Minimalist Japanese Recipe: OCHAZUKE

Ochazuke (lit. “tea submerged”) is a traditional Japanese comfort food made by pouring hot dashi or tea over a bowl of cooked rice topped with savory toppings such as salmon, chicken or pickles. The basic form uses just dashi and is called dashi-chazuke, but you can use your favorite tea as another way to enjoy this dish.

Prep time: Pre-make cooked rice | Cook time: 5 mins | Vegan option

Servings: 1 

Ingredients

• 200ml water
• 1 tsp dashi powder or konbucha (kelp tea/broth)
• Pinch of salt
• ½-1 tsp soy sauce
• 180g cooked rice
• Toppings: fish flakes, shio koji chicken, teriyaki chicken, tempura, tsukemono (pickles), umeboshi (pickled plum), etc.

Instructions

1. Boil the water and add the dashi powder or konbucha. Add salt and soy sauce to adjust the taste. 
2. Add your choice of topping(s) to the cooked rice in a bowl and pour over the dashi from step 1.

OPTIONS

• Optional additional toppings: shredded nori or tsukudani (nori paste), chopped negi, sesame seeds, wasabi, furikake, chopped shiso, etc. 
• Use mentsuyu instead of salt and soy sauce.
• Use 200ml of tea (Eg. sencha, houjicha or genmaicha) instead of plain water to make ochazuke.