Japanese Soups and Stews

Dashi is an essential broth base for most Japanese dishes and can be purchased in most Asian Grocery stores. For those of you who want to do it from scratch there are several recipes out there, but I find this one is easiest. This recipe uses Konbu (also spelled Kombu), a variety of dried edible kelp that is harvested off the coast of Hokkaido and as far south as the Seto sea. This is a good vegetarian broth and enhances the subtle flavor of Japanese cuisine. It is also a bit friendlier to the western chef than katsubuoshi, which is made from dried fish flakes and can be very aromatic.

This recipe started as something I found off the back of a seaweed package, but has been adapted several times so that it can be made quickly with ingredients from most large grocery stores - or a local Asian grocery if you prefer. Nori is the Japanese word for dried sheets of seaweed.

Traditional Japanese beef sukiyaki recipe for a one-pot recipe that is cooked at the table. Delicious when dipped in raw beaten egg and eaten with rice.

This clear broth seasoned with soy sauce seems very simplistic, but it belies the intense umami flavor within the soup. We use chicken and 4 types of dried seafood to create an incredibly savory broth that is seasoned with a soy sauce tare that gives the broth a bit of sweetness and wonderful complexity. The best thing about this recipe is that we use a pressure cooker that not only helps extract all the flavor very quickly but also creates a beautifully clear broth.

Filling and healthy, this soup is good for winter. This recipe uses the Japanese versions of pumpkin and sweet potato which are slightly different from North American varieties. Japanese pumpkin (kabocha) has a really great green skin and the sweet potatoes are yellow with a thin purple skin. You can alter the vegetables according to what's in season and what you can find, but root vegetables work best.

Ozoni soup is traditionally eaten on New Year's Day in Japan. The literal translation means a variety of ingredients boiled together.

A flavorful Japanese soup, made with soft-boiled turnips and a sake, miso paste, and kombu (seaweed) stock. Serve hot.

So many times have I heard my vegan and vegetarian friends complain about the fact that most dashi/soup stock is not done according to their priorities in Japan, making it impossible for them to enjoy food in this country. Fortunately, this is a big misconception. Vegan dashi exists and is very easy to make or request. Now, to make sure that the same friends can savor Japanese food, either at home or with friends, here is the basic and simple recipe!