{"id":32924,"title":"Dashi – Japanese broth: What is it? How do you prepare it?","modified":"2025-06-10T14:51:14+02:00","plain":"What is dashi?\n\n\n\nDashi is a simple Japanese soup stock. It is popular in Japanese cuisine because, unlike other broths that are more complicated and time consuming, it uses very few ingredients and takes only about twenty minutes to prepare. And it is absolutely delicious.\n\n\n\nThe method is straightforward: soak kombu (a type of seaweed that is essential for dashi) in cold or lukewarm water. For a richer version, add bonito flakes and, if you like, other dried ingredients such as sardines or anchovies, mushrooms, shrimp, beans, or soybean sprouts...\n\n\n\nKombu, the foundation of dashi\n\n\n\nOrigins of dashi \n\n\n\nThe origin of basic dashi is tied to broth itself: once people realised they could safely eat foods after cooking them, broths such as dashi quickly became widespread.\n\n\n\nRicher versions of dashi have existed since antiquity, ever since people first dried tuna to make bonito. Yet dashi truly gained popularity much later, around the Meiji era, when the Japanese sought alternatives to dried bonito, which had become very expensive.\n\n\n\nWhat does dashi taste like?\n\n\n\nDashi is an intensely flavored broth that showcases the umami character prized in Japanese cooking, with clear notes of sweetness and saltiness. Technically it is closer to a stock than a finished broth: you usually add a little salt (often through tamari soy sauce) and a hint of sweetness with mirin so the flavors can fully bloom.\n\n\n\nMy famous shrimp pancakes, made with dashi in the batter\n\n\n\nHow do you use dashi?\n\n\n\nThe most common use for dashi is as the base for a miso soup. Using dashi instead of vegetable or chicken stock gives you the authentic miso soup, guaranteed. The taste is unmatched.\n\n\n\nBeyond that, you can use dashi in any dish that involves simmering: noodle soups, stews, ragouts, hot pots... You can even whisk a little into sauces to give them an instant boost.\n\n\n\nDashi is used in my dipping sauce for cold soba noodles\n\n\n\nThe different types of dashi\n\n\n\nBroadly speaking, there are five main kinds of dashi:\n\n\n\nSimple dashi stock (\"awase dashi\"): the classic base, a broth made from kombu (dried seaweed) and katsuobushi (dried bonito). Perfect for miso soup!\n\n\n\nVegan dashi stock (\"kombu dashi\"): the easiest dashi to make. No fish flakes - only dried seaweed. Perfect if you are vegetarian or vegan, or for dishes where fish is already the star so you do not alter its taste.\n\n\n\nKombu seaweed, available in most Asian supermarkets\n\n\n\nBonito dashi stock (\"katsuo dashi\"): the opposite of the previous one. Only dried bonito flakes are used, without seaweed. Ideal in noodle soups and vegetable dishes.\n\n\n\nBag of dried bonito from the katsuobushi brand\n\n\n\nAnchovy or sardine dashi stock (\"iriko\" or \"niboshi dashi\"): probably the most affordable dashi. It is similar to katsuo dashi, but the dried bonito is replaced with dried anchovies or sardines. Use it for miso soup or stews, but avoid it with fish dishes, which already have a strong flavour.\n\n\n\nMushroom dashi stock (\"shiitake dashi\"): similar to kombu dashi, but made with dried shiitake mushrooms instead of seaweed. Because the resulting broth is mild, it is often blended with kombu dashi or katsuo dashi for extra depth. Ideal for all kinds of dishes, including Chinese recipes.\n\n\n\nIt is used in dashimaki, or tamagoyaki, the Japanese rolled omelet\n\n\n\nPowdered dashi\n\n\n\nNo time to make a proper dashi? There is an alternative: powdered dashi. It is the easiest way to add dashi flavor to your recipe without spending any time on preparation.\n\n\n\nSimply sprinkle it over your food as it cooks. If you feel guilty and want to play by the rules, mix equal parts boiling water and dashi powder to create a quick dashi broth...\n\n\n\nPacket of powdered dashi\n\n\n\nThat said, read the ingredient list. Many powdered dashis contain nothing more than the classic dashi ingredients in powdered form, so you get an authentic taste without eating an ultra processed product. Win win.\n\n\n\nReplacing dashi\n\n\n\nAs with many ingredients, dashi can be replaced if you do not have any on hand. Think carefully about the type of dashi you are substituting and the flavour you want in your dish.\n\n\n\nIt is simple. If you need to replace katsuo dashi or iriko dashi, you are aiming for fish flavours. Add small pieces of white fish or shrimp to your recipe. This trick also works for dishes such as okonomiyaki.\n\n\n\nTo replace vegetarian dashi, use seaweed or mushrooms. And as a last resort, you can always rely on those trusty stock cubes lurking at the front of your spice drawer!\n\n\n\n\n\n\tBasic Japanese Dashi Recipe\n\t\t\n\t\tAn authentic and simple Japanese dashi recipe\t\n\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\n\t\t2 L water30 g kombu30 g dried bonito flakes\t\n\t\n\t\tCombine the water and kombu in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat.Remove from heat and add the bonito flakes. Let stand for 10 minutes.Strain through a fine-mesh sieve and discard the kombu and bonito.\t\n\t\n\t\tDashi can be stored in the fridge for up to 1 week.\n\t\n\t\n\t\tbouillon japonais, Dashi","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32924"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32924\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}