3 Ways To Make Dashi (Video)

Learn how to make Japanese dashi soup stock at home with 3 simple methods today!

Dashi (だし) is the basic stock used for Japanese cooking. My best guess is if you are not familiar with Japanese ingredients when you see “dashi” in my ingredient lists and you might have thought to yourself, what’s dashi… can I skip it?

Frankly speaking, if you try making Japanese food without dashi, it will not taste authentic. You cannot replace dashi with chicken or vegetable stock. If you skip it, the resulting dish will not reflect it’s true taste.

We make dashi almost every day and use it in many dishes. I usually make a big pot of dashi and use some portions of it for my main or side dishes. The leftover dashi in the pot becomes the base for miso soup. Japanese dishes are always served with a bowl of miso soup, so no dashi will end up going to waste.

Types of Dashi

Before I start explaining the 3 methods to make dashi, please know that the Japanese have different types of dashi.

There are 4 types of dashi: Awase Dashi (most basic), Kombu Dashi (Vegetarian/Vegan), Iriko Dashi, and Shiitake Dashi. To learn about each dashi, please read more on this post.

How To Make Dashi 3 Ways

Today we’ll be making the most basic dashi, Awase Dashi, 3 ways. However, you can use the same approaches to make different types of dashi I’ve shared previously.

The three methods include a dashi packet, which I use the most often in my daily cooking, dashi powder, if you’re in hurry, and lastly homemade dashi, the most delicious dashi you can make at home.

Method 1: Use Dashi Packet to Make Dashi

Dashi packet is a little pouch that contains premixed ingredients to make dashi. It’s convenient because you don’t have to prepare each ingredient yourself – everything in a tea-bag-like packet and all you need to do is to drop it in the water and boil. You don’t need to drain over a strainer and instead just pick up the packet and throw it away after it releases all the flavors into the stock.

This is a quick method, just like dashi powder, yet the taste is closer to homemade dashi because of the real ingredients in the dashi packet.

The big Japanese grocery stores carry it but typical Asian grocery stores usually don’t. However, you can purchase it online from this store (ships internationally) or Amazon.

Method 2: Use Dashi Powder

If you occasionally cook Japanese food and need dashi for Japanese cooking, many of you probably start with the powder method.

It makes sense because dashi powder is relatively easily accessible in Asian grocery stores (and even in American supermarket) and available in many countries (Amazon also sells it). All you need is to sprinkle the dashi powder in the boiling water, and dashi is made!

If you don’t cook Japanese food often, this is a great solution because you just need a box of dashi powder handy and don’t need to buy the several ingredients required for making dashi.

Method 3: Make Homemade Dashi

Just like any other food, nothing beats a delicious homemade dish made from scratch. The same thing goes to homemade dashi. Compared to chicken/beef/vegetable broth, Japanese dashi is much easier and quicker to make. The methods are simple and you only need a few ingredients. If you’re new to dashi, it might sound very intimidating, but you can watch the video to see how easy it is to make them.

Six Great Recipes You Can Make With Dashi

Miso Soup

Oyakodon

Beef Udon

Agedashi Tofu

Chawanmushi

Nabeyaki Udons

If you’re interested in specific dashi, please check out the following links for how to make  Awase Dashi (with video), Kombu Dashi, Iriko Dashi (with video), and Shiitake Dashi (with video).

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3 Ways To Make Dashi (with Video)

4.78 from 18 votes

Learn how to make Japanese soup stock at home with 3 simple methods today!

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Video

Prep Time: 10 minutes mins

Cook Time: 9 minutes mins

Ingredients

 

US CustomaryMetric

 

For a Dashi Packet

• ▢ 2–3 cups water (use 2 cups for rich dashi and 3 cups for regular use)
• ▢ 1 dashi packet (9 g)

For Dashi Powder

• ▢ 2 cups water
• ▢ 1 tsp dashi powder (3 g)

For Homemade Dashi

• ▢ 1 piece kombu (dried kelp) (0.3 oz, 10 g; 4 x 4 inches, 10 x 10 cm per piece)
• ▢ 4 cups water
• ▢ 1-3 cups katsuobushi (dried bonito flakes) (~1 oz; adjust as you like)

Japanese Ingredient Substitution: If you want substitutes for Japanese condiments and ingredients, click here.

Cook ModePrevent your screen from going dark

Instructions

 

• Please check out the tutorial video to watch me make Dashi using three different methods! You can also go to my blog posts below for specific recipes with instructions and photos:

To Use a Dashi Packet

• Please see my step-by-step instructions and photos at my blog post How to Make Japanese Soup Stock with a Dashi Packet.

To Use Dashi Powder

• Please see my step-by-step instructions with photos at my blog post How to Use Dashi Powder to make Japanese soup stock.

For Homemade Dashi

• To make basic, all-purpose Awase Dashi (kombu bonito stock) from scratch, please see my step-by-step instructions with photos at my ultimate guide How to Make Dashi. Other variations include Katsuo Dashi (bonito stock) and Iriko Dashi (anchovy stock). For vegan/vegetarian stock, try my recipes Shiitake Dashi, and Kombu Dashi, or Vegan Dashi (shiitake kombu stock).

Nutrition

Calories: 5 kcal · Carbohydrates: 1 g · Protein: 1 g · Sodium: 42 mg · Potassium: 32 mg · Fiber: 1 g · Sugar: 1 g · Calcium: 133 mg · Iron: 1 mg

Author: Namiko Hirasawa Chen

Course: Soup

Cuisine: Japanese

Keyword: dashi

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