Vinegar Salt Rice Balls with Smashed Avocado and Cucumber

Difficulty: Easy | Prep: 15 min | Cook: 15 min | Total: 40 min | Serves: 4 | Dietary: Gluten-Free, Vegan

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Cook With the Kids. Sticky rice pressed into balls, a dent in the top, and a spoon of smashed avo and cucumber sitting in it. Chooki's Vinegar Chicken Salt does the work here, because vinegar and warm rice have been mates since sushi was invented. The kids do the rolling, you do the hot pot.

Step 1: Cook the rice

Rinse the rice in a sieve until the water runs clear, about a minute. Tip it into a saucepan with the water, bring to the boil, then drop the heat right down, lid on, for 12 minutes. Pull it off the heat and leave it covered for another 10. No peeking, the steam is doing the last bit of cooking.

Step 2: Season it warm

Spread the rice out in a wide bowl and scatter over the Chooki's Vinegar Chicken Salt while it is still hot. Fold it through with a wooden spoon, cutting rather than stirring so you do not mash the grains. Warm rice grabs the seasoning properly. Cold rice just wears it. Let it sit until it is cool enough for small hands.

Step 3: Smash the avo

Kids job. Scoop the avocado into a bowl, add the lemon juice, and smash it with a fork until it is chunky, not smooth. Stir the diced cucumber through it. The cucumber keeps it fresh and stops the whole thing going claggy.

Step 4: Roll and dent

Wet your hands, grab a heaped tablespoon of rice and press it into a ball, then flatten it slightly and push a dent into the top with your thumb. Fill the dent with the avo mix and finish with sesame seeds. You should get about 12. Wet hands between each one or you will end up wearing the rice.

Tip: These go in a lunchbox fine, just keep the avo mix in a separate little tub and let them dent and fill their own at school. Saves it going brown by recess.