Vegan Sushi Doughnuts Go Viral on Instagram

Australian vegan cookbook author Sam Murphy is the creator of the vegan sushi doughnut, the newest food sensation on Instagram. Last year, Murphy first conceptualized a vegan sushi burger that garnered a lot of social media attention and sparked the idea for her doughnut creation. “I think these crazy, outlandish, and creative food concepts are very important,” Murphy tells VegNews. “We live in an age where we are heavily influenced by media, and we are also visual creatures.” Since posting her plant-based creation—made by pressing sushi-rice into a doughnut mold and topping the round with brightly hued veggies such as avocado, carrots, and pickled ginger—Murphy reveals the post received more than 20,000 likes and thousands of comments. The idea was recreated by other Instagrammers, some using non-vegan ingredients. “There was a lot of uproar with people feeling it wasn’t ‘sushi’ because there was no raw fish,” Murphy explains. “I felt it was important to show people that [sushi] can definitely be made vegan.” Murphy just finished writing a vegan cookbook and says another Insta-worthy idea may spontaneously come to her soon. “My goal is to show people that anything you can do,” Murphy says, “I can do vegan.” Social media platforms—particularly Instagram—have played an important role in introducing a younger demographic to a cruelty-free lifestyle through visual representations of beautiful vegan food, social media celebrity endorsements of plant-based products, and innovative creations such as Murphy’s sushi doughnut.