30 Essential Ingredients For Japanese Cooking

For centuries, Japan, an island nation, was relatively disconnected from the rest of the world. Although different foods were brought in now and again by the tides of history, this isolation, combined with Japan's unique climate and cultural traditions that date back thousands of years, resulted in a distinct culinary culture that is like no other. Japanese cuisine is celebrated for its seasonal ingredients, delicate flavors, and meticulous preparations.

As early as the 1600s, prints have shown scenes of people congregating in restaurants in urban areas in Japan. Hundreds of years later, Japanese food has become recognized as one of the world's great cuisines, with izakayas, ramen shops, and hibachi steakhouses popping up all over the world.

What makes Japanese food truly unique is the ingredients that are used to make it and how they are employed in the cooking process. Read on to find out more about the ingredients that are truly essential to Japanese cuisine.

Soy sauce, or "shoyu," as it's known in Japan, is perhaps the most ubiquitous Japanese cooking ingredient in the United States. Although there are several types of soy sauce with different flavor profiles, the Japanese version, which is made by fermenting equal parts soybeans and toasted wheat, is far more common in American kitchens.

Shoyu adds saltiness and a slightly sweet, floral, umami flavor to dishes. It's typically used to dip sushi, flavor rice, or make a whole host of shoyu-based sauces and marinades that can bring your Japanese feast up to the next level.

Sake is an alcoholic beverage made from rice that is fermented using koji, a style of fungus that ferments rice and yields alcohol. Although sake has been around for centuries and it's having a moment in the US, where sake bars are popping up in trendy neighborhoods.

But sake isn't just for drinking (although swapping the vermouth with sake for a fresh spin on a martini isn't a bad idea). Adding sake to seafood dishes, sauces, and marinades adds a mellow flavor and can help tenderize meat.

Seafood is key to Japanese cuisine. And that doesn't just mean fish and shellfish, but all kinds of sea life, including seaweed. Dashi is a broth made from kombu, a type of dried kelp that is high in glutamate, the amino acid that is primarily responsible for umami flavor.

Dashi is used in a whole range of Japanese dishes but is most commonly consumed in soup. Although Japanese cooking can sometimes be intimidating, homemade dashi makes all the difference for miso soup, and it's surprisingly easy to make if you can get your hands on some kombu.

If you're looking for a healthy protein to add to a Japanese meal, you need to look no further than tofu. Although the legendary origins of tofu remain a bit opaque, this protein-packed soy bean curd has been around for centuries.

Tofu also contains calcium and vitamin D, which is great for bone health, and it has a subtle, nutty flavor that marries well with many sauces, dips, and marinades. And you don't even have to cook tofu before eating it! Tofu that is sold in stores is already cooked by the time it hits the shelf.

Acidity is a critical component of many dishes. It serves to highlight the flavors or other ingredients while providing a fresh, tangy contrast to fats and balancing out bitterness and sweetness.

Japanese cooking relies heavily on rice vinegar to add that acidic splash that balances out so many dishes, dressings, and sauces. The two types of Japanese rice vinegar are white rice vinegar, which is more common and versatile, and brown rice vinegar, which is darker, has a richer, more umami taste, and is often used in dipping sauces for meat and fish.

If you've eaten sushi at a Japanese restaurant, you're probably familiar with the little pile of pink pickled ginger served alongside your roll or sashimi. Restaurants pair sushi with ginger to serve as a palate-cleansing bite in between different types of fish so that the different tastes don't intermingle and you can appreciate each one separately.

And pickled ginger isn't just for sushi. You can chop up pickled ginger and use it in a stir-fry, and it's also served alongside Japanese curry and as a garnish on top of other Japanese favorites like oyako donburi.

Japanese mayo, often called Kewpie mayo after the most popular brand of the condiment in Japan, isn't the mayonnaise you're used to. Although they're both oily, eggy concoctions that can enhance dishes, there are some differences between Kewpie mayo and regular mayo.

For starters, the Japanese version uses only egg yolks, which makes it smoother and creamier, incorporates a blend of vinegars to cut through the yolky fattiness, and MSG is added to give the mayo a distinctly savory flavor. The signature squeeze bottle makes it all too easy to level up your Japanese dishes with this delicious topping.

Teriyaki is one Japanese dish that has certainly made its way into mainstream American restaurants. The signature sweet and savory sauce has been around for hundreds of years in Japan, and there's a key spice blend for bold and flavorful teriyaki that has been instrumental to its popularity: shichimi togarashi.

Also known as Japanese seven spice mix, shichimi togarashi is usually made from the following seven ingredients: "red chili pepper, sansho pepper, hemp seeds and/or poppy seeds, white sesame seeds and/or black sesame seeds, ground ginger, yuzu or mandarin orange peel, and nori" (per Masterclass).

Daikon is a type of radish that is long and white and has a slightly spicy flavor, similar to a red radish but is milder, and the flavor changes along the length of the radish. The end near the greens is a bit sweeter, and the opposite end is spicier.

Daikon is so popular in Japan because it is available year-round and it can easily take on different flavors, making it ideal for pickling, grilling, and adding to sauces and salads.  Daikon is also high in vitamins and minerals and is often grated raw to adorn dishes.

There are no noodles more slurpable than udon. Udon noodles are typically thick and round like massive spaghetti noodles, and they're made from just three ingredients: water, salt, and wheat flour. They're super chewy and usually enjoyed in a hot broth, but they also make a great stir-fry base.

Since they're so simple, they easily take on the flavors around them, which makes them very versatile. You can have them smothered in curry sauce or try your hand at making hiyashi yamakake, a traditional Japanese noodle dish that features mountain yam.

Matcha is all the rage these days. The finely ground green tea powder has a unique grassy taste, and it's often whisked with hot water and enjoyed as a beverage. But there are also unexpected ways to use matcha out there that you may not be aware of.

When it's used in food, matcha is most often paired with sweet dishes. You can put matcha powder in pancakes, waffles, muffins, and even popsicles. On the savory side, you can use it in salad dressings, hummus, or whatever you think would benefit from this unique ingredient.

Maybe your mouth doesn't water when you think about eating kelp, but maybe you just haven't been introduced in the right way. Kombu is the seaweed umami staple you should have in your pantry because it is very versatile and adds a unique depth of flavor.

Kombu is harvested in northern Japan, where it is processed and dried out before it hits the shelves in the supermarket. Kombu is high in glutamate, an amino acid responsible for the meaty, umami taste that kombu imparts to a broth when it is added.

There are so many types of sea vegetables that are edible, but we don't eat most of them. In Japan, sea vegetables have been part of the national cuisine for centuries, and hijiki, a brown seaweed that grows on rocky coastlines, is a favorite in the country.

Hijiki is typically sold dried and can be rehydrated and ready to cook by placing it in a bowl of cold water for thirty minutes. It has an earthy taste and is often mixed with other vegetables, seasoned, and eaten as a salad.

Furikake seasoning has been around for over a thousand years, so you know it's at least got staying power. The combination of dried fish flakes, nori seaweed, and sesame seeds can also sometimes come in variations that include yuzu peel, shiitake mushroom powder, or wasabi.

In Japanese cuisine, it is typically used on onigiri (rice balls), fish, and rice, but you can use furikake on just about anything. It's great as a seasoning on ramen, eggs or miso soup, and it will also elevate your roasted vegetables to new heights with its powerful umami flavor.

Making curry can seem like an intimidating task. But if you're making Japanese curry, you're in luck: There's a shortcut. Japanese curry cubes, which are made of curry roux that is set in little squares, are packed with all of the concentrated flavor that makes Japanese curry delicious.

These little miracles have been around since the 1950s and have saved cooks in Japan and around the world countless hours of kitchen labor. You can buy them at most Asian specialty grocery stores, and they're super easy to use. Cook them with meat and vegetables and serve over rice.