Japanese

Japanese home cooking is proof that simple food done well beats complicated food. This collection sticks to that idea: miso soup, donburi rice bowls, simply grilled fish, quick vegetable sides, and light noodle dishes. The flavors are clean — dashi, miso, soy sauce, ginger, sesame — and the techniques are forgiving. These are calm weeknight recipes: short ingredient lists, minimal cleanup, and dinners that leave you feeling good.

Yudofu: Japanese Simmered Tofu Hot Pot

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Yudofu might be the gentlest dish in all of Japanese cooking. Cubes of silken tofu are slipped into a pot of lightly seasoned kombu dashi and simmered until they quiver, then lifted out one by one and dipped in citrusy ponzu sauce. That is the whole recipe — no searing, no thickeners, no heavy seasoning. … Read more

Nasu Dengaku: Miso-Glazed Japanese Eggplant

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Nasu dengaku is the eggplant dish that converts eggplant skeptics. Halved Japanese eggplant goes onto the grill or into a hot pan until the flesh turns silky and collapses under a fork, then each half gets brushed thickly with a sweet-savory miso glaze and slid under the broiler. The glaze bubbles and chars in spots, … Read more

Tamagoyaki: Japanese Rolled Omelet

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Tamagoyaki is the egg dish that looks like it needs a culinary degree and turns out to need mostly patience. Seasoned egg is poured into a hot pan in thin layers, each one rolled up before the next pour goes in, until the whole thing becomes a soft golden rectangle with visible swirls where the … Read more

Onigiri: Japanese Rice Balls Three Ways

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Few foods do more with less than onigiri. A warm handful of salted rice, shaped with your palms, wrapped in crisp nori — and suddenly lunch is settled. In Japan these rice balls show up everywhere: tucked into bento boxes, sold by the thousands at convenience stores, packed for train rides and picnics. They are … Read more

Agedashi Tofu

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Agedashi tofu is one of those dishes that makes you rethink what tofu can do. A cube of silken tofu goes into hot oil wearing a whisper-thin coat of potato starch, and it comes out shatteringly crisp on the outside while the inside stays custardy and molten. The moment it lands in the bowl, warm … Read more

Classic Miso Soup

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Classic miso soup

Classic miso soup is the quiet backbone of the Japanese table — a light, savory broth that opens a meal the way a good first sentence opens a book. It takes about 15 minutes from pantry to bowl: a simple dashi base, miso paste whisked in at the very end, cubes of soft tofu, and … Read more

Japanese Cucumber Sunomono: Crisp, Tangy Vinegar Salad

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Japanese cucumber sunomono salad with wakame and sesame seeds in a ceramic bowl

The Light, Crisp Salad Every Japanese Meal Needs If you've ever sat down to a Japanese meal and been handed a small, chilled bowl of paper-thin cucumber slices glistening in a sweet-tart dressing, you've met sunomono. The name simply means "vinegared things," and this version — the most common one — stars cool cucumbers, chewy … Read more