Cuisine · Japan

Japanese cooking

Rice, dashi, restraint. Every flavor earns its place. Ramen with honest broth, vegetables cooked like they matter, fish treated with reverence.

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Ajitama (Japanese Ramen Eggs) with eggs, soy sauce and mirin — Japan recipe

🇯🇵JapanEasy

Appetizers and Sandwiches

Ajitama (Japanese Ramen Eggs)

Ajitama, short for ajitsuke tamago (味玉, 味付け玉子) and also called nitamago or simply ramen eggs, are Japanese soft-boiled eggs marinated in soy sauce and mirin until the whites turn light brown and savoury-sweet while the yolks stay jammy. In Japan they are the standard topping on a bowl of ramen. The eggs boil for 6 minutes 30 seconds, go straight into ice water, then get peeled and left in a cold marinade of soy sauce, mirin, water and a splash of sake. Hands-on work takes about 20 minutes. After that the eggs sit in the fridge for 4 to 12 hours and the marinade does the rest.

20 min90 kcal6 serves

🌿Vegetarian⚡Quick

Chawanmushi with Crab and Shiitake (Japanese Steamed Egg Custard) with dashi, crab meat and shiitake mushrooms — Japan recipe

🇯🇵JapanMedium

Appetizers and Sandwiches

Chawanmushi with Crab and Shiitake (Japanese Steamed Egg Custard)

Chawanmushi is a savoury Japanese egg custard steamed until it barely sets — so soft it trembles on the spoon, with none of the firmness of a Western custard. Dashi carries the flavour, seasoned lightly with mirin and pale soy, while crab, shiitake, kamaboko, and ginkgo nuts sit hidden beneath the surface. Served warm in a lidded cup with a sprig of mitsuba and a shaving of yuzu, it's the quiet, restrained side of Japanese cooking.

40 min130 kcal4 serves

💪High protein

Chicken Karaage with chicken, soy sauce and ginger — Japan recipe

🇯🇵JapanMedium

Meat Dishes

Chicken Karaage

Japan's much-loved fried chicken: bite-sized thigh pieces marinated in soy, ginger, garlic, and sake, dredged in potato starch, and double-fried to a pale, craggy, glass-crisp shell. The potato starch and the two-stage fry are what set it apart from any other fried chicken, and a squeeze of lemon at the table is all it needs.

35 min380 kcal4 serves

💪High protein

Chicken Katsu with chicken breasts, panko breadcrumbs and tonkatsu sauce — Japan recipe

🇯🇵JapanMedium

Meat Dishes

Chicken Katsu

Chicken katsu is a thin chicken cutlet in a loose, jagged panko crust, fried until the coating crackles and the meat stays juicy. Serve it as a Japanese set meal with finely shredded cabbage, rice, lemon, and fruity tonkatsu sauce.

35 min610 kcal4 serves

💪High protein

Chuka Seaweed Salad with wakame, sesame oil and rice vinegar — Japan recipe

🇯🇵JapanMedium

Salads

Chuka Seaweed Salad

Chuka is a seaweed salad served as a cold starter in Japanese sushi restaurants, made from rehydrated dried wakame in a sesame-soy dressing. The name is misleading: 'chuka' (中華) means 'Chinese-style' in Japanese, not a type of seaweed — the wakame itself is often sold dried as chuka wakame (中華わかめ) or under the dish's own name, 中華海藻サラダ. The dried strands soak in cold water until silky, then get tossed with rice vinegar, chili paste, and grated ginger. It comes together in under 15 minutes and keeps well chilled for a day or two.

10 min45 kcal2 serves

🌿Vegetarian⚡Quick🌱Vegan

Crispy Fried Tofu with firm tofu, cornstarch and garlic cloves — Japan recipe

🇯🇵JapanEasy

Appetizers and Sandwiches

Crispy Fried Tofu

Japanese golden fried tofu with a crispy cornstarch crust, served with a simple soy-garlic sauce, sesame seeds, and green onion. A dish that wins over even tofu skeptics.

30 min165 kcal4 serves

🌿Vegetarian⚡Quick🥑Keto

Crispy Rice with Spicy Salmon with sushi rice, fresh salmon and sriracha — Japan recipe

🇯🇵JapanAdvanced

Fish and Seafood Dishes

Crispy Rice with Spicy Salmon

Blocks of seasoned sushi rice pan-fried until the outside crackles and the inside stays tender, topped with a tartare of sashimi-grade salmon in sriracha mayo, a slice of avocado, a ring of jalapeño and a drop of unagi sauce. It is the appetizer many people first meet at Japanese restaurants like Nobu, and at home it comes down to one thing: rice that is pressed hard and chilled all the way through before it meets the oil.

35 min380 kcal4 serves

💪High protein🌶️Spicy

Daigaku Imo (Japanese Candied Sweet Potatoes) with sweet potato, sesame seeds and soy sauce — Japan recipe

🇯🇵JapanMedium

Sweet Dishes

Daigaku Imo (Japanese Candied Sweet Potatoes)

Daigaku imo (大学芋, literally "university potato") is a Japanese snack and bento side of bite-size sweet potato pieces fried until crisp at the edges, then coated in a thin, glossy syrup of sugar, mirin and soy sauce and finished with black sesame. Where the name comes from is not settled: there are several stories, most of them about students, and none is proven. The potatoes are fried in a shallow layer of oil rather than deep-fried, slowly at first so the middle turns soft and sweet, then hotter for a crisp skin. The syrup takes about three minutes and sets into a thin shell as it cools. Active time is about 35 minutes including a 10-minute soak, and the pieces rest another 5 minutes on parchment. Serves four as a snack or a bento side.

35 min220 kcal4 serves

🌱Vegan🌿Vegetarian

Edamame with edamame, sesame oil and soy sauce — Japan recipe

🇯🇵JapanEasy

Appetizers and Sandwiches

Edamame

Young green soybeans boiled in salted water — a classic Japanese snack. Simple, nutritious and delicious as is, or elevated with sesame oil, chili flakes and soy sauce.

15 min180 kcal4 serves

🌿Vegetarian⚡Quick🌱Vegan

Gyudon (Japanese Beef Rice Bowl) with beef, onion and dashi — Japan recipe

🇯🇵JapanMedium

Cereal and Pasta Dishes

Gyudon (Japanese Beef Rice Bowl)

Gyudon (gyūdon, 牛丼, literally "beef bowl") is a Japanese rice bowl of thinly sliced beef and onion simmered in a sweet-savoury broth of dashi, soy sauce, mirin and a little sake. It's the dish fast-food chains like Yoshinoya built their business on, and it's just as good made at home. The onion goes in first until soft, the beef follows for a couple of minutes, then the whole lot goes over hot rice. The only thing that really matters is the beef: it has to be sliced almost transparently thin, which is why the freezer is your friend here.

20 min620 kcal2 serves

⚡Quick💪High protein

Hojicha Latte with hojicha powder and whole milk or oat milk — Japan recipe

🇯🇵JapanEasy

Beverages

Hojicha Latte

Hojicha is roasted Japanese green tea — reddish-brown, nutty, and faintly caramelised, with a fraction of the caffeine of matcha or coffee. When whisked into a paste and combined with hot frothed milk, it becomes one of the most comforting drinks in the Japanese tea repertoire. This version works hot or iced. The water temperature is the only thing that needs attention.

10 min110 kcal1 serves

⚡Quick🌾Gluten-free

Iced Matcha Latte with matcha, milk and honey — Japan recipe

🇯🇵JapanEasy

Beverages

Iced Matcha Latte

Three ingredients and five minutes. Matcha whisked with a small amount of hot — not boiling — water, poured over ice and milk. The result depends almost entirely on the quality of the matcha powder: good ceremonial-grade matcha is sweet, grassy, and vivid green; cheap culinary-grade matcha is dull, bitter, and yellow-green. Buy the better one. The milk is a matter of preference — oat milk is naturally sweet and works well, whole dairy milk is richer, almond milk is thinner. There is no wrong answer.

10 min95 kcal2 serves

🌿Vegetarian🌱Vegan🌾Gluten-free

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