Imitation crab musubi

September 7, 2025 2:02 PM

On Friday, I was working at a friend's house, and by the time the workday ended I was SO HUNGRY that I impulsively bought a pack of imitation crab from Aldi. As I was grabbing it, one of the workers there said to me "Have you had these before?" I told her I have, and she said "Oh okay, just making sure, because they're kind of sweet and really artificial tasting." Well, it is imitation crab, so I kind of expect it to taste artificial. I know some people that really dislike the taste of it, but I like it! I'd rather snack on fake crab than on crackers.

Aldi used to sell smaller packages of imitation crab, but now it's like, a whole pound! So I had way more than I needed to satisfy my hunger that evening, and I wanted a way to use up the rest of it (without just...snacking on it some more). I was browsing for ideas online, and I came across some creamy imitation crab onigiri recipes. And that sounded delicious.

Problem is, I don't have an onigiri mold. But what I do have is a musubi mold! I really didn't want to buy any extra ingredients for this, so I used different recipes for inspiration and just threw something together based on what I already had:

• two nori sheets
• short grain rice
• furikake
• mayonnaise
• Shark brand sriracha
• some sad looking cilantro, so I might as well throw that into the mix too

I shredded up some pieces of imitation crab and mixed it with mayonnaise and Sriracha. I cooked a cup of the rice and once that was done, I mixed in a tablespoon or so of furikake. To assemble, I placed half a nori sheet on my cutting board with the musubi mold in the middle of it. I layered in some rice, then some crab, then some cilantro, more furikake, sesame seeds because why not, and then a layer of rice to finish it off!

And then I just pressed down, removed the mold, and wrapped it up!

It was a tasty treat! And I was so happy to use up the rest of my nori as well as the rest of a jar of mayo. I am getting through so many of my sauces and shelf stable ingredients! At this point I'm refusing to buy any long lasting ingredient that will leave me with a bunch of leftover. (Except for like, oil and salt) One day I will get through it all!