Temari Sushi are small balls of sushi rice topped with colourful ingredients. They are the perfect finger food for special occasions and certainly have a wow factor. In Japan, they are often served during the Hinamatsuri (Doll’s Day/Girl’s Day) festival on the 3rd of March.
Since each piece of sushi needs to be shaped individually, it takes more time to make than Sushi Canapés or even nigiri sushi, but Temari Sushi are actually very easy to make.
Temari Sushi looks best when made with a variety of toppings in different colours. You don’t even have to use raw fish as a topping. In my Temari Sushi recipe, scallops are the only raw seafood ingredient, and all other toppings are cured meats, smoked fish, and vegetables. If you are a raw fish lover you can, of course, make your Temari Sushi with just raw fish.
About Temari Sushi
Temari Sushi (手毬寿司) is pronounced ‘temarizushi’ in Japan because it is easier to say ‘zushi’ (寿司) after ‘temari’ (手毬) than ‘sushi’ (寿司). I could have written today’s recipe the Japanese way, but I felt that adding the word ‘sushi’ would make my readers better understand what kind of dish it is.
Temari Sushi originated in Kyoto. It is said that small ball-shaped sushi pieces were created so that Geisha girls could eat them gracefully without smudging their lipstick. That’s why the typical size of Temari Sushi is even smaller than a ping-pong ball – about 3-3.5cm / 1⅛-1⅜” in diameter.
Exactly when Temari Sushi became popular among consumers is unknown, but compared to the traditional nigiri sushi (I am yet to publish this) and Chirashi Sushi, it appeared in the modern era. These days Temari Sushi is served at celebratory events such as birthday parties, the Dolls Day festival, and Christmas.
You can be very creative with the toppings for Temari Sushi – you can use almost anything that goes well with sushi rice. The possibilities are almost limitless.
Temari Sushi is not only delicious to eat but also designed to be visually enjoyable and brighten the dining table.
What’s in my Temari Sushi (Ball-shaped Sushi)
Apart from the sushi rice, Temari Sushi ingredients can vary depending on the toppings you choose. In this recipe, I used raw seafood, smoked fish, cured meat, and vegetables with different colours.
- Sushi rice
- Scallops (sashimi quality)
- Smoked salmon
- Prosciutto slices
- Smoked Wagyu beef slices
- Avocado (quartered) slices
- Cucumber and radish thinly sliced
- A pinch of salt to wilt cucumber and radish slices.
You only need about 4cm2/1 9⁄16in2 of topping to cover a rice ball. If sliced cured meat is very thin, like mine, cut longer strips and fold them.
Decoration
- Dill
- Ikura (salmon roe).
Decoration is optional, but it makes the Temari Sushi look more attractive. Micro herbs can also work well.
How to make Temari Sushi (Ball-shaped Sushi)
- Sprinkle salt over the sliced cucumber and radish and let them wilt.
- Make small balls with sushi rice.
- Spread a sheet of cling wrap out and place a piece of topping in the centre.
- Place a rice ball on top of the topping.
- Gather all corners of the cling wrap and twist it just above the rice to form a ball.
- Unwrap the cling wrap, place the Termari Sushi on a serving plate (rice side down), and add a garnish on top, if using.
- Repeat for the remaining rice balls.
You don’t need to make perfect balls in step 2, as they will naturally form a round shape in step 5.
From left to right: Smoked Wagyu beef, Smoked trout, prosciutto.
For cucumber and radish, place the slices alternately, partly overlapping each other to form a round shape (see the video).
From left to right: Scallops, Cucumber & radish, avocado.
Since Temari Sushi is a different form of sushi, you can use almost any toppings that are used in traditional sushi as well as some ingredients used in other sushi dishes. The following are some of the toppings you may want to try:
- Salmon sashimi
- Tuna sashimi
- Kingfish sashimi
- Cooked prawn
- Shime Saba
- Kinshi Tamago (shredded egg crepes)
- Simmered Shiitake Mushrooms
- Cucumber only
- Radish only.
From top clockwise: Kinshi tamago, simmered shiitake mushroom, cooked prawn.
Temari Sushi are served with soy sauce in a small dish for dipping, especially when eating sashimi topping or unseasoned vegetables. Considering the size of the sushi, you only need to dip a small amount of soy sauce and pop the entire ball of sushi into your mouth.
I hope you try making these cute sushi balls.
Yumiko
Watch How To Make It
Temari Sushi are small balls of sushi rice topped with colourful ingredients. They are the perfect finger food for special occasions and certainly have a wow factor. In Japan, they are often served during the Hinamatsuri (Doll’s Day/Girl’s Day) festival on the 3rd of March. See the video.
Don't forget to see the section 'MEAL IDEAS' below the recipe card! It gives you a list of dishes that I have already posted and this recipe that can make up a complete meal. I hope it is of help to you.
- 450g / 1lb sushi rice (note 1)
- 3 sashimi-quality scallops (about 3.5cm in diameter, note 3)
- 3 pieces smoked trout (about 4cm² / 1 9/16 in² per piece, note 4)
- 3 pieces smoked Wagyu beef (about 4cm x 10cm / 1 9/16” x 4” per piece, note 5)
- 3 pieces prosciutto (about 4cm x 10cm / 1 9/16” x 4” per piece, note 5)
- 9 round slices cucumber (paper thin, about 1mm / 1/32” thick, note 6)
- 9 round slices radish (paper thin, about 1mm / 1/32” thick, note 6)
- A pinch of salt
- 9 sliced quarter avocado (about 5mm / 3/16” thick)
- Ikura
- Dill leaves
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Sprinkle a pinch of salt over cucumber and radish slices. Leave for 10 minutes to wilt, then pat off excess water if they are too wet (do not dry too much).
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Divide the rice into 18 x 25g / 0.9oz portions (note 7) and gently shape each potion into a round ball. It does not have to be perfectly round - do not squeeze too hard.
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Cover the rice balls with a damp kitchen towel or kitchen paper to prevent them from drying out.
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For each Temari Sushi, you will need a piece of cling wrap about 20cm/8" long.
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Place a topping in the centre of the cling wrap (see Placing Toppings below). Put a rice ball on top of the topping.
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Gatherer all corners of the cling wrap. Hold the ball on your left hand (for right-handers) and twist the gathered cling wrap just above the rice to form a ball (note 8).
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Unwrap the cling wrap and place the Temari Sushi on a serving plate, rice side down.
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Cured Wagyu Beef – Fold a piece of cured Wagyu beef over to make a piece roughly 4cm² / 1 9/16 in² per rice ball.
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Smoked Trout – Use a piece of smoked trout.
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Prosciutto – Fold a piece of prosciutto over to make a piece roughly 4cm² / 1 9/16 in² per rice ball.
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Scallops – Halve each scallop horizontally and use 2 pieces per rice ball.
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Cucumber and Radish – For each rice ball, place 3 slices of cucumber and radish alternately, overlapping slightly to form a round sheet. Tuck the last slice underneath the first slice (see the video).
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Avocado – Place 3 slices, overlapping slightly to make about 4cm / 1 9/16 in wide per rice ball.
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Place small piece of dill on each of the smoked trout Temari Sushi.
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Place a few ikura on each of the scallop Temari Sushi.
1. Please refer to Temakizushi (Hand Rolled Sushi) for how to make sushi rice.
2. You don’t have to use all the toppings listed here. You can also try other toppings mentioned in the post.
3. If your scallops are larger, slice them diagonally into 3 pieces (you will only need 2 scallops). If your scallops are much smaller, you may use a few more scallops to sufficiently cover the rice ball.
The idea is to cover the top half of a rice ball with the scallop.
4. Smoked salmon works too. Each slice of smoked trout/salmon is not very thin, so you only need one slice per rice ball.
5. My cured meat slices were very thin, so I folded each large piece to make the topping thicker.
6. Because of the way I decorated the cucumber and radish topping, I used small cucumbers and radishes so the topping wouldn't be too wide for the rice ball. My slices were no more than 3cm / 1¼" in diameter.
If you can only find larger cucumber and radish, halve each slice and make a topping with semicircular slices. Use 4 semicircular cucumber and 4 semicircular radish slices (8 in total) per rice ball.
7. Some recipes make slightly larger rice balls. If you make 30g / 1oz rice balls, you will get 15 Temari Sushi using this recipe. You need to adjust the number of toppings accordingly.
Alternatively, increase sushi rice to 540g / 1.2lb and make 18 x 30g / 1oz rice balls.
8. You may need to remove air bubbles between the cling wrap and the sushi ball.
The more you twist the cling wrap, the firmer the rice ball becomes. However, try not to tighten the cling wrap too much - the aim is to form the rice and topping into a ball shape that holds together without falling apart.
Meal Ideas
A typical Japanese meal consists of a main dish, a couple of side dishes, a soup and rice. I try to come up with a combination of dishes with a variety of flavours, colours, textures and make-ahead dishes.
I have posted quite a few sushi recipes that are great as finger food. So today, I am sharing this collection of finger food sushi instead of giving you a meal idea.
I think what’s missing here is nigiri sushi. I hope I can publish it sometime.
- Temari Sushi – Today’s recipe.
- Sushi Canapés
- California Rolls
- Salmon Avocado Rolls
- Spicy Tuna Rolls
- Tempura Prawn Rolls
- Seared Salmon Nigiri (Aburi Salmon)
- Sushi Rolls (Norimaki)
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