Tinned Fish Hand Rolls 

By Ali Slagle

Updated April 1, 2025

Tinned Fish Hand Rolls 
Mark Weinberg for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Michelle Gatton.
Total Time
45 minutes
Prep Time
10 minutes
Cook Time
35 minutes
Rating
5(98)
Comments
Read comments

With tinned fish, tender rice and mixed vegetables, these meal-worthy hand rolls are all at once rich, fresh, crunchy and tender. They’re also pantry-friendly and customizable: Crack open a tin of any assertively-flavored fish (save the canned tuna for spicy tuna) and slice any mix of crunchy vegetables. (Pro tip: Baby carrots stay juicier in lunchboxes than regular carrots.) Clementines may be a surprising addition, but sweet citrus and oily fish are a common duo in Persian, Mediterranean and Mexican dishes. Try to use toasted nori sheets if you can; nori snack sheets are more brittle.

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Ingredients

Yield:4 servings
  • 1½ cups sushi rice, rinsed well
  • ¼cup seasoned rice vinegar
  • 1tablespoon finely chopped ginger
  • 4roasted sushi nori sheets, quartered
  • 4tins of fish (about 4 ounces each), such as mackerel or sardines
  • Any combination of sliced cucumbers, radishes, baby carrots, clementines and scallions
  • Soy sauce or ponzu, for serving 
Ingredient Substitution Guide

Preparation

  1. Step 1

    In a medium saucepan, bring the rice and 2 cups of water to a boil. Cover, reduce heat to low and cook until tender, 18 to 20 minutes. Remove from heat and let sit, covered, for 10 minutes. (This is a good time to slice your toppings.)

  2. Step 2

    When the rice is ready, drizzle with vinegar and top with ginger. Stir with a spoon to combine. (The rice, as well as the sliced toppings, can be transferred to airtight containers, covered with damp towels and refrigerated for up to 3 days. Bring the rice to room temperature before eating, or warm in the microwave.)

  3. Step 3

    To build hand rolls, top nori with some rice, fish and any of the raw toppings. Drizzle with soy sauce or ponzu, wrap and enjoy.

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Ratings

5 out of 5
98 user ratings
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Comments

Su

I eat this sort of thing all the time, and just to point out if you're new to it: even if you don't mind baby carrots' artificiality and weird texture, they're too short and fat to be pleasant to eat this way because they'll end up dominating one or two bites, and they're disruptive to bite through. The longer, thin shreds of carrot shown in the photo are a good steer.

Chuck

I have found that kimchi pairs wonderfully with strongly flavored tinned fish.

Gillian Nance

@Su Yes, I don’t imagine you’d put whole cucumbers in either! The recipe doesn’t say so specifically, but I’d assume you should slice all the vegetables to an appropriate size to fit into the rolls, such as with spring/salad rolls.

Michael

I've made this a few times since seeing this. It needs a little... something. Last one I put a drizzle of mayo and sriracha to tinned sardines, cucumbers, and carrots. The mayo and sriracha took it where I wanted.

Matt

I say this with zero exaggeration: my 4-yr-old said this was the best meal of his life, better even than his #1 favorite meal of mac’n’cheese with a can of kidney beans (a high bar to clear, I know). We all loved it. Also excellent with a sprinkle of furikake.

Jessamine

I love clementines, but haven’t been able to find any in the past two or three years. They have disappeared from the markets, replaced by mandarins and sumos, neither of which have that same tartness. Please let me know where I can find clementines, if you know.

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