Japanese food is relatively simple and easy to make, but you can come into problems if you aren’t stocked with the base ingredients. Luckily you can make most of the Japanese recipes if you keep a full stock of these ingredients. Some of them you may have to get at a grocer that specialises in Asian foods, but most you can pick up in the Asian section of your local supermarket. These arealongside other foods you should be stocking your pantry and refridgerator with anyway such as eggs, fresh fruit and vegetables, flour, sugar, and other every-day spices.
Basic Japanese Ingredients
- Short grain rice: I’m partial to the Nishiki brand, but you can try any brand.
- Dashi soup stock: This is one you’ll have to travel to an Asian grocer for, or you can make your own using kelp. This is the base soup stock for most soup dishes, and the base for some of my favorite dishes like okonomiyaki and takoyaki.
- Noodles There are so many noodlesused in Japanese dishes I can’t list them all quickly. Udon, somen and chukamen noodles are the most common noodles.
- Tofu Whether you’re just eating it plain or adding it to miso soup or yakisoba, this is a great way to get low-fat protein in a number of recipes.
- Nori Also known as seaweed. This is used in many soups, noodle dishes and as a garnish for tons of Japanese foods. It gives a light salty flavor to the food without a lot of sodium.
