Basic Japanese Ingredients for Everyday Cooking

When you think of “Japanese food,” you may have a vision of a beautifully plated sushi or a table full of small yet intricate dishes that are feasts for the eyes just as they are for your taste buds.  But here is the big secret:  There is nothing magical or intricate about Japanese home cooking. Cooking methods are pretty much the same, if not actually simpler, as any other types of cooking.  The magic, if there is any, of Japanese home cooking is in the few key ingredients that are used. 

Japanese cooking continues to evolve and as more ingredients from all over the world are infused into Japanese cuisines, you see more interesting and fabulous recipes emerge.  But these key ingredients that are foundation to the Japanese cooking remain the same. 

The produce and seafood are where Japanese dishes sometimes become harder to replicate, especially in the States where some of the items are not readily available at the local grocery stores.  But over the years, we have found substitutions from everyday ingredients to make many of these recipes work, again relying on the same foundational Japanese ingredients. 

Commonly used Japanese ingredients you should have

Here are some of the most commonly used ingredients to make homemade Japanese food that you should have in your pantry or fridge.  Just by having these items on hand, a whole new world of Japanese cooking will open up for you!

Soy sauce

You may already have soy sauce since it is the #1 condiment in Asian cooking.  To make Japanese food, however, be sure to use the Japanese brand soy sauce, like Kikkokan or Yamasa.  Also, always choose the low sodium kind.  One tablespoon of regular soy sauce contains about 40% daily value of sodium whereas the low-sodium soy sauce only contains 20%.  You can cut the sodium level in half without missing out on the taste. While soy sauce may or may not be gluten-free depending on how it’s made, you can look for gluten-free soy sauce which is sometimes labeled as “tamari” in the States.  (Note that “tamari” does not directly translate to “gluten-free soy sauce” in Japanese.)

Dashi powder

Dashi is the cooking and soup stock that is the heart of the Japanese cooking.  It’s typically made with kombu (sea kelp) and katsuobushi (dried bonito flakes).  Dashi or dashi powder, if you ever see it in the recipe, is never optional.  While it is possible to make dashi from scratch, one convenient ingredient you should have on hand is the dashi powder.  Dashi power can be used to make the dashi soup stock and sometimes it will be added directly with other ingredients just like bouillon powders. 

Just because it’s made primarily out of fish doesn’t mean that it’ll give the dishes the fishy taste when you add the dashi powder.  But without it the dishes will definitely lack some depth to the flavor or the umami.

Rice vinegar

Rice vinegar is made from fermented rice.  The flavor tends to be milder and on the little sweeter side compared to the regular vinegar.  The delicate flavor of this vinegar goes perfectly with the Japanese cooking.  When you are purchasing rice vinegar, be sure to NOT to pick up the seasoned or flavored variations unless the recipe specifically calls for it. Seasoned rice vinegar contains additional sugar and salt. And for basic cooking purposes, it’s best to use the unseasoned rice vinegar (it may also say “sugar free/sodium free” or “natural” on the label) and adjust the flavor as needed.

Sesame oil

There are so many types of sesame oil out in the market.  But to make the Japanese dishes, it is recommended, of course, to use the Japanese brands.  Japanese sesame oil tends to be lighter in color, taste and texture compared to some of the other brands.

Sake

Sake is the Japanese alcoholic beverage brewed from rice.  Cooking with sake is similar to cooking with wine in other cuisines:  it serves as a flavor enhancer.  You never need to use an expensive sake for cooking purposes.  As matter of fact, some of the less expensive brands can serve just as well for this purpose. 

Related article: Best sake under $15

If you cannot find sake from your grocery store, there are some cooking sake that you can buy as well. Like these:

Mirin

Mirin is a type of “rice wine” with a low alcohol content (8-9%) with sugar content in the form of a complex carbohydrate that’s produced naturally during the fermentation process. It’s never used in large amounts but it’s a great neutralizing agent for fishy or salty flavors. 

Mentsuyu

Mentsuyu is the concentrated soup base that’s typically used to make Japanese noodle soup broths for udon or soba dishes.  Because it’s made with the key Japanese ingredients, like dashi, mirin, soy sauce and sake, it’s also used as a great “shortcut” ingredient to make other Japanese dishes, including the tempura sauce.

Japanese Mayonnaise

Last but not least, Japanese Mayo!  The Kewpie brand is the dominate player so much so that Kewpie mayonnaise has become synonymous to Japanese mayonnaise. You can use regular mayo as a substitution if needed. But the great balanced flavor plus the unique tube container that it comes in makes the cooking and serving with Japanese mayo an unrivaled foundation to the Japanese cooking.

Additional frequently used ingredients

Once you have the above key cooking ingredients, you can continue to add additional ingredients as the recipe calls for them.   These next set of items will come up frequently as you continue to try various Japanese recipes.

Furikake

Although it is technically not a cooking ingredient per se, this item deserves a mention here since it is one of the staple items at the Japanese family dinner tables and in bento boxes. And, if you are from Hawaii or have been to Hawaii, you may recognize furikake as an adopted component to the modern Hawaiian cuisines. Furikake is a flavorful, dry seasoning meant to be sprinkled on cooked rice.  It’s a great ingredient to have to jazz up the plain rice. But it may also be sprinkled on vegetables and fish.  There are so many variations of furikake out there but they are mainly made with seaweed and sesame seeds with other herbs or dried fish added to make furikake packed with flavors.

Miso

Miso, as most of you are already familiar with, is the Japanese fermented soy bean paste.  There are a several varieties of miso.  But most notable ones are the white miso, red miso, and blended or awase (white and red) miso.  White miso (shiro miso) tends to be slightly sweeter whereas the red miso (aka miso) is typically saltier. White miso is most prominent in the miso soups served at Japanese restaurants in the U.S.  What’s interesting about miso is that in Japan, the type of miso used in the cooking completely varies based on what region you are in. 

Nori (seaweed)

Nori is the Japanese name for the dried edible seaweed that’s used in Japanese and Korean dishes.  It is most identified with the sushi rolls but it’s often cut into smaller strips to be used as garnish, to give dishes the hint of “flavor of the ocean”!

Shichimi togarashi

Shichimi togarashi, or simply known as Shichimi, is a seven spices mix.  Often used as the final spices to add to taste to some of the dishes as well as noodle soups such as ramen or udon.

Tonkatsu sauce

Tonkatsu sauce is used for, you guessed it, tonkatsu, or the chicken/pork cutlets!  While you can make tonkatsu sauce from scratch, you can buy a bottle of this to help cut down the cooking/prepping time.  The sauce can be used to make other dishes like the okonomiyaki or yakisoba.

Beni shoga or beni-shouga

Shoga (or shouga, spelling may vary) is the Japanese word for ginger.  Beni means “red” in older Japanese.  Beni-shoga, therefore, is red ginger.  Beni shoga is the red, thin strips of ginger pickled in plum vinegar.  It has a distinct, milder, flavor compared to the regular, thinly sliced ginger that’s typically served with sushi.  Beni shoga is used mainly as garnish adding the bold flavor without the bite to the dish.  I use this ingredient quite a bit, on fried rice, on okonomiyaki or on chicken lettuce wraps.

Wasabi

While wasabi is one of the most recognizable Japanese condiments in western countries, it is mainly served with sushi.  This green, pungent, horseradishy paste is not used in many cooking recipes.  It comes in a convenient tube that you can keep in a refrigerator.  Or you can buy the powder form of it to make it as you need it.

Karashi

Karashi is the Japanese hot mustard used mainly as a condiment. 

Sushi vinegar

Sushi vinegar is a convenient vinegar mixture to use to make sushi rice. In a pinch, sushi vinegar can be made from rice vinegar, sugar and salt. But using sushi vinegar can help make sure that the sushi rice is flavored just right.

Ponzu

Ponzu is a tangy, soy sauce-based sauce infused with yuzu, a Japanese citrus. Often used to add refreshing, citrusy flavor to a dish or to make dipping sauce or marinade.

My cooking ingredient hacks:  Ginger and garlic paste

Many Japanese dishes also call for ginger and garlic, sometimes in the form of paste.  There are ginger paste and garlic paste sold in the tube by the Japanese companies, like these:

But here are the wonderful hacks I found recently that’s been, saving a lot of time and money and I think they are just as good.  If there is an Indian grocery store nearby, you should pick up these ginger and garlic paste in the jar.  Compared to the Japanese kind, which comes in a 1.4oz (40g) tube, these jars are larger 7.5 oz (212g) or 10.9oz (310g) and typically a lot cheaper.  There’s ginger paste, garlic paste as well as ginger garlic blend paste.  I use these all the time not just for Japanese and Indian cooking but every time any recipe calls for grated ginger or garlic paste.

Ready to start cookin’?

Here are easy dishes that you can get started with using some of these ingredients!

• Japanese potato salad
• Okonomiyaki
• Japanese chicken lettuce wraps
• Japanese-style pasta with mushrooms

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