The Future of Sushi is Vegan

If it looks like fish and tastes like fish, it must be fish, right? Not necessarily. Tomato Sushi is turning tomatoes into tuna (kind of) and creating more sustainable, vegan sushi that everyone can get behind.

With sustainability at their core, Tomato Sushi is another innovative food company that is working hard to get animals off the menu. Concerned about the negative effects of overfishing, bycatch, high mercury levels, and the extinction of some fish species, Tomato Sushi’s founder Chef James Corwell says, “What I want is to create a great sushi experience without the tuna.”

Corwell was inspired to create the plant-based fish after visiting Tokyo’s Tsukiji fish market in 2007. It was the hundreds of bluefin carcasses on display that stunned him into action. “The way I learned to cook with big slabs of meat isn’t going to be possible in the future, and that’s nothing to be scared of,” Corwell told NPR.

Alastair Bland, reporting for NPR, says the tomato-based “fish” is “a dead-ringer for Ahi tuna sashimi.” Corwell has his sights set beyond tuna, too. He has also developed an eggplant-based unagi (eel) and a seasoning blend that emulates dried bonito (fish) flakes. Corwell plans to develop many more vegan alternatives to fish. He’s already on a roll!

Photo credit: Tomato Sushi / Facebook.com