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How to cook "with visual instructions" "using familiar ingredients from your local grocery stores" healthy, traditional and delicious Japanese dishes!!

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Yummy Japanese “Potato Salad” (Vegetarian)

“Japanese Potato Salad” is a mix of mashed potato, mayonnaise and fresh vegetables. To make the vegetables tender and easy to eat, I knead well with salt or soak in water. This allows us to keep more nutrition in the vegetables than if we boiled them.

In Japan, potato salad is a very common homemade dish and very popular. There are many recipes which vary slightly depending on family traditions. We eat potato salad as a salad and also sometimes in sandwiches.

You can mash the potatoes however you like. If you like chunky potato, please don’t mash too much. And also you can add more potato, or reduce the mayonnaise, to taste. Enjoy!

{Ingredients (servings 3)}

2 large Potatoes

1 Carrot

1 small Cucumber

1 small Onion

6-7 Tbsp. Mayonnaise

1 Tbsp. Salt

½ tsp. Black Pepper

Water for boiling potatoes

Here is my recipe in PDF (4 MB): Potato Salad


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Stuffed Baby Peppers

Japanese “Sweet Pepper” is slightly different from bell pepper. It is smaller, thinner, has a little bit of bitter taste, has fewer seeds, and is always green.

This recipe is similar to other countries’ Stuffed Pepper recipes. But because Japanese sweet pepper has a thinner flesh, we can cook this recipe in a pan easily. I also sprinkle it with some soy sauce when I serve, but you can use any sauce you like.

I use Mini Peppers in this recipe. You can find these at many grocery stores.

Japanese sweet pepper is high in vitamin C and A. You might want to cook this pepper with some cooking oil because the oil helps our bodies get vitamin A more easily. This is a summer vegetable so it is good to eat during the Summer.

Enjoy!

{Ingredients (servings 2)}

1 lb. Ground Chicken

12 Mini Peppers

¼ Onion

¼ Carrot

1 tsp. Grated Ginger

¼ tsp. Salt

¼ tsp. Black Pepper

1 Tbsp. Vegetable Oil

1 Tbsp. Flour, plus more for dusting the peppers

Here is my recipe in PDF (6 MB): Stuffed Baby Pepper


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Traditional Cold Japanese Wheat Noodle Recipe

Japanese wheat noodles (So-men) are made from flour. They have a very thin and smooth texture so they are easy to eat and don’t take much time to cook (basically about 2 minutes to boil).

This is Organic Somen Noodles I used in this recipe.

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In Japan, traditionally we eat cold So-men with cold soup in the summer. It helps our bodies cool down and it has better taste and texture on a hot summer day than rice or other Japanese noodles.

I use anchovy Dashi stock in my soup recipe. You can also use kelp Dashi, bonito Dashi, shiitake mushroom Dashi and so on. And also you can get Japanese Dashi stock powder, which has so much flavor and is very useful, at many Asian markets.

So-men is mostly carbohydrate, so we can add meat and vegetables to add protein, vitamins and minerals. Adding meat and/or vegetables creates a good balance of nutrition. In my recipe, I always have So-men with egg, tomato, cucumber and chicken. Also, I sometimes add shiitake mushroom sauté, green onion, shrimp, lettuce, seaweed, okra, carrot and so on.

Enjoy your new noodle recipe!!

{Ingredients (servings 2)}
*Click BLUE TEXT to link to the product on Amazon*

2 bunches Organic Somen Noodles

1 piece Chicken Breast

2 Tomatoes

2 Eggs

½ Cucumber

2 cups Kelp Dashi Stock
(Recommended Dried Kelp for Dashi stock) Dashi Dried Kelp
*Any kind of Dashi stock is okay*
(Recommended instant bonito Dashi powder)Ajinomoto – Hon Dashi

3 Tbsp. Soy Sauce

2 Tbsp. Cooking Sake (total)

2 Tbsp.Mirin Sweet Cooking Rice Wine

1 Tbsp. Sugar

1 ½ tsp. Salt (total)

Here is my recipe in PDF (6 MB): Cold Japanese Wheat Noodle

Here is my “Anchovy Dashi Stock” recipe in PDF: Homemade Anchovy Dashi Stock

Here is my “Kelp Dashi Stock” recipe in PDF: Kelp Dashi stock


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My Favorite! “Tuna Sandwich”

This is not a surprising or complicated recipe! Many of the recipes I have shown you are purely homemade Japanese cooking and may be different from what you have prepared before. Not so for the Tuna sandwich! I love Tuna sandwiches, but I sometimes wonder if it is fresh or safe to eat when I eat out. So I always cook it by myself for my lunch and use fresh ingredients in addition to the canned tuna.

Japanese often use canned Tuna in our meals because it is definitely a pantry food, it is, of course, delicious and also nutritious!! I use canned Tuna in salads, pasta, omelets, gratin, fried rice, on toast, sautéed with vegetables and so on. As you know, it is great when you are busy!!

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You can use any vegetables and bread you want. I use Romaine lettuce and tomato, which I think is the best combination to the tuna in a tuna sandwich. And I use Udi’s Gluten-Free bread, which tastes great!

Enjoy your fresh Tuna sandwich!!

{Ingredients (servings 2)}

A 5 oz. can of Tuna

4 leaves Romaine Lettuce

1 Tomato

1 Tbsp. Mayonnaise

4 slices Bread (any kind)

Some Margarine or Butter

Here is my recipe in PDF (4 MB): Tuna Sandwich


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Very Popular “Rice-Omelet”(Vegetarian/Gluten-Free)

This is an original Japanese omelet style dish. We call “Om-rice” in Japanese. About a hundred years ago, a Japanese restaurant made this recipe as a meal for the restaurant’s employees to have quickly and get enough nutrition to work from one plate. Nowadays, this is one of Japanese kids’ favorite dishes because it is so delicious!!

The ingredients are rice, vegetables and egg. We always season with salt, pepper and ketchup but if you don’t like using ketchup, season with just salt and pepper which also would be great!

I use onion, carrot and fresh shiitake mushrooms as my vegetable ingredients. You can use any kind of mushrooms if you can’t find shiitake mushrooms. In Japan, shiitake mushrooms are the most common mushroom. We use fresh shiitake mushrooms, and also dried ones. I use the two kinds of shiitake mushroom quite differently because the flavors are totally different; when I want to add much more shiitake flavor to my dish such as simmered dishes, I use the dried ones. When I cook Japanese dishes for which I want to add just fresh mushrooms, I use the fresh one.

You can add any kind of vegetables to the Om-rice that you like, as long as they are chopped to the same size as the other vegetables.

Enjoy your new omelet!!

{Ingredients (servings 4)}

1 Onion

1 Carrot

3 Shiitake Mushrooms

1 clove Garlic

1 tsp. Salt

¼ tsp. Black Pepper

3 cups (1.5 pint) Steamed Rice

¾ cup Gluten-Free Ketchup

8 eggs (total)

2 Tbsp. Vegetable Oil (total)

Here is my recipe in PDF (5 MB): Rice Omelet


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Chicken Tenderloin with Delicious Plum Sauce! (Gluten-Free)

This is a very easy and tasty traditional side dish. Mainly we eat it in the summer time because it is cold and contains pickled plum.

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Pickled plum (Umeboshi) is a Japanese traditional healthy food. The recipe for pickled plum is to salt fresh plums and then dry them under the sun. Pickled plum has protein, calcium, iron, vitamins and so on. We eat it very often, but especially when we feel tired, we have a sore throat, and most importantly when we want to prevent heat stroke while outside in summer time. Pickled plum also has antibacterial effect so we sometimes put it on rice in our lunch box to keep the rice from going bad.

This plum sauce contains sesame seeds so it is a very nutritious and flavorful sauce. You can use this sauce for other meat or fish dishes. And if you add olive oil to the sauce, you can use it as a dressing for your salads.

Chicken tenderloin has great taste and nutrition. It doesn’t take much time to cook but if you over cook it, the meat will be hard. In this recipe, I show how to get tender chicken tenderloin. If you use this method, you can always get good tender chicken for any of your  dishes.

Enjoy this divine chicken dish!!

{Ingredients (servings 2)}

3 pieces Chicken Tenderloin

3 Pickled Plums

2 tsp. White Roasted Sesame Seeds

1 tsp. Soy Sauce
(Recommended Gluten-Free Soy Sauce)Soy Sauce REDUCED SODIUM [Gluten Free] (Organic)

1 tsp. Cooking Sake

Boiled Water (for boiling tenderloin)

Here is my recipe in PDF (4 MB): Chicken Tenderloin with Plum Sauce


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The easiest TOFU dish! (Vegan/Vegetarian/Gluten-Free)

This is the quickest, easiest, healthiest summer time side dish. It’s just cold Tofu with green onion and ginger.

This is a dish you might have when you want to add one more nutritious dish to your meal; when you don’t have any time to cook in the morning; when you don’t have a big appetite; or when you want to eat late at night…

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 vegetarians. Also tofu is low calorie (33 kcal / 2 oz.) so it is good food for people who care about their’ diet.

Ginger is used as a medicine (we call it Kampo) in Eastern Medicine. It may improve our immune system  and also has antibacterial and antioxidant properties.

Green onion is high in vitamins and carotene. It also has antibacterial properties. So These two vegetables are great to make you more energetic and healthy.

Serving: 1

Total Cooking Time: 5 minutes

Total Calorie: 49 kcal

[Ingredients]

・1/6 pack(2~3 oz.) of firm Tofu (33 kcal)

・1 Tbsp. of minced Green Onion (5 kcal)

・1/2 tsp. of grated Ginger (1 kcal)

・1 Tbsp. of Soy Sauce (10 kcal)
(Recommended Gluten-Free Soy Sauce)Soy Sauce REDUCED SODIUM [Gluten Free] (Organic)

Cut washed tofu into small size and transfer to a plate.

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Add green onion and ginger on the tofu.

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Drizzle with soy sauce.

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Cheesy Chicken Roll

Everybody will like this dish! Fried chicken and cheese. To make this dish healthy I use spinach and chicken tenderloin. You can use any kind of cheese you want. Japanese sometimes cook this recipe with chicken breast or sliced pork. I choose chicken tenderloin because it’s healthy and cooks quickly.

Also, you can put anything into this recipe as long as the chicken is prepared properly. For example, basil leaf, potato, carrot, green beans and so on. When you prefer not to eat fried food, see the post “Simple Chicken Roll” recipe.

https://japanese-food.org/2015/04/20/your-new-chicken-recipe-simple-chicken-roll/

{Ingredients (servings 2)}

7 pieces Chicken Tenderloin

About 14 Spinach Leaves

Some Shredded Cheese (any kind)

½ cup Flour

2 beaten Eggs

1 cup Panko Bread Crumbs Japanese Style

Some Salt

Some Black Pepper

Here is my recipe in PDF (6 MB): Cheesy Chicken Roll


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Sautéed Chicken with Miso (Gluten-Free)

This sauté of vegetables and meat is a Japanese homemade main dish which is liked by everybody. There are some similar dishes in Chinese cuisine but the taste is totally different from this recipe. I use chicken tenderloin, I season the meat and vegetables with Miso paste and soy sauce, and I don’t use much oil, so it is flavorful, has  a great light taste, and is never greasy.

You can choose any kind of meat for this dish, such as beef or pork. I prefer chicken tenderloin because it is low fat, low calorie, and high in nutrition. Chicken tenderloin is cooked quickly so it doesn’t take time to cook. When we cook it the right way, the texture is amazingly soft. Therefore, in this recipe I am very careful about the cooking time.

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You can also add more vegetables to this dish, but at the very least you should use green bell pepper and eggplant because these two vegetables and Miso go perfectly together. Green bell pepper and eggplant are summer vegetables which make our bodies cool down. Eating summer vegetables in the summer brings us great effects.

{Ingredients (servings 2)}

1 small Green Bell Pepper

1 small Eggplant

5 pieces Chicken Tenderloin

3 Tbsp. ORGANIC Mild Miso Paste

2 Tbsp. Mirin Sweet Cooking Rice Wine

2 Tbsp. Soy Sauce
(Recommended Gluten-Free Soy Sauce)Soy Sauce REDUCED SODIUM [Gluten Free] (Organic)

1 Tbsp. Cooking Sake

1 Tbsp. Sugar

1 Tbsp. Pure Sesame Oil

2 Tbsp. Vegetable oil

Here is my recipe in PDF (6 MB): Chicken Tenderloin Saute with Miso


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Gluten-Free Chicken Dumpling

Shaomai (Chinese dumpling) is basically Chinese dim sum, which is pork meat wrapped in a skin made from flour.

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In my recipe I used ground chicken meat and summer rolls skin, which is made from rice starch and tapioca starch. The taste is definitely amazing, and it is healthy and gluten-free!

It takes about 60 minutes to prepare and cook this recipe, but it is worth the effort because this dumpling has great quality protein and vitamins, and it is very delicious! You can have this as a main dish with rice because rice is a great match!

You can get summer rolls skin at many grocery stores in the US so please try it!!

{Ingredients (15 pieces)}

1 small Onion

3 Dried Shiitake Mushrooms

4 Tbsp. Potato Starch or Corn Starch

½ lb. Ground Chicken

½ tsp. Salt

1 Tbsp. Cooking Sake

1 Tbsp. Soy Sauce REDUCED SODIUM [Gluten Free] (Organic)

½ Tbsp. Pure Sesame Oil

1 tsp. grated Ginger

4 pieces Rice Paper Skin (made from rice and tapioca)

Some Green leaves such as cabbage (for keeping dumplings from sticking)

Here is my recipe in PDF (7 MB): Chicken Dumpling