Japanese🥬 Vegetables

Spinach Ohitashi (Japanese Spinach Salad)

Name: Spinach Ohitashi (Japanese Spinach Salad)
Total time: 1 h 15 min
Cuisine: Japanese
Ingredients: 1 bunch spinach; a pinch salt (kosher or sea salt; use half if using table salt); ½ cup water; 5 g kombu (dried kelp); 1 tbsp mirin; 1 tbsp usukuchi (light-color) soy sauce; ~1 tbsp white sesame seeds (roasted/toasted); ~¼ cups katsuobushi (dried bonito flakes)

⏱ 75 min

This Japanese spinach salad uses the traditional ohitashi technique to infuse spinach with umami-rich kombu dashi. A classic Japanese vegetable preparation method that is vegan-friendly and perfect for meal prep.

Low-cal

Adapted from a video by Just One Cookbook

How to Make Spinach Ohitashi (Japanese Spinach Salad) (Recipe) ほうれん草のお浸しの作り方 (レシピ)

Watch on YouTube

Ingredients

spinach1 bunch
salt (kosher or sea salt; use half if using table salt)a pinch
water½ cup
kombu (dried kelp)about 2" × 2"5 g
mirin1 tbsp
usukuchi (light-color) soy sauce1 tbsp
white sesame seeds (roasted/toasted)for vegan/vegetarian version~1 tbspest.
katsuobushi (dried bonito flakes)for non-vegan/vegetarian version~¼ cupsest.

Steps

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1
In a saucepan, place water and kombu, then slowly bring to a boil to create the kombu dashi (stock).
2
Rinse the spinach.
3
Once the dashi comes to a boil, remove the kombu from the liquid.
4
Add mirin and light soy sauce to the dashi and stir well to combine.
5
Bring the seasoned dashi to a boil, then turn off the heat. In a separate pot, bring water to a boil.
6
Once the water is boiling, add salt and place the spinach in the pot, starting from the stem side first.
7
Once the spinach is cooked through (less than 1 minute), quickly remove it and transfer to ice water to cool.
8
Once cooled, collect the spinach and squeeze out excess water.
9
Collect the spinach stems and arrange them together in the same direction (optional).
10
Cut the spinach into 1½ inch lengths and squeeze out water one more time.
11
Place the spinach in an airtight container and pour the dashi sauce over it.
12
Make sure the spinach is evenly distributed throughout the container and fully soaked in the sauce.
13
Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour (3-4 hours is ideal).
14
Serve the spinach in a bowl and pour the sauce over. Top with sesame seeds for a vegan version, or bonito flakes for a non-vegan version.

Spinach Ohitashi (Japanese Spinach Salad)

Ingredients

Steps

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