Vegetarian Japanese recipes

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Asazuke (overnight cucumber and cabbage pickle)Quick cucumber and cabbage pickle

Asazuke means shallow pickle, and it is the quick, fresh pickle that Japanese home cooks make the night before, tucked in a plastic bag in the fridge door and served with breakfast rice and miso soup. Cucumber and cabbage are rubbed with salt and pressed with kombu, a few slivers of chilli and yuzu or lemon peel, so they stay crunchy, juicy and only gently seasoned. It takes 15 minutes to make. The common mistake is not squeezing out the liquid before serving, which leaves the pickle watery and salty. Chef's tip: rub the salt in firmly with your hands for a full minute; bruising the vegetables a little is what lets them season through in a few hours.

15 min

Japanese Snacks & Starters

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Wafu kinoko pasta (Japanese mushroom spaghetti)

Wafu means Japanese-style, and this buttery soy-sauce spaghetti grew up in Tokyo's small pasta cafés in the post-war years, when cooks began dressing Italian noodles with the flavours of home. Today it is a weeknight standard in flats all over Japan: shimeji, shiitake and enoki browned in butter with garlic, glossed with soy sauce and a splash of pasta water, then showered with shredded nori. It is meat-free and ready in about 20 minutes. The mistake to avoid is crowding wet mushrooms into a cool pan; they stew grey instead of browning, so get the pan hot and leave them alone. Chef's tip: add the soy sauce around the edge of the hot pan rather than onto the pasta so it sizzles and turns nutty before you toss.

20 min

Japanese Pasta & Noodles

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Melon panCookie-crust sweet bun

Melon pan takes its name from its looks, not its taste: a soft sweet bun baked under a sugary cookie crust scored into a criss-cross pattern like a cantaloupe rind. Japanese bakeries and school canteens sell it everywhere, and around Kobe and Hiroshima the same bun is often called sunrise. It is best on the day it is baked, when the crust still crackles against the fluffy inside. The common mistake is warm, soft cookie dough, which sticks to your hands and slides off the bun in the oven; keep it well chilled and work quickly. Chef's tip: roll the cookie dough between two sheets of baking paper so you can lift it neatly onto each bun.

75 min

Japanese Baking

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Korokke (Japanese potato croquettes)

On Tokyo's covered shopping streets, from Togoshi Ginza to Sunamachi, butcher and deli counters fry korokke all afternoon and sell them in paper sleeves to children on their way home from school. This vegetarian version keeps the soft, slightly sweet filling of buttery mashed potato with onion and carrot, wrapped in a jagged panko crust that shatters when you bite it. Eat them hot with a drizzle of thick sweet-savoury sauce and a pile of shredded cabbage, or tuck one cold into a bento. The usual mistake is a wet mash: steam-dry the potatoes well and let the filling cool completely, or the croquettes split open in the oil. Chef's tip: chill the shaped, crumbed croquettes for 30 minutes before frying so the coating sets firm.

60 min

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KuromameSweet black soybeans

No osechi box, the lacquered stack of cold dishes Japanese families share over the first three days of January, is complete without kuromame: plump black soybeans simmered so slowly in syrup that they stay whole, wrinkle-free and shining like jet. The word 'mame' also means hard work and good health, so eating them wishes for a diligent year. They are soft, sweet and gently savoury, with a deep bean flavour. The common mistake is letting the beans touch the air while cooking, which wrinkles their skins; keep them submerged under a drop-lid the whole time and top up with water. Chef's tip: soak the dry beans directly in the hot seasoned syrup overnight rather than in plain water, which seasons them from the inside and keeps the skins smooth.

250 min

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Umeboshi (salted dried ume plums)Salted pickled plums

In the ume orchards of Minabe, in Wakayama's old Kishu province, families salt the June harvest of ripe yellow ume in crocks and then spread them on bamboo mats under the hottest days of late July, the doyo-boshi, before the plums go back into their brine. The result is wrinkled, intensely salty-sour fruit, the classic filling for onigiri and the red sun in the middle of a lunchbox of rice. This is a once-a-year project spread over about two months; the active work is about two hours. Do not cut the salt: below about 15 % of the fruit's weight the plums go mouldy, which is the most common failure at home. Chef's tip: use only fully ripe, yellow, fragrant ume; hard green ones turn tough and bitter.

120 min

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YokanRed bean jelly

Yōkan is one of Japan's oldest sweets, brought by Zen monks and refined in Edo-period Tokyo into dense, dark blocks that were carried by samurai and are still given as gifts in long wooden boxes. Red bean paste, sugar and agar are cooked down until thick and set into a smooth, firm jelly that slices cleanly, served in thin pieces with bitter green tea. The common mistake is undercooking the agar: it must boil for two full minutes or the yōkan won't set firmly. Chef's tip: cook the paste until a trail drawn across the bottom of the pan holds for a second before closing, which gives the classic firm, glossy neri yōkan.

25 min

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Ichigo daifukuStrawberry mochi

Ichigo daifuku appeared in Tokyo sweet shops in the 1980s and quickly became the treat everyone queues for from January to April, when Japanese strawberries are at their best. A whole berry is wrapped in smooth sweet bean paste, then in a thin skin of soft, stretchy mochi, so you get juicy fruit, earthy sweetness and a pillowy chew in one bite. Mochi is very sticky: cut it into small pieces for young children and older people, and make sure they chew well and eat sitting down. The common mistake is wrapping a damp strawberry, which makes the bean paste slide and the mochi split; dry the berries completely. Chef's tip: microwave the mochi dough in short bursts and stir hard between them, until it turns translucent and elastic, rather than in one long blast.

36 min

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OhagiSweet red bean rice balls

Ohagi are made twice a year, at the spring and autumn equinoxes (higan), when Japanese families visit ancestors' graves and leave these rice balls as offerings; in spring they are called botamochi. Sticky rice is cooked and only half-pounded, so you can still see the grains, then shaped into ovals and coated in chunky red bean paste, roasted soybean flour (kinako) or black sesame. Mochi is very sticky: cut it into small pieces for young children and older people, and make sure they chew well and eat sitting down. The common mistake is pounding the rice smooth like mochi; ohagi should keep a rustic, grainy texture. Chef's tip: wet your hands and squeeze out cling film between shaping, so the rice never sticks.

70 min

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Kashiwa mochiOak leaf rice cakes

On 5 May, Children's Day, families in Tokyo and across eastern Japan eat kashiwa mochi: soft, flat rice cakes folded over sweet bean paste and wrapped in an oak leaf. Oak trees keep their old leaves until new ones bud, so the leaf stands for a family line carrying on. The leaf isn't eaten; it adds a faint woody scent and keeps the mochi moist. Mochi is very sticky: cut it into small pieces for young children and older people, and make sure they chew well and eat sitting down. The common mistake is steaming the dough too briefly, which leaves it pasty; steam until it turns slightly translucent, then knead. Chef's tip: dried oak leaves from Japanese grocers need a 10-minute simmer and a rinse before use; if you can't find them, wrap in cherry or bamboo leaves or baking paper.

55 min

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Takuan (pickled daikon)

Each autumn in the farmhouses of Miyazaki and Kanagawa, whole daikon are strung up under the eaves to dry in the wind before being packed into barrels of rice bran, and the bright yellow, crunchy slices that come out weeks later sit beside almost every bowl of rice in Japan. Homemade takuan is milder and sweeter than shop-bought, with a gentle ferment and no artificial colour; persimmon peel and a little turmeric give the golden tone. The active work is about two hours, but the radish needs 5–10 days of drying and 3–4 weeks in the bran. The common mistake is underdrying: the daikon must bend into a U without snapping, or it will turn watery and soft. Chef's tip: keep the tub somewhere cool (below 15 °C) and press it with a heavy weight, so the brine rises over the radishes within a few days.

120 min

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Shokupan (Japanese milk bread)

Shokupan is the everyday sandwich loaf of Japan, sold by the half loaf at bakeries from Sapporo to Fukuoka and toasted in thick slabs for breakfast with butter and jam. Its feathery, pull-apart crumb comes from a cooked flour paste (yudane-style) that lets the dough hold more water, so the bread stays soft for days. You need a 900 g loaf tin and a few hours of mostly waiting. The usual mistake is slicing it while hot, which squashes the delicate crumb into gummy layers; let it cool fully. Chef's tip: roll each piece of dough into a tight spiral before it goes into the tin, which gives the tall, even rise and those stringy, tearable layers.

75 min

Japanese Baking

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Natto gohan (natto on rice)

Mito, the capital of Ibaraki Prefecture, is Japan's natto town, but this sticky, pungent breakfast is eaten in homes all over eastern Japan, usually before work with miso soup and a pickle. The fermented soybeans are beaten until they form long silky strings, seasoned, and spooned over steaming rice; they are packed with plant protein. Most packs come with a little sauce sachet that contains bonito fish stock, so for a vegan bowl leave it out and season with soy sauce as here. The common mistake is pouring in the sauce before you stir: whip the beans first, or they never get properly frothy. Chef's tip: stir about 50 times until the strings turn white and fluffy, then season and stir 10 more.

5 min

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Nukazuke (rice-bran pickles)

Before refrigerators, almost every Japanese kitchen kept a nukadoko, a crock of salted, fermenting rice bran that someone stirred by hand every morning, and families in Kyoto and Kyushu still pass theirs down for decades. Cucumbers, carrots, daikon or aubergine buried overnight come out crisp, sour and deeply savoury, a little like a gentle sauerkraut. Starting a bed takes about an hour of work and a week of 'feeding' with scraps before it pickles well. The most common mistake is forgetting to stir: left alone, the surface grows yeast and the bed starts to smell sharp and off. Chef's tip: stir from the bottom up once a day with clean hands, and if the bed gets watery, soak up the liquid with a clean cloth rather than pouring it away.

60 min

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Tamago sando (Japanese egg salad sandwich)

Every Japanese convenience store fridge holds a row of tamago sando, and Tokyo coffee shops (kissaten) have served them with morning coffee for decades. The filling is egg salad made rich with Japanese-style mayonnaise and a little milk, spread thickly between crustless slices of soft milk bread and cut into neat rectangles. Make them for a picnic, a lunchbox or a lazy breakfast. The usual mistake is overboiling the eggs: past 10 minutes the yolks go dry with a grey ring, and the salad loses its soft, sunny colour. Chef's tip: chop the whites finely but mash the yolks into the mayonnaise first, so the filling is creamy with little bouncy flecks of white.

20 min

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KakigoriShaved ice

Kakigori is Japan's great summer cooler, sold under a flag printed with the character 氷 (ice) at festival stalls and seaside huts and turned into an art in Tokyo dessert cafés, where queues form in July and August. Ice is shaved into soft, snow-like flakes that melt on the tongue, then soaked in fruit syrup, matcha syrup or sweetened condensed milk. Contains dairy if you use condensed milk. The common mistake is using ice straight from the freezer: very cold ice shatters into crunchy shards, so let the block soften for 10 minutes first. Chef's tip: build it in two layers, pouring syrup over the half-full bowl and then again on top, so it is flavoured all the way through.

15 min

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OshirukoSweet red bean soup

On snowy days in northern and eastern Japan, and especially after kagami-biraki on 11 January, when the New Year offering of mochi is broken up, families warm up with a bowl of oshiruko: azuki beans simmered into a sweet, thick soup with a puffed, toasted rice cake bobbing in it. In Kansai a chunky version is called zenzai. Mochi is very sticky: cut it into small pieces for young children and older people, and make sure they chew well and eat sitting down. The common mistake is adding all the sugar at the start, which stops the beans softening; sweeten only once they are tender. Chef's tip: a pinch of salt at the end makes the sweetness taste rounder and the bean flavour deeper.

95 min

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Fukujinzuke (seven-vegetable curry relish)

Named after the Seven Lucky Gods, fukujinzuke was first sold by a pickle shop in Tokyo's Ueno in the 1880s and soon became the crunchy red-brown relish spooned beside every plate of Japanese curry rice. Seven chopped vegetables, here daikon, aubergine, lotus root, cucumber, carrot, shiitake and ginger, are salted and pressed, then soaked in a hot sweet soy and mirin syrup. Mirin is a sweet rice wine; it is boiled in the syrup so the alcohol mostly cooks off, and you can swap it for extra sugar and water. The common mistake is skipping the squeezing: wet vegetables dilute the syrup and the relish turns soft. Chef's tip: pour the hot syrup over, drain it back into the pan, boil and pour again; doing this twice keeps the vegetables crisp but fully seasoned.

40 min

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Mitarashi dangoSoy-glazed rice dumplings

Mitarashi dango are said to come from Shimogamo Shrine in Kyoto, where they were sold at the midsummer purification festival; today they are the snack of shrine fairs, flower-viewing picnics and station kiosks all over Japan. Chewy little rice-flour balls are threaded on skewers, toasted until speckled, and coated in a translucent, sweet-salty soy glaze that tastes a little like caramel. Mochi is very sticky: cut it into small pieces for young children and older people, and make sure they chew well and eat sitting down. The common mistake is a runny glaze: it must simmer until it turns clear and thick, or it slides off. Chef's tip: mix silken tofu into the rice flour instead of some of the water; the dumplings stay soft for hours instead of hardening as they cool.

30 min

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AnmitsuAgar jelly with red bean

Anmitsu became a craze in Tokyo's Ginza and Asakusa tea rooms in the 1930s and is still the classic summer order in kanmidokoro, the sweet cafés of old Tokyo. Clear, firm cubes of agar jelly are piled into a bowl with seasonal fruit, a scoop of sweet bean paste and boiled red peas, then drenched in dark, smoky kuromitsu syrup. The common mistake is using gelatin, which melts; agar jelly stays firm and refreshing at room temperature. Chef's tip: make the kuromitsu with Okinawan kokuto black sugar if you can; it gives a deep, almost liquorice-like flavour that muscovado only gets close to.

30 min

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Su-renkonPickled lotus root

Lotus root is full of holes you can see straight through, so in Japan it stands for a clear view of the year ahead, and these crunchy, snow-white slices of sweet-vinegared lotus are a fixture of osechi boxes on New Year's Day. Often cut into flower shapes, they taste bright and lightly sweet with a satisfying crispness. The common mistake is boiling the slices for too long: more than 2 minutes and they turn starchy instead of crunchy. Chef's tip: add a splash of vinegar to the boiling water as well as to the pickle, which keeps the lotus root brilliantly white.

20 min

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Taiyaki

Taiyaki were first sold in 1909 at a Tokyo street stall that still exists in Azabu-Jūban, shaped like sea bream because the fish was a luxury eaten at celebrations. Today vendors at winter festivals and shopping streets across Japan press batter into fish-shaped iron moulds, fill them with sweet bean paste and turn them out golden and crisp-edged. Contains egg, milk and wheat. You need a taiyaki pan. The common mistake is overfilling, which makes the bean paste burst through the seams and burn; keep the filling a finger's width from the edges. Chef's tip: let the batter rest for 30 minutes so the gluten relaxes, which gives a thinner, crisper shell.

55 min

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Purin (Japanese custard pudding)Caramel custard pudding

Old-fashioned Tokyo kissaten pride themselves on purin that stands up on the plate: a firm, slightly bouncy custard under a dark, bittersweet caramel, served in a glass dish with a long spoon. It is a favourite dessert for children and nostalgic adults alike, and it keeps for two days in the fridge. The mistake that ruins it is too much heat; a hot oven or rolling boil makes the custard puff and fill with tiny holes (called su), so bake it gently in a water bath. Chef's tip: take the caramel darker than you think, to a deep mahogany, because its bitterness is what balances the sweet custard.

60 min

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Tataki goboSesame burdock salad

In Kansai homes around Osaka and Kyoto, osechi always includes tataki gobo: burdock root boiled, then beaten with a rolling pin so it splits open, and dressed in a thick ground-sesame vinegar. The long, deep-rooted burdock stands for a family that is settled and lasting. The pounding gives rough, fibrous edges that soak up the nutty, tangy dressing, so each bite is earthy, sweet and sharp. The common mistake is overcooking the burdock until soft; it should still be pleasantly firm before you pound it. Chef's tip: dress the burdock while it is still warm, when the fibres open up and drink in the sesame vinegar.

25 min

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Kohaku namasuPickled daikon and carrot salad

Red and white are Japan's colours of celebration, and this crisp, sweet-sour salad of fine daikon and carrot shreds is the cleanser of the New Year osechi box, eaten between richer dishes from 1 to 3 January. Salting the vegetables first softens them into pliable threads that still crunch, before they soak in rice vinegar, sugar and a little yuzu. The common mistake is skipping the squeeze after salting, which leaves the salad watery and bland. Chef's tip: cut the daikon along the length of the root, not across it, so the shreds stay crisp instead of going limp.

20 min

Japanese Salads

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Sakura mochiCherry leaf rice cakes

When the cherry trees bloom in late March, every wagashi shop in Japan fills its window with sakura mochi. In the Kansai region around Osaka and Kyoto they are made from coarse dōmyōji-ko, steamed and crushed glutinous rice, tinted soft pink and wrapped around bean paste, then tucked into a salted cherry leaf that perfumes it with an almond-like, floral scent; Tokyo's version is a thin pink crêpe instead. Mochi is very sticky: cut it into small pieces for young children and older people, and make sure they chew well and eat sitting down. The common mistake is not soaking the salted leaves, so the mochi tastes too salty; rinse and soak them for 15 minutes. Chef's tip: the leaf is edible, and eating it with the mochi gives the sweet-salty balance the dish is famous for.

50 min

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Tamago kake gohan (raw egg on rice)

Students, salarymen and farmers across Japan eat tamago kake gohan, TKG for short, as a two-minute breakfast, and the egg-farm towns of Okayama and Shimane even hold festivals for it. A raw egg is beaten into piping-hot rice with soy sauce until it turns glossy and almost custardy, like a soft risotto. In Japan eggs are graded for eating raw; elsewhere, use only pasteurised eggs or eggs with a recognised safety stamp, very fresh and kept cold. This dish is not for pregnant women, young children or anyone with a weakened immune system. The common mistake is using lukewarm rice, which leaves the egg slippery and raw-tasting; the rice must be steaming hot. Chef's tip: mix the white into the rice first until fluffy, then drop the yolk on top and break it at the table.

3 min

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Yasai no misozukeMiso-pickled vegetables

Misozuke is the pickle a Japanese home cook makes without thinking: a tub of miso loosened with mirin and a little sugar sits in the fridge, and whatever vegetables are around get buried in it overnight. It is made all year, but especially in early summer when cucumbers are crisp, and in winter for carrots and daikon; slices go beside breakfast rice, into bento boxes and next to a bowl of ochazuke at the end of a meal. The vegetables come out firmer and faintly translucent, salty-sweet with the deep fermented flavour of miso but still fresh inside. The common mistake is burying wet vegetables: the water dilutes the bed, which turns runny and spoils faster. Salt them lightly, pat them completely dry and the bed can be reused two or three times. Timing is the readiness cue: cucumber and celery are ready in about a day, carrot and daikon in two to three, and anything longer than a week gets too salty. Choose a rice miso labelled gluten free if that matters to you; barley miso contains gluten. Chef's tip: wrap each vegetable in a sheet of muslin before burying it, so it comes out clean and the bed stays tidy.

21 min

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Pan-gayu (bread porridge)

Pan-gayu is a staple of the early rinyushoku (weaning) stage in Japan, the second grain after rice porridge, and it fills the 'first foods' pages of every baby magazine sold in Tokyo convenience stores. Crustless white bread is torn into a pan of water, breast milk or formula and simmered until it collapses, then mashed smooth for a soft, milky, faintly sweet porridge. Bread already contains a little salt, so this is an occasional porridge rather than an everyday one, and no extra salt, sugar or honey goes in. It contains wheat (gluten) and milk if made with milk. Chef's tip: choose the softest, plainest white sandwich loaf with the lowest salt on the label, and cut away every bit of crust.

8 min

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Kombu dashi for babiesKelp broth for babies

Kombu dashi is where Japanese weaning starts: the gentle, savoury water that thins jūbai-gayu (rice porridge) and vegetable purées, so babies learn umami instead of salt. Japanese parents make a jug every few days, and baby-food counters in Osaka department stores sell frozen cubes of it. Kombu is very high in iodine, so this broth is used a spoonful or two at a time to flavour a meal, a few times a week, never as a drink. Nothing else goes in: no salt, soy sauce, bonito or stock powder. It is free of the major allergens. Chef's tip: lift the kombu out just before the water simmers; boiled kombu turns slimy and gives a bitter, sea-weedy taste.

40 min

Japanese Basics

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Ojiya for babiesRice and vegetable porridge for babies

Ojiya, cooked rice simmered into a soft porridge with broth and vegetables, is what Japanese families eat on chilly evenings or after a cold, and it is a staple of the kamikami-ki, the stage around nine months when babies start mashing soft lumps with their gums. Instead of soy sauce or salted dashi, it is made with plain home-made kombu stock, so the flavour comes from the sweetness of the carrot and daikon. For babies, the beaten egg is cooked until completely set. It contains egg and is free of milk, gluten, nuts, soya, sesame and fish. Chef's tip: chop the vegetables to the size of a grain of rice; that is just right for the kamikami stage.

20 min

Japanese Snacks & Starters

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Gohan oyaki (rice finger patties)

Oyaki means a little pan-cooked cake, and Japanese parents make gohan oyaki from leftover rice when babies around nine months start wanting to feed themselves. Mashed rice is mixed with steamed kabocha squash (or grated carrot) and a spoon of potato starch, shaped into finger-sized patties and cooked gently until lightly golden. They are soft and sweet inside, hold together in a small fist and squash easily against the gums. They are free of the major allergens: no milk, egg, gluten, nuts, soya, sesame or fish. Chef's tip: mash the rice while it is warm; cold rice will not stick together and the patties crumble.

25 min

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Ogura toastToast with sweet red bean

Walk into a kissaten coffee shop in Nagoya before 11 am, order a coffee, and the "morning service" brings a thick slab of toast spread with butter and a mound of ogura-an, coarse sweet azuki bean paste. The hot, salty butter melting into the cool, grainy beans is the whole point. The common mistake is thin sandwich bread: it goes limp under the paste, so use a 3–4 cm slice of shokupan or soft white bloomer. Chef's tip: butter the toast the second it comes out, then spread the bean paste only on half of each slice so every bite gets a different balance of salt and sweet.

8 min

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Onsen tamagoHot spring eggs

In hot-spring towns like Beppu and Kusatsu, ryokan guests find a little bowl beside their breakfast rice: an egg cooked slowly in the spring water, its white barely holding together and its yolk thick like custard, sitting in a splash of seasoned dashi. At home you copy the hot spring with a pan of water held well below the boil. The mistake almost everyone makes is using water that is too hot, which gives an ordinary soft-boiled egg with a set white; keep it at about 70 °C. This version uses a kombu and shiitake dashi, so it stays vegetarian. Because the eggs are only partly set, cook eggs fully for anyone pregnant, young children, older people or anyone with a weakened immune system. Chef's tip: take the eggs out of the fridge 30 minutes early, because a cold egg drops the water temperature and the yolk stays raw.

30 min

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Harusame saladGlass noodle salad

Harusame, "spring rain" noodles, are fine glass noodles made from mung bean or potato starch, and this tangy salad of them with cucumber, carrot and ribbons of thin omelette is a supermarket deli favourite and a regular bento side across Japan. Ham is usually added; this version keeps it vegetarian. The common mistake is leaving the noodles long, which makes the salad impossible to eat from a bento with chopsticks; cut them with scissors after cooking. Chef's tip: dress the noodles while they are still slightly warm, because they drink up the dressing then and stay flavourful cold.

23 min

Japanese Salads

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Kombu tsukudaniSoy-simmered kelp

Japanese home cooks hate waste, so the softened kelp left over from making dashi is saved in the freezer until there is enough to simmer down into tsukudani, a dark, chewy relish named after Tokyo's Tsukudajima island, where fishermen first preserved their catch in soy. A teaspoon goes into the middle of an onigiri or on top of the rice in a weekday bento, and it lasts a week in the fridge. The common mistake is boiling it hard from the start: the kelp turns slimy and the sauce scorches before the strips are tender. A splash of vinegar early on softens the kelp so it cooks evenly. Chef's tip: stop when only a spoonful of glaze clings to the pan, because the relish thickens a lot more as it cools.

40 min

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NametakeSoy-simmered enoki mushrooms

Jars of nametake sit in almost every Japanese fridge: enoki mushrooms cooked down in sweet soy until they turn silky and slightly slippery, ready to spoon on plain rice, tofu or a bento's onigiri for a quick hit of savoury flavour. Homemade takes ten minutes and costs a fraction of the shop jars. The common mistake is chopping the enoki too short, which turns the relish to mush; 3 cm lengths keep a little bite. Chef's tip: add the vinegar at the very end, off the heat, for a brighter taste and a longer life in the fridge.

15 min

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Kyuchan cucumber pickle

Kyuchan is the sweet-salty soy pickle that Japanese mothers tuck into the corner of a bento: thin coins of cucumber that stay crunchy for days thanks to an old trick of pouring hot pickling liquid over them several times. It brightens plain rice and cuts the richness of fried karaage-style dishes. The common mistake is simmering the cucumbers in the sauce, which makes them soft and grey; they should only ever sit in hot liquid off the heat. Chef's tip: squeeze the salted cucumbers really hard in a cloth, because every drop of water you remove is crunch you keep.

45 min

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Nori tsukudaniSoy-simmered nori

When a pack of nori loses its crispness, Japanese cooks turn it into nori tsukudani, the jet-black, jammy seaweed paste sold in jars as "gohan desu yo" and spread over the rice in bento boxes up and down the country. It tastes of the sea, soy and a gentle sweetness. The common mistake is walking away: once the water has gone the paste catches on the bottom within a minute. Chef's tip: soak the torn nori before you heat it, so it melts into a smooth paste instead of leaving chewy shreds.

17 min

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Shiitake no umaniSimmered shiitake mushrooms

These sweet-savoury simmered mushrooms are a fixture of Japanese bento and of osechi New Year boxes, and they are sliced into chirashi sushi and inari as well. The caps are rehydrated, then cooked in their own deep-flavoured soaking water with soy and sugar until the liquid becomes a sticky glaze. The common mistake is throwing away the soaking water, which holds most of the flavour. Chef's tip: soak the mushrooms in the fridge overnight if you can; a slow, cold soak gives a far meatier texture than a quick hot one.

60 min

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ShibazukeRed shiso aubergine pickle

Shibazuke comes from Ohara, in the hills north of Kyoto, where summer aubergines, cucumbers and myoga ginger are pressed with salt and red shiso leaves until everything turns a vivid purple and pleasantly sour. A few slivers sit beside the rice in Kyoto bento boxes. This home version is lightly fermented for a day under a weight. The common mistake is too little weight: the vegetables must sit under their own brine or they spoil instead of souring. Chef's tip: rub the shiso with salt and squeeze out its first dark, bitter juice before it ever touches the vegetables.

30 min

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Kabocha saladPumpkin salad

Children across Japan know this golden, chunky salad from their bento boxes and school lunches: steamed kabocha squash crushed with mayonnaise, a few plump raisins and a touch of pepper, sweet enough to pass for dessert. It holds its shape cold, so it fills a bento cup neatly. The common mistake is mashing the squash while it is wet, which gives a watery salad; dry it off in the pan first. Leave some skin on for colour. The mayonnaise contains egg. Chef's tip: dress the squash while it is still warm with the salt and pepper, but add the mayonnaise only once it has cooled, so it stays creamy instead of turning oily.

22 min

Japanese Salads

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Wakame gohanWakame rice

Wakame gohan is the green-flecked rice that turns up in Japanese school lunches and convenience-store onigiri: plain rice mixed with salted, toasted wakame flakes and sesame. At home you make your own seasoning in five minutes from a pack of dried cut wakame. The common mistake is soaking the wakame first, which gives slimy rice; it should go in dry and crisp so it softens only with the rice's steam. Chef's tip: shape onigiri with wet, salted hands while the rice is hot, then cool them fast on a plate before wrapping for the lunchbox.

10 min

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Satsumaimo gohanSweet potato rice

When the first purple-skinned satsumaimo arrive in Japanese shops in October, families cook them right into the rice pot: the cubes turn soft and honeyed, and a sprinkle of black sesame and salt makes it taste like autumn. It is a favourite in children's bento boxes and needs nothing but a pickle on the side. The common mistake is skipping the soak for the sweet potato, so it bleeds starch and turns the rice grey and gummy. Chef's tip: leave the skin on; it holds each cube together and gives the rice its purple-and-gold look.

60 min

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Yukari shiso saltRed shiso rice seasoning

Yukari is the bright purple, salty-sour shaker that Japanese parents sprinkle over plain rice so that a bento looks cheerful and tastes of something even when it has gone cold. Traditionally it is made from the red shiso leaves left after pickling umeboshi plums; this home version gets the same flavour by salting and souring fresh red shiso in early summer. The common mistake is drying the leaves too hot, which turns them brown and bitter. Chef's tip: keep the oven no hotter than 80 °C and leave the door ajar, and the colour stays a jewel-like magenta.

120 min

Japanese Basics

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Sansai okowaSticky rice with mountain vegetables

In the snowy valleys of Yamagata, Niigata and Nagano, sansai okowa is what families cook in late spring when bracken, royal fern and bamboo shoots come down from the hills, and it turns up again in autumn rice-ball lunchboxes and at temple festivals. Soaked glutinous rice soaks up a soy and shiitake broth and cooks to a chewy, glossy, gently savoury pile studded with crunchy, slightly bitter greens. Eat it warm or at room temperature with miso soup and pickles, or shape it into onigiri. The usual mistake is giving sticky rice as much water as ordinary rice: it turns into paste, so use much less and let the soaking do the work. Chef's tip: buy the boiled, vacuum-packed mixed sansai sold in Japanese shops, and rinse it well, as it is often stored in brine.

60 min

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Daikon to aburaage no nimonoSimmered daikon and fried tofu

When winter daikon is fat, sweet and cheap in every Japanese market, home cooks from Hokkaido to Kyushu simmer it with strips of aburaage, the thin fried tofu pouches, as an everyday side for rice and grilled food. The radish turns soft and see-through and drinks up a light soy broth, while the tofu soaks up the rest like a sponge. This version uses a kelp and shiitake dashi instead of bonito, so the whole pot is vegan, and it tastes even better reheated the next day. The usual mistake is boiling it hard: the daikon edges crumble and the broth goes cloudy, so keep it at a lazy simmer under a drop lid. Chef's tip: pour boiling water over the aburaage before cutting it, which rinses off the stale frying oil and lets the broth soak in.

40 min