Caramelized sweet onion, seasoned with soy sauce and mirin, this simple Sweet Onion Takikomi Gohan is a flavorful and aromatic mixed rice to accompany your next Japanese meal.
Japanese meals are always accompanied by white steamed rice and miso soup, almost like a set meal. As we get bored with simple steamed rice, we often season the rice with soy sauce, mirin, dashi, and cook the rice with seasonal ingredients to make Takikomi Gohan (炊き込みご飯), or mixed rice.
As you can imagine, there are countless varieties of Takikomi Gohan with different seasonings and ingredients. Today, I’ll show you one of the quickest and easiest recipes – Sweet Onion Takikomi Gohan.
Sweet Onions for Sweet Onion Takikomi Gohan
What does sweet onion taste like? Sweet onion is not pungent and has a mild flavor due to its low sulfur and high water content compared to other types of onions. Sweet onion varieties include Maui Sweets, Vidalia Sweets, Texas Sweet, and Walla Walla Sweets.
It’s great to thinly slice the sweet onion and use it for salad as it doesn’t have that bitter taste. My children love them, so I always keep them in my pantry and make Takikomi Gohan with sweet onion.
When you saute the onion and season it with a savory-sweet sauce, the caramelized onion tastes so good by itself. But I especially love to cook the onion with short-grain rice. The Takikomo Gohan is a wonderful side dish to accompany any Japanese meal. Just top the bowl of Japanese mixed rice with mistuba (Japanese parsley), or chopped scallion.
Other Mixed Rice Recipes
If you love Takikomi Gohan (Japanese mixed rice), here are more of my mixed rice recipes I know you will enjoy:
- Takikomi Gohan – the classic recipe
- Matsutake Gohan (Wild Pine Mushroom Rice)
- Kuri Gohan (Chestnut Rice)
- Ginger Rice
- Gobo and Miso Takikomi Gohan
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Sweet Onion Takikomi Gohan
Ingredients
- 1½ cups uncooked Japanese short-grain white rice (2 rice cooker cups, 300 g)
- ½ sweet onion
- 2 tsp neutral oil
- ⅛ tsp Diamond Crystal kosher salt
- mitsuba (Japanese parsley) (or green onion/scallion to garnish)
Instructions
- Gather all the ingredients. Please note that 1½ cups (300 g, 2 rice cooker cups) of uncooked Japanese short-grain rice yield 4⅓ cups (660 g) of cooked white rice.
- Rinse 1½ cups uncooked Japanese short-grain white rice until the water is almost clear. Soak in water for 30 minutes. Drain well in a fine-mesh sieve for 15 minutes.
- Thinly slice ½ sweet onion. I cut the onion against the grain so the slices keep their shape and texture after they‘re cooked.
- In a frying pan, heat 2 tsp neutral oil over medium heat. Add the onion and ⅛ tsp Diamond Crystal kosher salt and sauté the onion slices until they are tender.
- Add 2 Tbsp mirin and 1 Tbsp soy sauce.
- Continue to sauté until the sauce is thickened.
- Add the drained rice into the inner pot of a rice cooker and pour in the sautéed onion, including the sauce.
- Add the water up to the 2 cup line on the inner pot. Press Start to cook. If you have a “Mixed Rice” option, use it (see Notes below).
- When the rice is finished cooking, chop some mitsuba (Japanese parsley) into small pieces and fluff up the rice with a rice paddle. Serve the rice and garnish with mitsuba.
To Store
- You can keep the leftovers in an airtight container and store in the refrigerator for up to 3 days or in the freezer for a month.
Notes
Nutrition
Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on January 21, 2011. The new images and step by step pictures were added in November 2017.
is there a alternative to mitsuba ? anything else i can garnish it with,cant find mitsuba in india :/
Hello, Manas! To garnish, you can use green onion/scallion instead.
Thank you for trying Nami’s recipe!
I made this with regular onion, and I must say- it really elevated whatever dish I ate it with. It’s only a little extra effort beyond regular rice, but it really makes each meal feel more robust and delicious. I ate it with other Japanese-style dishes, but it would not be unreasonable to pair with any other cuisine. This recipe is a hidden gem imo
Hi Home Cook! Thank you so much for trying Nami’s recipe and for your kind feedback!
We are so happy to hear you enjoyed the flavor and taste of Onion in the rice. Happy Cooking!
Hi. Can I use long grain rice instead of short grain rice for this recipe?
Hi Siew, Thank you very much for trying Nami’s recipe!
The texture of this dish will be different (drier) but yes, you can use long grain rice.
Thank you for sharing your recipe.
Can this dish be cook on stove if rice cooker is not available?
Hi Elise! Sure, you can definitely do that! Follow the same method as how to cook Japanese short-grain rice on my website. Make sure the rice is soaked in the seasoning for 20-30 minutes before cooking. 🙂
If I am cooking this on stovetop, how much water should I put in at the last step, and where should I soak the rice in the seasoning?
Thanks very much for this recipe!
Hi Gabriel, Thank you very much for trying Nami’s recipe!
She recommends measuring the stir-fry mixture and Seasonings in a liquid measuring cup, adding water until 400 ml (If it’s for two rice cooker cups), then soaking for 30 minutes before cook the mixed rice. The rice to water/liquid ratio [volume] is 1: 1.1.
Here is Nami’s other post, “How to cook rice in Donabe,” for more detail on the stovetop cooking method. https://www.justonecookbook.com/how-to-cook-rice-in-donabe. We hope this helps!
When I soaked Japanese short grained brown rice (Tamanishiki) for 30 minutes, my rice ended up super super mushy. I have a zojirushi micom rice cooker. Do you know what might be the problem?
Hi September! It’s very common to soak rice for 20-30 minutes. If you think rice is mushy, then maybe you prefer harder rice in general? Each rice brand is different (and new crop or not) so you will need to adjust. But soaking is important for short-grain rice as it’s rounder kernel and require some head start. 🙂
I have the same rice cooker. I’m pretty sure that the problem is that in its normal modes the cooker does its own soak step as a convenience feature. The solution is to either skip your own soak, or to use the cooker’s “Quick Cook” mode, which skips the cooker’s soak.
And thank you for sharing this recipe! I’m going to try it tonight, with dashi instead of some of the water, to accompany miso salmon.
Do you have a version of this, that can be made in a instant pot?
Hi David! You can follow this Instant Pot Takikomi Gohan method: https://www.justonecookbook.com/instant-pot-takikomi-gohan/
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I don’t have a rice cooker. Is there a way to make this recipe without one? It sounds really good.
Hi Aleece! You can use the same cooking method as this recipe on stovetop:
https://www.justonecookbook.com/how-to-cook-rice/
Hope you enjoy!
Hi Nami, would this rice go well with catfish kabayaki? I’d really love to try new twist instead of just simple, boring white rice :p thankyou
Hi Reen! Sure! It’ll match very well. 🙂
I have been enjoying this recipe ,for so many times since the day you have posted it ,so I just want to say thank you, and I looking for ward for similar recipes .
Hi Suki! I’m so happy to hear you like this recipe. This post was written during my first month of blogging…and the picture is not so good too! Yet you gave it a try for the first time before and are still making it. I’m so glad! Thank you very much for your kind feedback, Suki!