Homemade furikake rice seasoning made with kombu and katsuobushi. This quintessential Japanese rice seasoning is fabulous on rice of course, but also on onigiri, udon noodles, soup, salad, popcorn and more.
Furikake is a nutty, crunchy, umami-packed Japanese blend used to season rice. Although it’s referred to as a rice seasoning, furikake is literally the salt and pepper of the Japanese kitchen. It is so versatile that you can use the seasoning to instantly perk up bland dishes.
How to make homemade furikake
There are endless versions of furikake, but my homemade version uses leftover kombu (kelp) and katsuobushi (dried bonito flakes). Instead of throwing the kombu and bonito flakes away after making dashi or Mentsuyu (soup base for noodles), this recipe repurposes the ingredients into, let’s call it, a magical dust! Transforming any food you sprinkle it on into something more delicious and fun.
This homemade furikake is really easy to make. You just chop up the leftover kombu into small pieces, combine with katsuobushi, and then cook it in a saucepan. Once the katsuobushi separates, add in a simple mix of sugar, mirin and soy sauce. Cook until the liquid evaporates and the flavor is absorbed, then sprinkle in sesame seeds before removing from the heat. Rich in calcium, iodine and iron, this homemade furikake is a healthy way to season your Japanese dishes!
Creative Ways to Enjoy Furikake
Furikake is absolutely wonderful on just a simple bowl of rice, porridge, or udon noodles. It’s also perfect for seasoning onigiri (Japanese rice balls), soba noodle salad, grilled salmon, or rice crackers. But don’t stop there, furikake is so versatile that I love to get creative and sprinkle it on these as well:
- Avocado – this is my favorite. Keep it simple and halve the avocado and season it with furikake as an afternoon snack. For a savory breakfast, smear your toasted bread with miso mayo and avocado before you give it a good sprinkle of furikake. It’s a Japanese-twist on avocado toast.
- Fried egg or poached egg – you can totally replace salt and pepper with furikake when you want something more punchy.
- Popcorn – planning on an anime or Japanese movie night? Flavor your popcorn with furikake to keep to the theme.
- Pasta – oh yes, you can top furikake on Mentaiko Pasta, cacio e pepe pasta or any simple creamy pasta.
So next time, don’t toss the kombu and bonito after making dashi, and instead create some homemade furikake seasoning and toss it in your favorite dishes. If you make a big batch, you can even freeze the seasoning for months. Furikake also makes a great holiday gift. Just pack the Japanese seasoning in a cute little glass jar to surprise your foodie friends and family!
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- Reserved kombu from making dashi or mentsuyu (drained well) (See Notes for dashi and mentsuyu recipe)
- Reserved katsuobushi from making dashi or mentsuyu (drained well) (See Notes for dashi and mentsuyu recipe)
- 1 Tbsp white sesame seeds (roasted/toasted)
Gather all the ingredients.
- Cut kombu into small pieces.
- Put kombu and katsuobushi in a saucepan and cook until katsuobushi gets separated.
- Add all the seasoning ingredients in the saucepan and cook on medium low heat until the liquid is completely evaporated.
- Sprinkle white sesame seeds and remove from the heat.
Reserved kombu and katsuobushi:
- Home made dashi recipe, click here.
- Homemade mentsuyu recipe, click here.
You can store in an air-tight container in the refrigerator for a week. You can also freeze them.
Recipe by Namiko Chen of Just One Cookbook. All images and content on this site are copyright protected. Please do not use my images without my permission. If you’d like to share this recipe on your site, please re-write the recipe in your own words and link to this post as the original source. Thank you.
Thank you so much for this
recipe! I love recycling ingredients
Hi Jate! You’re welcome! These ingredients are too good to throw away. 🙂
May I know how to use this Furokake? Eat with rice or? =)
Hi Stephy! Yes you sprinkle Furikake on top of steamed rice. It’s basically a rice seasoning. 🙂
Wow – this sounds wonderful, will be trying this for sure. 🙂
Hi Melody! I hope you enjoy this homemade furikake. 🙂
I tried this but the sugar in the mirrin burns and everything turns to charcoal. I’ve already set the fire to the lowest setting. Is there another trick to it?
Hi Alex! If the lowest setting still burns, only trick I can think of is to lift the frying pan away from the heat sauce while you cook. Hope this helps. 🙂
Mine started doing this too so I put it on parchment and am putting in the oven at 200 degrees to see if that will work. I tasted it before I put it in and it is yummy just still a little wet
Thank you for your oven method advice! 🙂
My dashi is just about ready. Then I was going to make the “second” dashi and then the furikake. Will it still have enough flavor after the second dashi? I don’t have any more bonito to add to it. My other question is what does “cook in pan until bonito separates” mean?
Loving your recipes. 🙂
Hi Susan! Yes it will be enough flavor as you will be adding seasoning and kombu and bonito flakes give good texture. Ideally you should add more bonitos for the 2nd dashi but it’s ok if you don’t have anymore. Use this dashi for dishes that don’t rely too much on dashi flavor. After you squeeze kombu and bonito flakes, it’s a chunk. You stir fry and it starts to separate and “dry out (dehydrate)”. When it’s all separated and looks like sprinkles it’s done. Hope this helps! Thank you for readings blog! 🙂
Very good tip,
Would you add shicimi to spice it up?
My compliments for the recipes.
Sure, definitely you can do that! Thanks for your kind words! 🙂
What a great idea! I had a lot of kombu and katsuobushi left over from making a big pot of dashi and miso from your other recipes. I hated the idea of throwing them away but now I won’t have to. Your recipes are almost as lovely as you are! Thanks!
Hi Victor! You can make Niban dashi (second dashi). Some people use it for cooking (that requires dashi) or even miso soup (less sophisticated taste, but still it’s good enough with miso in it). After Nibandashi, you can make furikake too. I usually make good dashi for dishes that requires good dashi taste, but try to make nibandashi for extra dashi usage.
I mentioned how to make niban dashi in the Note section of this page:
https://www.justonecookbook.com/how-to-make-dashi/
I’m glad to hear you like this rice seasonings with leftover kombu and katsuobushi! 🙂 Thank you so much for reading my blog! 🙂
i found this recipe yesterday and just made it. it is delicious!!!
i usually buy katsuo furikake, but this recipe is sooo easy and quick to make!
thank you so much for sharing it! no more wasted katsuobushi (^__^)
have you ever tried putting cooked somen in a pan and just tossing some katsuo furikake on it? maybe not the regular way to eat it, but definitely worth a try, if you’re in need for a quick snack/meal (^_^) (learned this from my japanese uncle in law)
Hi Miya! I’m so happy to hear you enjoyed this recipe! Yeah, no more waste, and the great part is that we can get delicious homemade furikake too!
I have not tried somen + katsuo furikake before, but I’ll definitely try! When I make yaki udon, I always sprinkle katsuobushi for additional flavor boost and it’s so delicious. So I can totally imagine this taste! Thanks for sharing! 🙂
I’ve tried to share it in my facebook, but there’s no POST there for me to post it. My kids love furikake, so I wanted them to see this recipe. It’s expensive to buy in little bottles which don’t last very long for 4 hungry guys. How can I share it, though you suggest that I share it?
We love furikake too! This one is a bit different style of furikake though as it only has 2 main ingredients… But trying to use the leftover Kombu and Katsuobushi from making dashi (so it’s not waste). I’d love you share my post – you can copy and paste the hyperink. Thank you. 🙂
I made Dashi second time but I can never know there is leftover to make homemade Furikake. I will try make it tonight. I hate waste food lol Oh btw I lost 26 pound and I feel good. Because of you thank you Nami ????
Hi Michelle! I hope the homemade furikake came out well. You lost 26 lbs, with my recipes!? How come I’m gaining more?! LOL! Congratulations! I need to lose at least 10 lbs… 🙂 I’m so happy for you!
Love your recipies so much!
I thought it felt like such a waste to just throw out the left over bonito after it had been used to make broth, so I’m really glad to see there is something else you can do with it there after.
Thank you so much! Yes, I don’t make it all the time, but once in a while I do. And you can also make Niban Dashi (second dashi making with the same ingredients – not as refine as first dashi, but still great for miso soup etc). Hope that helps!
About how long does step 2 take? 🙂
Hi Nina! It depends how dry it was to begin with, but you basically try to dry it with heat. 🙂
Thanks for the recipe. I’ve been trying to find a Furokake without any added sugar (all the ones in the store have some kind of sugar in it). Do you thing this recipe will work without adding sugar or other sweeteners? Any suggestions would be appreciated. It’s mostly because I really don’t like a lot of sweetness with my savory dishes.
Hi Irina! You’re welcome! Using soy sauce in Japanese dishes, most of recipes require some sweetness otherwise it is simply salty and it won’t be delicious. Since I’m used to Japanese food that are seasoned that way, I can’t imagine the flavor using just soy sauce here. It’ll be so salty and doesn’t bring out the delicious flavor. I think balance is very important and it’s hard to skip mirin or sugar here… that’s my opinion. 🙂 I also think that if you deal with the food that doesn’t have natural sweetness, it’s a bit hard to achieve the balance too. If the ingredients are naturally sweet, you can totally do without sweetness (in case you use soy sauce). Hope this helps! 🙂
These are superb and so beautifully presented.
Thank you
Thank you so much for your kind words, Kevin! 🙂
Hi, Nami.
I’m Shuni. I have tried this recipe but have some questions.
1. How much used kombu and used katsuobushi do you mean here? Is it exactly the same amount as used for the dashi recipe? In your photo, the kombu doesn’t look like it is 20 g. Or is it?
2. I don’t understand: “(use soy sauce only when you use kombu & katsuobushi from making dashi)”
So when do you not use sauce only? Sauce only means without mirin and sugar?
3. How do you cut the kombu into small pieces? What kind of knife do you use? For me, furikake is an answer to express meal. However, cutting kombu to make this homemade furikake, I find it as torture. Hahaha.
4. Same thing with the katsuobushi. Making them separated consumes my patience a lot. Well, I have never used katsuobushi. I use sakebushi. Is it because it’s sake and not katsuo that makes it more challenging to separate?
Thank you, Nami.
Hi Shuni! Here are my answers:
1) This kombu is probably about 3 x 3 inch size. If you have more than that, you can increase the amount of seasonings.
2) I’ve changed the sentence – basically you need to add soy sauce when you use kombu and katsuobushi from making dashi. If you use leftover kombu and katsuobushi after making mentsuyu (soup base), then it’s already seasoned in soy sauce, there is no need to add additional soy sauce.
3) You can use a knife or a pair of kitchen scissor.
4) Because they are wet, it takes time. Maybe baking in low temp might do the same trick. 🙂
Hope that helps!
So one sheet of 3 X 3 inch of Kombu goes with how much Katsuobushi?
I know I can use a knife or a pair of scissor. I am asking you what kind of knife.
Thanks.
Hi Shuni! To make it easier, I updated my recipe. Everyone makes it different amount of dashi or mentsuyu, so I didn’t mean to give fixed amount for this recipe.
I use “parts” for the seasonings so depending on the amount of kombu or katsuobushi, you can change the ratio. I kept the example amount in the recipe.
When I created mentsuyu recipe (https://www.justonecookbook.com/how_to/mentsuyu-noodle-soup-base/), I decided to create this post. If you end up using about 2×2 or 3×3 kombu, katsuobushi leftover should be from 1 cup (original amount before making mentsuyu).
The kind of knife? Santoku knife, specifically Kikuichi brand.
I love this recipe. The konbu and katsuoboshi leftover from mentsuyu is definitely way too salty but when from just regular dashi stock, it’s perfect. I find that some left-over liquid in the fish flakes is important for preventing it from burning. Last time I made some, I made sure to “extract every drop” and it just turned into dried up flakes with no flavour whatsoever. Today, I tried to adjust the seasonings recipe to accomodate mentsuyu leftovers and it just burned :/ I think that I a) used too much sugar in too much liquid and b) cooked it too high or too long. I think that just a little liquid is good. Too much liquid takes too long to cook off!
I do find cutting the wet konbu to be a chore but we all have to make sacrifices, hah. I use a sharp serrated knife for that. I also replace mirin with Sho Chiku Bai gekkeikan sake and add extra sugar. To Irina asking about removing sugar from the recipe, unfortunely if you leave the small amounts of sugar out of this (or most other) Japanese dish it will just not taste right.
I love furikake and this tastes soooo much better than the store-bought stuff – and I don’t waste it, either ^_^
Nami, if you read this, how would much liquid+sugar would you recommend I use when leaving out soy sauce? That is the great mystery to me! No more salty furikake!
Hi Firebender! Sugar, mirin, soy sauce is to season the kombu and katsuobushi and it’s really up to you how much you want to add. You have to use low to medium low heat to let the liquid evaporate. You can taste the furikake while cooking to see how much sugar you want to add. 🙂
You’re so right! I made furikake with my dashi leftovers, and tried it on avocado for breakfast. It’s SO delicious! Oishii!!! Thank you! 🙂
Hi Hannah! I’m so happy you tried this recipe! Yes, sprinkle on avocado for breakfast! 🙂
Hi Nami
I love your blog/website! I am Sansei and since my mother was Kibei, I find many of your recipes most natsukashii! I grew up with furikake – do you have a recipe for a shiso furikake? My family loves one I purchase called “shiso fumi furikake”. I grow both red and green shiso in my garden in Portland, OR and love to find recipes for both. thanks! Cathy
Hi Cathy! Ah, I love Yukari (another name for the same thing) too! I don’t know how to make it, but I assume you blend dried red shiso + sesame seeds + umeboshi (no seed)… should be easy to make, but I need to test the recipe… but… I don’t get red shiso here… 🙁 I think you can probably find the recipe in Japanese. Try searching Yukari. That’s more commonly used name. 🙂
I’m making this right now, right after having made your ichiban dashi recipe! I love using everything to the last drop so this recipe makes me happy. How should I store the furikake if I’m not using it right away? In the fridge? Straight into the freezer? Thanks!
Sorry! Just saw the note at the very end of the recipe. Please disregard my question 🙂
Hi Jenn! No problem. I’m so happy to hear you made this! 🙂
Hi! We really enjoyed making the new year’s soba and Furikake! It was a fun family project for us. Thank you!
Hi Sharon! I’m so happy to hear that. Thanks for trying my recipes and for your kind feedback. 🙂
Hello, I want to offer homemade furikake to my family for Christimas, but you wrote that it needs to be stored in the fridge. How can I do as I am quite trouble to leave the whole Christmas package in the fridge until the morning, please ? Thank you in advance, I can’t wait to make it !
What a wonderful idea, Maëlys! I think it’s possible. After you make it, make sure it’s completely cooled down before putting in a mason jar. 🙂 Once your family members open the jar, it should be kept in the fridge as it’s drier than at the room temperature. 🙂
I’m confused. When I cut up the kombu and dry it in the pan with the bonito flakes, the kombu is so hard and dry and impossible to chew. How small do you ccut the kombu?
Hi Michele! First of all, different kombu has different hardness, so your variation can be harder than other types. I cut/mince into small pieces since it’s for sprinkling over rice. Like 2 x 2 mm size.
Hi there! Just wondering if you have a mixed grain Japanese rice recipe available (made from scratch) I’m struggling to find one without using the pre made grains mixture which is extremely difficult to get! Thanks heaps
Hi Thanh! Ahhh I see, I don’t really have the recipe… but it’s preference too. I think it’ll be interesting to make your favorite mix, by slowly adjusting the different kinds and amount. Sorry I wish I could help…