Vegan kimchi cream cheese stuffed rice balls. Dashi simmered rice is stuffed with a mixture of chopped kimchi and vegan cream cheese, rolled in panko and then baked in the oven. Served with sriracha cashew sauce and scallions.
Jump to RecipeIf you haven’t noticed, I like to make a dish and then think about other ways that the ingredient or mixture of ingredients can be made into a different dish. It’s fun, but also a good way to maximize your prep time and minimize your shopping list. This is a good example of just that. I made Vegan Kombu Dashi Simmered Rice the other day and although I ate it all, I still had all the ingredients to make another batch (it’s super easy). The rice tasted so great that it got me thinking about what else could I make with it. I immediately thought about making fried rice (still going to do that) and straight up rice balls. The rice balls made me think about arancini, the Italian version of a rice ball using risotto rice and sometimes they are stuffed with cheese, breaded, and then fried. They are delicious, so I went ahead with that in mind to make these vegan kimchi cream cheese stuffed rice balls.
The dashi simmered rice is flavored with kombu, soy sauce, mirin, sesame oil, and sake. Can’t go wrong with those flavors. Then I finely chopped up vegan kimchi and mixed it with a store-bought vegan cream cheese (any brand will work). After that, to make the vegan kimchi cream cheese rice balls- spread some of the rice in the palm of your hand and add a teaspoon or so of the kimchi cream cheese mixture and form the rice around it making a ball. When done making all the balls, dip each ball in soy milk and then into the panko breadcrumbs. Bake in a 425°F oven for 15 minutes or until golden brown. Serve with your favorite dipping sauce- I used a sauce made of cashews, water, lemon juice, sriracha, salt, and scallions.
Vegan Kimchi Cream Cheese Stuffed Rice Balls
Ingredients
Dashi Simmered Rice:
- 4 cups sushi rice short-grain rice
- 4-5 cups water
- 2-4 pieces of dried kombu Japanese kelp
- 2 Tablespoon mirin
- 2 Tablespoon sake
- 4 Tablespoons soy sauce
- 2 teaspoon sesame oil
Kimchi Cream Cheese Mix:
- 8 ounces vegan cream cheese any brand will work- kite hill, daiya, tofutti, etc..
- 1/2 cup or more depending on your taste of kimchi I used mother-in-law brand vegan napa cabbage variety
Breading:
- 2 cups panko breadcrumbs
- 1/2 cup unflavored soy or nut milk
Sriracha Cashew Dipping Sauce:
- 1/2 cup raw cashews soaked in water for an hour. Drained and rinsed.
- 1/3 cup water
- 1/2 lemon juiced
- 1 teaspoon red wine vinegar
- 1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/4 cup chopped scallions
- Kosher salt to taste
- Sriracha sauce to taste
Instructions
- Rinse the rice in water and drain.
- In a rice cooker or pot add the rice, water (up to the 2 cup line if using a rice cooker), mirin, sake, soy sauce, and sesame oil. Stir to combine. Add the kombu on top and if using a rice cooker select the white rice function.
- If not using a rice cooker, bring the liquid to a boil. Cover and reduce heat to low. Cook for 15-20 minutes or until the rice has absorbed all the liquid. Scoop out the rice onto a sheet pan lined with parchment paper and let cool.
- Chop up the kimchi and mix with cream cheese in a small bowl. Taste and adjust how spicy you would like it to be.
- In the palm of your hand, spread out a small amount of rice. place a teaspoon of the kimchi cream cheese mixture into the center of the rice and form a ball around the kimchi cream cheese mixture. Place onto a sheet pan lined with parchment paper and repeat until all the rice is used up.
- Preheat the oven to 425°F.
- Pour the panko breadcrumbs into a gallon zip lock bag. Pour the soy milk into a small bowl.
- Lightly dip each rice ball into the soy milk and then into the bag with panko. When you have 4-6 rice balls in the panko bag, seal it up and shake to coat. Place each coated rice ball back onto your parchment lined sheet pan. Repeat until all are finished.
- Bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown. Serve immediately with dipping sauce.
Dipping Sauce:
- In a blender, place the cashews, water, lemon juice, red wine vinegar, and garlic powder. Blend on high for 1-2 minutes or until completely smooth. Add more water if the consistency is too thick. Scoop the mixture out into a small bowl.
- Mix in the chopped scallions and season to taste with the sriracha sauce and salt.