Spicy Tuna Sushi Rolls

These fiery Spicy Tuna Rolls have a real kick of flavour to them. A super easy sushi roll made with store cupboard ingredients and easy to adapt. Tuna mayo with plenty of Sriracha chilli sauce, all rolled up with rice and nori.

Eight pieces of tuna sushi on a board with soy sauce, wasabi and ginger.

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Whilst the tuna sushi you find in restaurants might be made with raw tuna, we made ours with canned tuna for a budget friendly recipe that everyone can enjoy - as some people are put off raw fish. We call this a poor man's tuna sushi roll.

It is a thin, tuna maki roll, but you could roll it thicker or even follow our instructions for our Vegan Sushi recipe to do an inside out roll. For all the flavours of this sushi roll, without having to roll is, try our easy Tuna Sushi Bowl.

Jump to:

Why You Will Love Them
Ingredients and Substitutions
Variations
How to Make Spicy Tuna Rolls
What To Serve With Tuna Sushi
Storage
Dannii's Top Tips
Frequently Asked Questions
More Japanese recipes
Recipe
Feedback

Why You Will Love Them

Easy - You might think sushi is hard to make, but this tuna sushi is about as easy as it gets. All you need is a pan to cook the rice in and a sushi rolling mat too.
Adaptable - This is a really easy sushi roll, as anything goes. You can easily adapt it with other fillings - more ideas below.
Cheap - Sushi restaurants can be expensive, but making your own sushi at home is actually pretty cheap. Using canned tuna makes this very budget friendly.

Ingredients and Substitutions

All the ingredients needed for this recipe with text overlay labels.

A full ingredients list, along with US Customary and Metric measurements, can be found in the recipe card at the end of this post.

Nori - These are the sheets of edible seaweed that sushi is wrapped in. Choose a brand that is dark green in colour. You can find these in the world food aisle of most supermarkets.
Sushi rice - You have to use sushi rice for the best results. Basmati or jasmine rice will not work. Follow our recipe for Sushi Rice for the best sticky rice. The measurements in this recipe are for cooked sushi rice.
Tuna - As I mentioned before, this is a poor man's tuna roll because we are using canned tuna, rather than fresh. I think a lot of people are put off sushi because of the fresh fish, so this is a good way to ease yourself into it. Try to use the best quality you can though.
Shallot - This adds a nice crunch and some extra heat. You could use spring onion (scallions) instead.
Mayonnaise - This is where all the creaminess comes from. Use full fat for the best flavour. You could use cream cheese instead.
Sriracha - Spicy is relative. We think this has a nice kick to it, but feel free to add more if you like really spicy. You could leave this out to be more kid friendly. But we find that our kids quite like the flavour of Sriracha, we just have to add less of it so that it's not too over-powering for them.

Variations

The variation options are almost endless here. Other ingredients that you can add to this include, spring onions (scallions), pickled radish, roasted sweet potato, red/purple cabbage, fresh coriander (cilantro), tenderstem broccoli, jackfruit, asparagus, cooked mushrooms, cream cheese or jalapeno.

These are larger rolls, but try not to add too many fillings otherwise you will struggle to roll it up.

If you really wanted to give this some extra colour, then you could add food colouring to the rice. You could separate the rice into 4 and add a different colour to each and then add the rice in rows, so when it is rolled you get sections of colour.

If you didn't like fish, then you could use leftover cooked shredded chicken, or even canned salmon.

How to Make Spicy Tuna Rolls

Prep: Cook your sushi rice according to our Sushi Rice recipe.

A bowl containing tuna, diced onion, mayonnaise and chilli sauce.

Step 1: In a bowl, mix together the tuna, onion, mayonnaise and sriracha.

A sheet of nori on a rolling mat with sushi rice on it.

Step 2: Lay a sheet of nori on a bamboo rolling mat, shiny side down. Put the cooked sushi rice onto the nori and spread to cover ¾ of the nori.

Step 3: Spread the tuna mixture along the rice.

Step 4: Using a rolling mat, roll up from the bottom, tightly away from you. Leave a small amount of nori unrolled. Wet this part of the nori with water and finish rolling to seal it.

Step 5: Cut each roll into 10 pieces.

What To Serve With Tuna Sushi

This spicy tuna sushi is great for a light lunch, but are also a great addition to a bigger sushi meal. Try it with some of these sushi recipes:

You could also serve it with an edamame salad and some pickled seaweed.

Of course some soy sauce, wasabi and ginger are a must served alongside sushi. But if you want something with a big more of a kick, then mix together some mayo and Sriracha to dip these in.

We love dipping sushi in our Healthy Teriyaki Sauce too.

Storage

It is best to eat sushi within 1-2 hours of it being made, as the rice will go dry and stale. However, if you do have any leftovers then it can be stored.

Refrigerate in an air tight container for up to 24 hours.

Dannii's Top Tips

This recipe calls for 200g of cooked sushi rice. To make this amount of cooked rice, you will need 70g of raw rice. If you are altering the serving size in the recipe card, divide the amount of cooked rice by 3 to get how much raw rice you will need.
Make sure to wet the knife before making each cut. This prevents the rice from sticking to the knife.
Always place the nori shiny side down on the rolling mat. This is because the rice sticks better to the rough side and it looks better for presentation.
With some nori brands, you might not be able to use water to seal the roll. You can use cooked rice grains as the "glue" instead, just squash a few grains across the nori where you want to seal it.
Make sure the sushi rice is fully cooled before adding it to the nori, as the steam of the hot rice can cause the nori to go soggy.
When handling the rice, use wet hands or a spoon, as it is very sticky.

Tuna sushi rolls in front of small pots of wasabi and ginger.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is my tuna roll falling apart?

Be careful not to overfill your sushi rolls, because this will make them hard to roll up and the fillings will leak out.

How much rice do you need per sushi roll?

For each nori sheet, which makes one sushi roll, you need 100g/0.5 cup of cooked sushi rice.

How do you roll sushi tightly?

Using both hands, slowly roll it with the bamboo mat pressing down gently and equally as you roll. The pressure will make it stick together.

What can I use instead of a rolling mat?

We really would recommend getting a sushi rolling mat, and they are quite reasonable in shops or online. However, if you don't have one then you can use a flexible place mat instead. Just wrap it in clingfilm/serran wrap first.

More Japanese recipes

If you've tried this spicy tuna roll recipe, let us know how you got on in the comments below.
Tag us in your creations on Instagram @hungryhealthyhappy - Use the hashtag #hungryhealthyhappy too.

Recipe

Spicy Tuna Rolls

By: Dannii Martin

These fiery Spicy Tuna Rolls have a real kick of flavour to them. A super easy sushi roll made with store cupboard ingredients and easy to adapt.

5 from 7 votes

Pin Print Save recipe

Course: Dinner, Lunch

Cuisine: Japanese

Prep: 10

Total: 10

Servings: 4 servings

Calories: 147kcal

Allergens:

Eggs

Fish

Ingredients

▢ 2 sheet of Nori
▢ 200 g (1 cups) of Cooked sushi rice
▢ 100 g (3.5 oz) of Tuna - drained weight
▢ 0.25 Onion - small
▢ 5 tablespoon of Mayonnaise
▢ 2 tablespoon of Sriracha

For ingredient swaps, see our Ingredients and Substitutions section

Instructions

Cook your sushi rice according to our Sushi Rice recipe.
200 g of Cooked sushi rice
In a bowl, mix together the tuna, onion, mayonnaise and sriracha.
100 g of Tuna, 0.25 Onion, 5 tbsp of Mayonnaise, 2 tbsp of Sriracha
Lay a sheet of nori on a bamboo rolling mat, shiny side down. Put the cooked sushi rice onto the nori and spread to cover ¾ of the nori.
2 sheet of Nori
Spread the tuna mixture along the rice.
Using a rolling mat, roll up from the bottom, tightly away from you. Leave a small amount of nori unrolled. Wet this part of the nori with water and finish rolling to seal it.
Cut each roll into 10 pieces.

Recipe Tips

This recipe calls for 200g of cooked sushi rice. To make this amount of cooked rice, you will need 70g of raw rice. If you are altering the serving size in the recipe card, divide the amount of cooked rice by 3 to get how much raw rice you will need.
Make sure to wet the knife before making each cut. This prevents the rice from sticking to the knife.
Always place the nori shiny side down on the rolling mat. This is because the rice sticks better to the rough side and it looks better for presentation.
With some nori brands, you might not be able to use water to seal the roll. You can use cooked rice grains as the "glue" instead, just squash a few grains across the nori where you want to seal it.
Make sure the sushi rice is fully cooled before adding it to the nori, as the steam of the hot rice can cause the nori to go soggy.
When handling the rice, use wet hands or a spoon, as it is very sticky.