Banana Sushi – Multiples in the Kitchen

I found this idea for Banana Sushi on the Brave Girls Club blog, and thought it would not only be a yummy after-school treat, but it would also be a great way to introduce my girls to using a knife for cooking.

Gather your ingredients: Bananas, bread, and something sweet and spreadable such as peanut butter and Nutella, as we tried here. We have also used honey, maple syrup, and strawberry jam, which have also worked well (though the maple syrup was a little runny). Other nut butters will work too. And instead of Nutella you could just melt some chocolate chips in the microwave.

As for tools, you need a rolling pin, plastic knives (or a small knife with no teeth or points such as a cheese knife or butter knife), and a cutting board.

If you’re making the Banana Sushi yourself, you would probably keep the banana and bread all in one piece, layering the bread on top of the banana and wrapping it around after you spread something on it. Then you’d cut through all the layers at once with a sharp knife. But with kiddos, I thought it would be more fun to cut everything into pieces and layering them one by one. This would also give them more opportunity to practice their knife skills, plus they’d probably smush it up if they cut through all the layers, especially with a dull plastic knife.

So first, I had them flatten the bread with a rolling pin.

Then I unpeeled and scored the banana one inch apart to give them a cutting mark.

Yay! I did it!

Likewise, I scored the flattened bread, which they cut.

And they spread the peanut butter onto the bread strips.

They got all fancy and layered Nutella on top of the peanut butter.

First two pieces…

…and all done!

Share with a friend with some milk and conversation, if your mouth isn’t too full.

I didn’t get a chance to do this, but you could garnish with fruit roll-ups. Get strawberry for “ginger” and cut up some green apple for “wasabi”. In addition, you could serve more Nutella or melted chocolate on the side for “soy sauce”.

Hope you enjoyed the recipe, and let me know if you try this yourself. See you next month!