How to cook "with visual instructions" "using familiar ingredients from your local grocery stores" healthy, traditional and delicious Japanese dishes!!
This traditional Japanese side dish comes from Buddhist cuisine. The ingredients are tofu and some simmered tender vegetables, and the dish is seasoned with sugar and soy sauce. I have loved it since I was a child because the taste is good and sweet, and the texture is amazingly smooth.
Tofu is always great protein for us, has no strong taste or flavor, and has a soft texture so it doesn’t interfere with any dish’s flavors or textures. Therefore, in regard to nutrition and digestion it is good for people who don’t have an appetite or who are really picky eaters. You can cook any kind of dish with tofu.
Enjoy your new taste and texture side salad!!
The recipe is easy.
Drain tofu.Prepare vegetables.Combine the tofu and vegetables and season.
{Ingredients (servings 3)}
*Click BLUE TEXT to link to the product on Amazon*
Stuffed cabbage is not a traditional Japanese dish. It came to Japan from Eastern Europe and the Middle East. It has a very soft texture and amazing flavor. Japanese like to have it in chicken soup style or tomato sauce style.
Cabbage is high in vitamin C and U. Vitamin U is officially called S-methylmethionine which is a good ingredient for stomach problems such as digestion, upper stomachache and so on. Japanese have the highest incidence of stomach issues in the world, despite having lower rates of most other health problems, because of our stomach/gut shape. Therefore, we often eat fresh cabbage for salad and for garnish. And also we have many kind of stomach medicine (over the counter) and most of those use vitamin U as an ingredient.
I believe you will enjoy this dish as a fancy and healthy dinner!
The book I wrote is for people who wants to cook bentos for many great reason, such as saving environment, saving money, saving time and, of course, your health!! Using easy ingredients and simple methods, you can make your own delicious bento within 10 minutes in the morning. In the book I also show how to store the dishes safely and deliciously.
Moreover, If you are intimidated by Japanese cooking methods, you should take this book. It is the easiest Japanese cooking book!!
Today I will teach you “How to make Authentic Homemade Miso Soup” with recipe video and detailed PDF direction. It is very easy to cook and has great flavor and wonderful taste, but I am sure you have never tasted authentic miso soup at most of restaurants in the US.
One of tips for cooking miso soup is to use great Dashi stock. I use different Dashi stocks depending on ingredients in my miso soup. I like to use bonito Dashi stock for vegetable miso soup. I tend to use kelp or anchovy Dashi stock for seaweed and seafood miso soup. Sometimes I use blended Dashi stocks which is very flavorful! If you follow a vegan diet, you can use kelp Dashi stock. I have some homemade Dashi stock recipes in my blog.
Here is “Kelp Dashi Stock” recipe post: Homemade Kelp Dashi stock / Salted Kelp (Vegan/Vegetarian/Gluten-Free)
Here is “Anchovy Dashi Stock” recipe post: Homemade Anchovy Dashi Stock (Gluten-Free)
But you can also use instant Dashi stock powder to save time. There are a lot of great ones in many Asian markets and also on Amazon.
I want to tell you one more tip to cook delicious miso soup. Basically I use 2 Tbsp. of miso paste for 2 cups of Dashi stock. But you can use less or more miso paste. I tend to use a little bit more miso paste than 2 Tbsp. for vegetable miso soup. I use less than 2 Tbsp. of miso paste for seafood miso soup because I can enjoy the seafood flavor!
Miso soup is an important dish in the Japanese diet. Miso (Soybean paste) is a traditional fermented food product. It is a very nutritious food, and Japanese say it may help keep the doctor away. In fact, there have been many studies of the beneficial effects of Miso on human health. I like to eat miso soup for breakfast more than anything else because I feel energy, my stomach feels comfortable and my head becomes clear. I think my body gets ready for school or work when I have miso soup in the morning.
In this recipe I use tofu. I like tofu miso soup because it is the quickest and easiest miso soup recipe! You can use any vegetables such as onion, potato, spinach, Daikon radish, mushrooms, carrot, bean sprouts, and so on. You can also use any seafood and seaweed for miso soup such as Wakame seaweed, clam, freshwater clam, oyster, lobster, and so on.
The recipe is very easy.
Boil Dashi stock and cut tofu. Dissolve miso paste.
Ingredients (servings 2) *Click BLUE TEXT to link to the product on Amazon*
“Sesame Tofu” is not a traditional Japanese dish. I have never had “Sesame Tofu” in Japan. When I had “Sesame Tofu” at a Chinese restaurant in the U.S., I was amazed at how delicious it was! So I tried to cook it myself.
This sesame tofu recipe is perfect! It is not too sweet and not too greasy, so it is in keeping with my dishes. It is a gluten-free and vegan dish! Delicious!! In addition, tofu has a lot of nutrition. As you know, tofu is high in great protein so it is often used as a meat substitute for vegans and vegetarians. Also tofu itself is low calorie (33 kcal / 2 oz.) so it is good food for people who care about their diet.
In this recipe 7 ounces (1/2 pack) of tofu can serve 2 people. You may think it is too small an amount compared to many Chinese restaurants in the U.S. In Japan, people traditionally eat many dishes containing soy beans. For a balanced-diet, which I highly recommend on the post You can Eat Anything You Want! But…, I suggest eating 1/4 pack of tofu every day depending on your other protein sources. If you make this recipe as a main dish, you might want to add some small side dishes to your meal.
The recipe is easy. We can cook with one pan.
Dry tofu and dredge in corn starch.
Cook and season.
Ingredients (servings 2) *Click BLUE TEXT to link to the product on Amazon*
This is a traditional Japanese side dish which is called “Goma-Ae” in Japanese. The dish dresses boiled fresh green beans with sweet sesame dressing. The sesame dressing contains ground white sesame, soy sauce and sugar. It is a healthy, delicious, easy and very quick to prepare dish.
In Japan we usually use a traditional Japanese mortar and pestle for grinding white sesame. Ground sesame makes the dish very flavorful and it is easy to eat. If you have a spice grinder, you can use it. If you don’t have either a spice grinder or a mortar and pestle you can put sesame seeds in a zipper bag and beat them with a rolling pin until they are ground.
The basic arrangement for many Japanese meals is called “Ichi-juu, San-sai,” which consists of one bowl of cooked rice, one kind of soup and three vegetables or fish small portion dishes. So this dish is a very common dish in the Japanese diet.
When you want to add a vegetable dish to your meal or in your lunch box, this is a great choice. Also, you can use any kind of vegetable with this dressing, such as boiled spinach, boiled carrot, boiled broccoli and so on.
The recipe is very quick. It takes only 10 minutes.
Mix the sauce ingredients, boil fresh green beans and dress.
You can store this dish in the refrigerator for 3 days. If you want to store longer, please dry the boiled green beans very well before dressing in the sauce and transfer them to a clean container. You can then keep it in the refrigerator for 5 days.
Enjoy this new healthy side dish!!
Ingredients (servings 2) *Click BLUE TEXT to link to the product on Amazon*
There are many different meanings of “HEALTHY” for each person. Having good nutrition, being positive, being powerful, building up muscles, losing some weight… Also there are many ways to be healthy. Exercise, diet, meditation, sleep…
Today’s post is for people struggling with becoming healthier, but it doesn’t recommend a one size fits all solution about what to do and how to do it. The post is based on my study, research and real-life experiences.
My suggestion to all of you who want to lead a healthy life is that
“You can eat anything you want. But it must be WELL-BALANCED!!”
In your meals, you have to include many COLORFUL ingredients, some different COOKING METHODS and some different TASTES in dishes, and the dishes have to be served in SMALL PORTIONS which you can grab with a hand.
[Other suggestions] Only ONE dish of carb (Rice, bread or noodles) in a meal. CHEW well. Not too much fried food.
For example, one day my meals consisted of:
Steamed multigrain rice: Steamed, Carb
Onion miso soup: Fermented, Savory
Simmered Daikon: Simmered, Sweet-savory
Scrambled egg and tomato: Pan-fried, Spicy taste
Boiled green beans with sesame dressing: Boiled, Sour taste
This is what I learned by watching my mother cook so it is easy for me, but I know it is not easy for people who are not used to these sorts of multiple small dishes.
Here are some tips:
*Prepare some dishes ahead of time when you have any spare time. In my recipes, there are a lot of main dishes and side dishes, which can be stored in the refrigerator for 2-5 days or for much longer in the freezer. You don’t need to cook a lot each time.
*If you have to eat one dish as a quick lunch, you can adjust your dinner appropriately.
*If you have to eat out for dinner, you can adjust your breakfast and lunch in advance.
This well-balanced cooking also saves you money in your grocery budget and minimizes wasted food because you know your meal composition in advance so you can buy the minimum foodstuffs.
When I was in Japan, I always followed this well-balanced meal composition for my breakfast and lunch. For dinner I often ate out with my co-workers, which meant dinner was not always well-balanced, but at least 2 out of 3 meals were balanced everyday. In addition, I was too busy to work out so I did Yoga for 30 minutes once a week and I had Taiko (Japanese Drum) lessons for 90 minutes twice a month, and that’s it. I was 5.4ft. and 120lb.
After I moved to the US with my husband, we have always worked out 3 times a week (weights, stretching and cardio), and we always eat healthy (salad, soup, chicken, no flour, no fried food… but its still not like the meal composition in Japan). Before I knew it, I gained 15 lb., which may not have been all fat because I did build some of my muscles up.
Still, it was a lot of weight for my frame. So I started my traditional Japanese cooking for most meals. After a week I stopped between-meal eating. After two weeks, I stopped craving snacks or junk food. After three weeks, I lost 7 lb. naturally. Of course, the meals I ate easily make me full so I am not hungry and constantly craving food. My mother and grandmother always said that our brain doesn’t signal us to eat more when our body absorbs varied and good amounts of nutrition. And it happened to me. It is true!!
In addition, when I have these well-balanced meals, I feel very happy, very powerful and have very positive thinking. When we eat a lot of unhealthy food and don’t work out we lack energy, we crave more food and also we have greater risk for many lifestyle-related diseases.
If you want to have pizza, you can have one piece of pizza as a carb, plus your meat with some small portion side dishes which are cooked with various cooking methods and which have various tastes. Don’t keep eating same-taste-same-cooking method food.
I want to also say that eating raw vegetables does not always lead to good absorption of nutrition. For example, cooked tomatoes and carrots have 1.5 times more absorption factor of beta-carotene and lycopene than raw ones. And cooked vegetables have smaller volume than raw vegetables so that means we can get much more nutrition when we eat cooked vegetables compared to eat raw vegetables. On the other hand, some vegetables lose their benefits when cooked too much. For example, over boiling broccoli breaks down it’s vitamin C. We have to choose the correct cooking method based on each vegetable’s characteristics. In my recipes, there are many cooking methods based on each ingredient’s characteristic. This comes from natural internalized attitudes from watching my mother cook.
Good luck with your happy life!!
{Here is my make-ahead recipes}
*(Make sure that you can transfer dishes to the refrigerator after they cool down to room temperature because the steam from the hot food in the container makes the dish go bad easily.)
Today I introduce you to a very popular homemade Japanese dish: “Pan-Fried Udon Noodles,” which is called “Yaki-Udon” in Japanese. The ingredients are cooked Udon noodles, sautéed vegetables and turkey sausage seasoned with soy sauce. It is good for a quick meal because you can get carb, protein and vitamins from one dish. And it is very delicious!!
The recipe is very simple and quick. If you sometimes cook pasta dishes in your house, the cooking process will be familiar to you.
Sauté turkey sausage and vegetables.
Boil Udon noodles.
Dress all with seasonings.
You can use any vegetables and meats. And also you can cut the ingredients however you want. If you like to eat chunky vegetables, you can cut into big pieces. if you or your family don’t like vegetables very much, you can mince well and stir in as a seasoning on the Udon noodles.
Enjoy your-own-“Yaki-Udon”!!
{Ingredients (servings 2)}
*Click BLUE TEXT to link to the product on Amazon*
Today, I will introduce you to a great homemade sushi roll, the “Egg and Vegetable Sushi Roll.” For filling I used egg, spinach, carrot and Shiitake mushrooms. I seasoned the filling deliciously so you don’t need to put it in soy sauce when you eat.
In the PDF recipe, I explain with easy instructions how to make sushi rolls with a great shape and I provide you with detailed pictures (and some special tips) so you can do it even if this is your first time making a sushi roll.
On YouTube recipe video, you can see how I actually do.
The recipe is
Cook rice and make sushi rice
Cook fillings
Roll the ingredients with the sushi rice and dried seaweed.
You may think making sushi is too hard until you learn the tricks to doing it well. It is definitely worth it to learn. However, if you want you can skip the rice cooking process if you can get prepared steamed rice. And also you can pick easy ingredients for sushi fillings such as avocado, cucumber, smoked salmon, Sashimi and so on. This egg and vegetables filling recipe is actually what I grew up with. I think it is the best.
First, you wash dried rice like you wash vegetables before you cook it to get rid of dust and to polish the rice. Polishing rice makes it digest smoothly when we eat it. And also washing rice brings us great taste and great final presentation. Lately, some people say we don’t need to wash rice as hard as we used to because the technology of rice polish is getting better. In addition, if you use no-wash rice “Musen-Mai”, you don’t need to wash. You can also use brown rice and multigrain rice instead of white rice if you want.
Lately, I made “Thin-Fried-Egg Roll Sushi” instead of wrapping with dried seaweed. This is also delicious!!
For making any sushi roll, you should get Makisu which is a bamboo mat to roll sushi. You can get Japanese Makisu: Bamboo Sushi Mat Makisu from Amazon.
{Ingredients ( about 15 pieces)} *Click BLUE TEXT to link to the product on Amazon*
Today I introduce you to Japanese Style Homemade Chicken Meatballs: “Tori-Tsukune”. This is a kind of Yakitori so you can have it in Yakitori restaurants. These homemade meatballs are delicious, easy to cook and great for to-go-lunches!
I used ground chicken, green onion and tofu as the meatballs ingredients. Tofu gives the meatballs a soft texture and makes them more nutritious. It also allows you to make a larger number of meatballs. You can use only ground chicken if you don’t want to use tofu. In addition, you can add more vegetables secretly if your family doesn’t like vegetables very much, such as onions, carrots, mushrooms, broccoli and so on. I recommend mincing them really well and then adding the meat mixture.
What I love about Japanese style meatballs is they are very flavorful because they are seasoned with grated ginger. And the sauce is sweet-savory like a Teriyaki sauce. It is seriously delicious!!
The recipe is easy.
Mix the meatballs ingredients.
Cook the meatballs and dress with the sauce prepared in advance.
Skewer the meatballs if you want to make the final presentation great!
{Ingredients (25 balls)} *Click BLUE TEXT to link to the product on Amazon*
from Amazon.
Your Home for Homemade Japanese Food 