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This vegan spam musubi is a healthier version of traditional spam musubi that’s dressed up for Halloween. Coffin-shaped spam tofu bundled together with naturally colored purple rice is the perfect cute savory snack to balance out all the spooky Halloween sweets.

This recipe makes 10 musubi.

Table of Contents

(click the links below to skip to the section you’re looking for)

• Vegan Spam Recipe
• Purple Sushi Rice Recipe
• How to Make Vegan Musubi
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Ingredient Substitutions
• Video
• Nutritional Information
• Contact Me with Questions
• Similar Recipes

Last weekend, I was walking through echopark and saw a musubi stand that offered vegan musubi. I was so excited, but it just reminded me how much better mine is. And the Jocelyn told me that she was serving non-vegan musubi at her baby shower, so I decided it was about time to make some. To hell if I’m gonna watch other people enjoy musubi without having some for myself. I would die of FOMO.

This Halloween musubi uses my vegan spam recipe but this time, they’re coffin shaped. And the sushi rice is naturally colored to make it more halloweeny. If you’re making these during another season, try making them kawaii in your own way, and let me know how it goes!

Spam is a brand of canned pork, which was created in Austin, Minnesota in the late ‘30s. But spam musubi, however, is from Hawaii! This dish can be considered a snack or a standalone dish that may be served along with soup or a vegetable side.

TIP: For a bold flavour, marinate the tofu longer and instead of baking, consider frying in a pan.

Ingredients for a Vegan Spam Recipe

• ¼ cup braggs liquid aminos
• 2 tablespoons (27g) olive oil
• ¼ teaspoon liquid smoke
• 1 block (455g) extra firm organic tofu

How to Make Vegetarian Spam

prep time: 10 minutes | wait time: 35 minutes | bake time: 20 minutes

Slice the extra firm tofu into 10 equal slices.

Layer the slices in between paper towels or kitchen towels. I use kitchen towels because I’m not a waster, haha. J/K. If you don’t have a washer and dryer, then I totally get not wanting to use kitchen towels for everything. Leave them wrapped up for at least 15 minutes to wick all the excess moisture out of them.

Make a delicious spamlike marinade by combining the 2 tablespoons olive oil, ¼ cup braggs liquid aminos, and ¼ teaspoon hickory smoke. Then brush it onto the bottom of a glass pyrex lasagna pan using a silicone basting brush (or just your hands).

Cut each dried tofu slice into a coffin shape using a coffin-shaped cookie cutter. If you don’t have one, you can cut out coffins with a knife, or you can also skip the coffin shape and cut out rectangles.

Lay each piece of tofu into the lasagna pan as closely together as possible so you can fit them all.

Brush the tops of the tofu pieces with the marinade using a silicone brush, the back of a spoon, or just your hands.

Bake the tofu in the oven (~350˚) for 20 minutes, and then flip them all over. Brush marinade over the other side. Bake for another 20 minutes. Cool before assembling. If you’re in a hurry, fry the tofu spam in a pan on the stove for a couple of minutes on each side, flipping after you notice it start to brown and getting sticky when you weasel your spatula under it.

Ingredients for Purple Sushi Rice Recipe

• 2 cups (432g) white sushi rice
• 2 ½ cups (470g) filtered water
• ½ teaspoon (2g) maqui berry powder
• ½ teaspoon (1g) butterfly pea flower powder
• ½ teaspoon (3g) sea salt
• 1 tablespoon (21g) agave
• 1 tablespoon (15g) rice vinegar
• 2 sheets (5g) nori seaweed

How to Make Naturally Colored Purple Sushi Rice

prep time: 5 minutes | cook time: 30 minutes

Cook your sushi rice in an instant pot by combining 2 cups of white sushi rice with 2 ½ cups water. Set it to pressure cook for 5 minutes and turn off the “keep warm” feature. After 5 minutes, let the pressure release naturally.

Mix the following ingredients in a small bowl until it’s a paste consistency: ½ teaspoon maqui berry powder plus ½ teaspoon butterfly pea flower powder plus ½ teaspoon sea salt plus 1 tablespoon agave and 1 tablespoon rice vinegar. If it’s too thick to stir, add a little more rice vinegar. You want to end up with a pourable consistency. If you don’t have superfoods on hand and don’t want to buy any, you can check my list of vegan food coloring for other options to make the rice purple.

Pour the mixture you made over the rice.

Stir the rice with the color until all the rice is purple.

How to Make Vegan Musubi

prep time: 30 minutes

Cut 2 sheets of nori into at least 10 strips. You can follow the markers that are already on the seaweed.

Set one seaweed strip on a flat surface.

Grab a tenth of the rice with wet hands and roll it into an oval shape.

Stack a coffin spam tofu onto the nori strip and top with your rice oval.

Wrap the seaweed strip all the way around and dip your finger in some water to help seal the nori together at the ends.

Frequently Asked Questions

I never liked spam before I was vegan. Will I like this?

Because this vegan spam is made from tofu and whole food ingredients, it tastes much better than spam and has a different consistency from spam. If you’re looking for something to mimic that spam texture, look for the Unmeat spam or the Omni spam at the store.

What’s the best rice to use for musubi?

You can use any short-grain rice or sticky rice you have in place of the sushi rice in this recipe. It holds its shape well and sticks together without being mushy. Rinse it well before you cook it, and use slightly less water than normal rice. Let it cool for a few minutes before touching it.

How do I prevent the nori seaweed from getting soggy?

Assemble the musubi right before you serve them to keep the nori from getting soggy. If you’re making them in advance, store the ingredients separately until right before you assemble them.

Ingredient Details and Substitutions

• Braggs Liquid Aminos: If you don’t need these to be gluten-free, you can replace this with soy sauce or tamari. If you need them to be gluten-free, you can replace the Braggs liquid aminos with an equal amount of gluten-free tamari.
• Olive Oil: In place of olive oil, try using safflower, sunflower, or avocado oil since those oils are made for high heat, which helps you avoid transfats. You can also use any other oil such as vegetable oil, canola oil, grapeseed oil, etc.
• Liquid Smoke: In place of liquid smoke, you can use hickory smoke salt if you have that.
• Tofu: For the block of extra firm organic tofu, I like the high protein ones. They keep their shap better when you’re using cookie cutters. Wildwood makes one, but if you’re in the U.S., Trader Joe’s and Sprouts each carry their own brand, and those are less expensive than Wildwood.
• Sushi Rice: For the rice in this recipe, you can use any short-grain rice or sticky rice.
• Food Coloring: I used maqui berry powder and butterfly pea flower powder to naturally color the rice purple. You can look at my entire list of vegan food coloring for other options.
• Agave: In place of agave, you can use organic or vegan sugar.
• Rice Vinegar: In place of rice vinegar, agave, and salt, you can use sushi vinegar.

Video

Here’s a video of me assembling these spookicute vegan spam musubi.

Nutrition Facts

I’m assuming one serving is one musubi, just to make things easier.

• Servings: 10
• Calories per serving: 249
• Calcium per serving: 70mg
• Cholesterol per serving: 0mg
• Dietary Fiber per serving: 3g
• Iron per serving: 1mg
• Potassium per serving: 61mg
• Protein per serving: 10g
• Total Carbohydrate per serving: 37g
• Total Fat per serving: 7g
• Total Sugars per serving: 2g
• Sodium per serving: 500mg

Comments or Questions?

If you make this vegan spam musubi recipe, I would love it if you’d snap a pic, post to instagram, and tag me @vegandollhouse. It seriously makes my day/week/month!

Please message me (instagram or email) if you have any questions or feedback about the recipe.

Similar Recipes

If you like this vegan musubi recipe, you might also like my korean rice balls recipe, my sushi cupcakes recipe, my temaki recipe, and my tuna onigiri recipe.

For other ideas of vegan japanese food you can make with sushi rice, I have a recipe for an easy vegan sushi bakeand a vegan sushi bowl recipe.

For a show stopper sushi meal, check out my savory rainbow sushi cake recipe.

If you like coffin-shaped snacks, you might also like my coffin cake wands.

For other spookicute, easy halloween party food recipes, check out my list of vegan halloween party food.

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This post links to items I mention. If you click on one, you will go to a website (like Amazon) where you can buy the product. Sometimes, the store you purchase from (Amazon, Etsy, etc.) will pay me for referring you. This costs you nothing extra, and I would never recommend a product that I don’t use. These affiliate programs help me buy ingredients to create recipes for you. Read more about this in my privacy policy.

I mostly cook with organic ingredients, but only specify organic when it’s necessary to ensure the item is vegan.

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