Soba noodles are a very popular lunch food in Japan. They are usually served chilled with a dipping sauce (Zaru Soba) or hot with a dashi broth. As we mentioned in our recent Zaru Soba post, it is gaining popularity outside of Japan because of its high nutritious value. However, it is very rare to see soba served Japanese style with a dipping sauce or in a broth in the U.S. unless you are at a Japanese restaurant. Soba is most likely prepared as noodle salad here!
This is a spinach salad with a flavorful sesame sauce (hourensou no goma-ae) that is very similar to our Green Beans with Sesame Sauce, and is a great little side dish. It is super quick to make, but very nutritious and tasty.
It’s best to make your own ground sesame using Suribachi (mortar) and Surikogi (pestle), but you can also use store-bought ground sesame. Freshly ground sesame has a stronger aroma.
If you’d like more detailed instructions, please watch our Green Beans with Sesame Sauce video as a reference.
If you want one more little dish for your dinner, this may be it! A quick and easy side dish salad, but with a little kick from Wasabi.
Avocado and a Wasabi mayo sauce make an unusual match. If you are not sure about the hotness, go easy on the amount of Wasabi paste. If you like the zing, go for more.
We have another salad using Japanese mayonnaise dressing, Potato Salad. If you like this Avocado Salad, come and take a look our Potao Salad video, too.
You might not think Potato Salad is Japanese food, but it is! Japanese Potato Salad is similar to American potato salad; semi-smashed boiled potatoes mixed with mayonnaise. Still doesn’t sound like Japanese food, does it? What makes Japanese potato salad Japanese? … the secret is in mayonnaise.
Cucumber and Wakame Seaweed Sunomono is a very refreshing side dish. The combination of cucumber and wakame is one of the most popular types of Sunomono. You too can make this simple and tasty dish at home.
If you have a mandolin or vegetable slicer, it’s a breeze to make this. But even if not, you can still slice cucumbers the old way, with a knife. Just need a little practice!
If you need more detailed instructions, please watch our Sunomono (Cucumber Salad) video.
Green Beans with sesame sauce (ingen no goma-ae, 胡麻和え) make a very nice small dish when you need a little something more for dinner. It’s extremely easy and quick to make, but is full of the flavor of sesame seeds.
Sunomono (Cucumber Salad) is a perfect small side dish. It’s easy to make, healthy to eat, and very refreshing to accompany any main dish. It’s tangy but sweet, who wouldn’t like it?
Japanese cucumbers are much skinnier than American ones. They have much less seeds (or at least much smaller seeds) and thinner skin. You might be able to find Japanese cucumbers at some markets in the US. However, if they are not available, you can use English or Persian cucumbers as substitutes. Especially Persian cucumbers are very similar to Japanese ones. Persian cucumbers are a bit shorter, but it doesn’t matter. Just use one more.