Want your California roll fix without all the work? Make this simple and satisfying California roll salad! All the California roll ingredients are there – but it looks different. Give this simple and fun recipe a try.

I love sushi, but it’s something that I don’t indulge in too often. Mostly because it’s quite pricey to order in a restaurant and too putzy to make at home.

The other day I was craving sushi and had all the ingredients on hand to make a California roll. However, I was sans a sushi mat. A thought occurred to me:

“Why not make a California roll into a salad?“

And thus was born this sushi-esque salad recipe.

What You’ll Need

This California roll salad calls for the same ingredients as a traditional California roll, with a little more flexibility. Here’s what you’ll need:

• Rice: Use sushi rice or a short grain rice. 
• Rice vinegar and sugar: These ingredients give the sushi rice its notable, sweet-tangy, sushi-like flavor.
• Cucumber: I prefer using English cucumbers for this recipe, but a regular cucumber (seeded) will also work. This can be cut into matchsticks or small pieces.
• Imitation crab: Imitation crab is the protein in a traditional California roll. This is available in most grocery stores in the seafood or meat section. Imitation lobster will also work.
• Avocado: Another classic California roll ingredient. 
• Seaweed: Instead of holding an entire California roll together, seaweed is used more as a garnish in this recipe. You can use full size seaweed sheets – or a small package of snack-size seaweed sheets (available at Trader Joe’s and other grocery stores). 
• Sauce: I made a simple spicy mayonnaise consisting of mayonnaise and sriracha sauce. Yum yum sauce would also taste great.

Optional toppings: You can add more sushi toppings to this California salad. Try sesame seeds, fried onions, cream cheese, seaweed salad, pickled cucumbers, julienned carrots or edamame. The addition of these toppings will put this more into the “poke bowl” category – but will still taste great!

California Roll Salad: The Cost

This turned out to be a satisfying substitute to the traditional California roll, and not surprisingly.

All of the components are there: vinegared rice, crab meat, spicy mayo, seaweed, etc.

And I didn’t pay much at all. Here’s a cost breakdown:

• Roasted seaweed snack from Trader Joe’s – $1.00 (I used about 1/10th of the package)
• Imitation crab – $2.50 for a large pack
• Cucumber – $1.00 (I used half)
• Rice – About $.40 for two cups
• Sriracha mayonnaise – About $.25 for 1/4 cup

Total cost: The total price paid for five salads was about $3.75 – or about $.75 per salad.

Now you can satisfy your sushi craving for much, much less than you’d spend at a Japanese restaurant.

Get More Cheap Sushi Recipes

• Spicy tuna sushi bowls
• Homemade quinoa sushi rolls
• Quinoa poke bowls
• Chicken sushi burritos
• Homemade California rolls
• Homemade teriyaki chicken sushi rolls

Make Homemade Sushi At Home For $1.40 Per Person

I love sushi but don’t eat it often because of the cost. I recently made homemade sushi rolls at home – and they were delicious.

The best part? The cost for 5 rolls was about $7.00, which equals roughly $1.40 per person. Get the recipe now.