks with the same question in the future. And most importantly, enjoy making sushi!
I prepared my first sushi ever and it was as good as the local take out’s.
I used ‘calrose’ rice and cooked it for 8 minutes but it was a bit ‘al dente’ for my taste. Will try 9 minutes next time. The vinegar mix was spot on though…
Now I’m going to try and find recipes to prepare different types of maki and nigiri’s.
Worked perfectly, maybe a little over on the vinegar although we did use Chinese instead of Japanese rice vinegar. Best tasting sushi rice by a long way. We had 2 cups of rice so had to convert to metric to make the step down easier. 1 cup = 250ml, 1 tablespoon = 15ml, 1 teaspoon = 5ml, the maths was easy from there.
Thank you for a great step by step.
Thanks for a great recipe! This was easy to make and exactly the right flavor.
Next time, I’ll keep a bit of boiling water ready near the end of the cooking. The rice was a bit more al dente than I’d usually prefer when it was the right consistency. A splash more water and it would have been perfect.
Hi! I still don’t get it. Do i mix vinegar, sugar and salt with cook or uncook rice? And if it’s uncook rice, do i have to add in water too?
Hi Florence, in short the steps are:
1. Cook rice
2. Take out of pot
3. Add vinegar mix
4 . Mix well
5 . Allow to cool down
Let us know how it went 🙂
You add the vinegar mix only AFTER the rice is cooked when you take it out of the pot. Then you just mix it into the rice and let it cool.
I need your advice. I strictly followed the recipe (or so I think) but at the end the rice came out very very sticky – I couldn’t even take it off my hands. Could you please tell me what I did wrong?
Hi Ari, sushi rice is supposed to come out sticky. Very sticky.
After the rice had cooled down to room temperature, wet your hands before handling the rice. This will reduce rice sticking to tie hand to a minimum.
A good idea is to prepare a bowl of water and a towel in your rolling area. Traditionally, you add a tiny bit of rice vinegar to the water.
You could also just rub some oil on your hand and then continue to deal with the rice! Cant you?
Well, I guess you could – however plain water would do the trick as well.
Watch the rice vinegar put what it says and not a drop more I messed up the first batch lol other than that hell of a recipe,????
Where to find rice vinegar?
Hi Geo,
That depends where you live. In most cities you would be able to find rice vinegar in Asian markets or whole food stores. You can also purchase rice vinegar online, e.g. on amazon via this link.
I liv in a rural Pennsylvania town and I found mine in the ethnic food section
This is the best sushi recipe I have used. I like the way the method is described in detail.
Glad you enjoyed it!
can i pour the seasoning (rice vinegar, sugar and salt) with the uncooked rice then cook it in rice cooker? or only pour them when the rice is cooked?
Hi Lilly that’s a very good question!
Never tried it myself, only after the rice is cooked. If you do try please let us know!
Can you use any other kind of vinager or does it have to be rice vinegar
I have done it with good results. Just experiment. I’m Japanese and showed my mother. She was skeptical at first but the final result was good and she was happy. Just make sure you reduce water because the vinegar is liquid.
I read that you should sweeten the sushi rice with mirin, not sugar. Does it matter?
Yes, Mirin can also be used – and is actually quite nice.
Never found better recipe. Instructions are all simple and even so that there are a lot of steps, the rice is awesome! Thank you for this! (:
How much of each ingredients would be used if I only used 1 cup of rice?
Just divide all the quantities by 3….you’re making 1/3 the amount of rice, so you need 1/3 of everything else….
You would use 1/3 of each ingredient, just keep it proportional to the rice and you should be OK. ????
Thank you very much. I need practice making the maki, but the rice tasted excellent.
If the rice vinegar is cold, can I mix if with the rice? Or should I wait until the vinegar cool down to room temp? Thank u!
The rice and rice vinegar should both be hot when mixed.
No need to cool it down. Both the rice and rice vinegar should be mixed while still hot.
I always use this method. So pleased I found it! Thanks.
Very good
This recipe worked out very well. I cut it down to 1 cup uncooked rice. I also let my rice soak for about an hour before cooking for stickier grains.
So I want to eat healthier and I thought sushi would be the way. Am I able to make sushi the night before and then bring it to school? Or do I make the rice the night before and prepare the sushi before I leave for school?
Lucas
Hi Lucas,
Sushi is best prepared right before consuming. If you do have to store it for a few hours, make sure it’s properly cooled.
If you store the rice in the fridge overnight, try and cover it with a damp cloth, to avoid rice dehydration.
Three cups WAS indeed referring to uncooked.
I have tried the vinegar thing in my rice and found it horrible tasting . Perhaps what is meant by 3 cups rice is uncooked . I put the 1/2 cup in 3 cups cooked rice and YUK. Going to try and add in 3 more cups cooked rice to mellow out that vinegar flavor . Oh and use brown sugar for the sugar . Three cups WAS indeed referring to uncooked.
Agreed, I made the same mistake and it was so strong!! 3 cups uncooked next time for me.
I'm just curious, is the only reason vinegar is added to the rice is for flavor? I actually hate vinegar and I've had sushi before and even when the vinegar is mild, I get nauseous. That was actually how I found out that there was vinegar in the rice. If it doesn't affect anything, I might try to make some sushi for myself without any vinegar.
Sushi literaly means vinegared rice so you kinda have add the vinegar
I used half of the rice vinegar and it was still sour!
Try white wine vinegar
I used your recipe but with a bit of variation. The 1:15 to 1 water to rice ratio did not work I had to use more water. I also soaked some lemon peel and seaweed in my vinegar for an hour to give my rice some aroma. Worked well for me! thanks. That's strange, never heard that one before. Can you tell what was the rice brand you used?
That's strange, never heard that one before. Can you tell what was the rice brand you used?
It helps to let the rice soak before cooking. I keep forgetting the soak time- 20 minutes? 40 minutes? I don't realy care, I soak it anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour. It depends on how late in the day it is, if i forget about it, you get the idea. I wash the rice, soak it, drain and rinse again, then put in the pot and add the measured amount of water to cook. It only takes about 10 minutes to cook.
This recipe was perfect! With some simple instructions I (the worst chef ever) did a pretty nice rice for my sushi 🙂
Excellent this worked really well and is so delicious. Thanks