Aside from kombu dashi, shiitake dashi is another great option for vegetarians to make Japanese stock. To make flavorful and intense shiitake dashi, it is as simple as soaking dried shiitake mushroom in water.
Shiitake Dashi is the liquid created from re-hydrating dried shiitake mushrooms in water. I will show you how to re-hydrate dried shiitake mushrooms and make shiitake dashi for preparing food..
Shiitake dashi and Kombu dashi are the only vegetarian dashi in Japanese cooking.
Watch How to Make Shiitake Dashi 干し椎茸の戻し汁の作り方
Make flavorful and intense shiitake dashi by simply soaking dried shiitake mushroom in water.
In Japanese cooking, we use fresh shiitake mushrooms for grilled dishes and soups while we use dried ones for simmered, steamed, and stir fried dishes.
How to get the best flavor from dried shiitake mushrooms:
- Buy thick mushrooms with deep white fissures on the cap (more flavor)
- Rehydrate with cold water
- Rehydrate at least overnight
To make shiitake dashi, please note that we can only use dried shiitake mushrooms because fresh shiitake mushrooms do not have the same depth of flavors as the dried ones.
Shiitake dashi is more of a by-product after preparing dried shiitake mushrooms for cooking, but this soaking liquid has good nutrients and flavors so we never throw away and try to find good use for it in cooking. Shiitake dashi is rarely used as its own and usually combined with other kinds of dashi to enhance the flavor (add umami).
If you are looking for different kinds of dashi, please check my main Dashi page.
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- 2-3 Dried shiitake mushrooms (See Notes)
- ½ cup water (½ cup = 100 ml) (enough to cover mushrooms)
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Gather all the ingredients.
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Remove any particles of sand or dirt trapped under the gills (with pastry brush, if you have one) but do not use water to clean.
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Ideally you want to make shiitake dashi ahead of time. Place the mushrooms in an airtight container with a lid and pour water to cover the mushrooms. Tumble the mushrooms around to wet them. Put it in the refrigerator and let them soak for a few hours or (preferably) overnight.
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However, if you are in hurry, place the mushrooms in a bowl and soak them in warm water for 15 minutes or until softened. Put something heavy on top of the mushrooms so that they will be submerged under warm water and become fully re-hydrated.
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Give a gentle squeeze to drain, reserving the water.
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Remove and discard the stem of mushrooms with a knife (they are usually too tough to eat).
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Run the soaking liquid through a fine sieve and keep it for cooking (this is the shiitake dashi).
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Both shiitake dashi and mushrooms are ready to use for cooking. If you plan to save for later, you can store in the refrigerator for 2-3 days and 1 month in the freezer.
Dried shiitake mushrooms: This can be found in Japanese/Asian/Chinese grocery stores.
It’s recommended to use cold water to soak dried shiitake mushrooms to slowly bring out the flavor from mushrooms.
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d
Namiko ,thank you for this recipe. You said to rehydrate at least overnight, would more than overnight,say 3 days, makes it taste bettter?
Nami
Hi d! Actually, if your dried shiitake mushrooms are thick (usually cost more), it requires more than 24 days, and recommended for 2-3 days to get the whole flavor come out. I don’t think it’s necessary to soak for 3 days for thin regular kind. It won’t make much difference I think. 🙂 Hope this helps!
Chiemi
konnichiwa, Nami-san..
i can’t tell how happy i am that i found your site while searching for japanese dishes.. ^^ i’ve been in love with japanese dishes and wanted to make them at home and your recipes are really easy to understand even for a beginner like me.. i’m gonna try making them all starting from tomorrow! \^O^/ except for some recipes since i can’t get some of the ingredients in my countries.. anyway, arigatou gozaimashita! i’ll be your fan forever! pls update more recipes in the future! <3
Nami
Konnichiwa, Chiemi-san! I’m so happy to hear you enjoy reading my blog! 🙂 I hope you can find ingredients you need in your area. Thanks very much for following!
kazy
I just made shiitake dashi soup. I now want to make Miso soup. I usually make my Miso from scratch by boiling 4 cups of water, putting the konbu in the heated water for 15 minutes, discarding it, adding the Bonito flakes and simmering for 5-10 minutes m. I then remove the Bonito flakes, making the dashi. I then add tofu, wakame (that’s been hydrated) and mushrooms and simmer for another 5 minutes. Using a cup of the broth I place in bowl with miso paste, stir until dissolved and place back in soup pot and stir. I then add scallions. My question – and there is one here – if I’ve already made shiitake dashi broth, do I delete the konbu and/or the bonito flakes steps when making Miso soup with shiitake dashi? Or do I still add them?
Nami
HI Kazy! Typically, shiitake dashi is too weak to make miso soup, so we always combine with other dashi (it’s more like you use regular dashi and add shiitake dashi. We sometimes need the shiitake from dried shiitake, so we soak in water, and we don’t want to waste that leftover liquid (shiitake dashi) so we add the liquid into dishes, including miso soup. 🙂 Hope this helps!
kazy
Thank you. That answers my question. Can’t wait to make my Miso soup now.
Nami
You’re very welcome! Enjoy! 🙂
Len Welsh
I like to grind up the whole dry shiitake into a find powder and use that. If you use the soaked shiitake method they really are not too tough to eat, and as a matter of fact, the stems have the most flavor. Just slice very thin.
Actually, if you really want flavor, grind up dried porcinis into a powder. There is nothing better!
Nami
Hi Len! I guess that method would work too! However, this is the traditional Japanese approach when we make shiitake dashi. 🙂 We eat shiitake stem as well. 🙂
Donna rand
Thank you. Does this process work for dried shiitake pieces as well. And can you freeze the shiitake dashi?
Nami
Hi Donna! Do you mean “fresh” shiitake as I use “dried” shiitake for this recipe? Dried shiitake is packed with flavor and you can’t use fresh one for this recipe. And yes we can freeze the dashi. 🙂
Nami
Maybe I might misunderstood. What are dried shiitake pieces? There are small pieces of dried shiitake instead of whole piece?
L Carter
I know very little about cooking, but I was trying to find a basic meatless broth without added sodium, to use in cooking. According to the recipes I have read, I should be able to make a flavorful broth from dried shiitake mushrooms. I bought a package of sliced dried shiitake mushrooms from Asian grocery store. I soaked the dried mushrooms and then simmered till the slices were tender and edible, but I do NOT detect any umami flavor or any other flavor from the shiitake mushrooms. I found another recipe that calls for shiitake plus onions, leeks,, carrots, and spices. Adding the leeks does create at least some flavor though not much unless I added salt, which I don’t want to do, and if the only real flavor is coming from the leeks, then I don’t need the shiitake mushrooms or the onions and carrots, do I?
I also wanted to try to make a dashi from kombu and bonito flakes, but I suspect that there is already a high level of sodium added tomake the dry bonito flakes and the kombu, even if I don’t add any more salt.
Nami
Hello L Carter! I personally don’t think kombu is salty. Generally for 100 g kombu, salt is about 6-8 g (it can vary depends on kombu). So if it’s 5 g, salt is 0.3-0.4 g. For bonito flakes, it’s 1.2g for 100g. I think you can cut down on salt somewhere else but use kombu and bonito flakes to get umami. 🙂 With good umami, you don’t need to add salt to flavor. By the way, the white parts on kombu is not salt – that’s umami, so don’t wipe off. 🙂
rahimah
hello, very good in written and easy to understand. thanks for the recepi.
i gonna try. (^_^)
Nami
Hope you enjoy my recipes! 🙂
vanessa
Hi Nami-san,
I was wondering if a shiitake dashi can also last as long as other dashis?
Nami
Hi Vanessa! Thanks for asking! In the fridge, 2-3 days, and in freezer up to 1 month. I’ll add the info in my recipe. Glad you asked! 🙂
Nancy
How many mushrooms should I use if I am making 4 cups of miso soup?
Nami
Hi Nancy! It’s a little bit difficult question. We don’t use shiitake dashi ONLY to make miso soup. It’s way too strong (mushroom taste/smell) for dashi for miso soup. If we are going to use it, it will be only 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup for 4-6 cups of kombu dashi (vegan) or awase dashi (bontio flakes & kombu combo). Hope this makes sense. 🙂