Shiitake Dashi is a great option for vegans and vegetarians to use for Japanese soup stock. When you soak dried shiitake mushrooms for recipes, simply collect the liquid and repurpose it as an intense stock that’s packed with umami.
Dashi is Japanese soup stock that’s a fundamental ingredient in Japanese cuisine to create umami. Japanese stocks are often made with fish like dried bonito flakes or iriko/niboshi (dried anchovies). However, there are plant-based options that you can use, too.
Today, I want to share how to make Shiitake Dashi (干し椎茸の戻し汁/椎茸のだし) for use in vegan/vegetarian recipes. I will show you how to rehydrate dried shiitake mushrooms for other recipes and repurpose the soaking liquid as a soup stock for cooking.
Table of Contents
What is Shiitake Dashi?
Shiitake Dashi (干し椎茸の戻し汁/椎茸のだし) is the liquid created from rehydrating dried shiitake mushrooms in water.
Instead of regular vegetable broth, we use Kombu Dashi and Shiitake Dashi as the only vegetarian and vegan stock in Japanese cooking. These soup stocks allow you to cook authentic Japanese dishes without sacrificing flavor.
Shiitake Dashi for Vegetarians and Vegans
Shiitake Dashi is considered a by-product of reconstituting dried shiitake mushrooms. We use only a small amount of water for rehydrating, so the resulting stock has a very strong and concentrated flavor.
Since the soaking liquid has good nutrients and flavor, we never throw it away and try to find a use for it in cooking. We usually combine the liquid with other kinds of dashi to enhance flavor and add umami. However, we rarely used shiitake dashi on its own.
Since I moved to the US, I learned that a lot of vegetarians and vegans here use diluted shiitake dashi (the soaking liquid) as a vegetarian/vegan-friendly stock in their Japanese cooking.
Intense and Strong Shiitake Flavor
In Japan, kombu dashi is by far the most commonly used dashi for vegetarian/vegan cooking. That’s because shiitake dashi’s intense flavor often overwhelms subtle Japanese seasonings.
However, if you enjoy the deep and rich taste of shiitake dashi, you can use this soaking liquid exclusively for stock to cook Japanese food.
Please note that we can only use dried shiitake mushrooms to make stock because fresh shiitake mushrooms lack the same intense flavor profile.
Tips To Get the Best Flavor from Dried Shiitake Mushrooms
Good dried shiitake mushrooms are expensive, but the flavors and texture are amazing. Oita prefecture (大分県) in the Kyushu region is known for the best-quality dried shiitake mushrooms. Follow these tips to extract the best flavor from this precious ingredient:
- Buy thick mushrooms with deep white fissures on the cap (more flavor).
- Use cold water to soak dried shiitake mushrooms to slowly bring out the flavor from the mushrooms, preferably overnight.
How To Make Shiitake Dashi
In this recipe, I‘ll show you how to make two types of shiitake dashi: a typical concentrated stock and a diluted stock. I include both the typical method (a few hours or overnight) and the quick method (15 minutes).
Concentrated Stock (Typical Method)
- Soak 3 dried shiitake mushrooms in ½–⅔ cup cold water in an airtight container. Place a heavy object on top to submerge the shiitake. Steep in the refrigerator for a few hours or preferably overnight until soft.
- Optional quick method: Soak the shiitake in ½–⅔ cup warm water (body temperature) for 15 minutes or until softened.
- Squeeze to drain the mushrooms. Reserve the soaking liquid. Use the rehydrated shiitake in another recipe. Cut off the tough stems and use them as you would fresh shiitake mushrooms.
- To collect the dashi, strain the soaking liquid through a fine-mesh sieve. Your concentrated stock is now ready to use.
Diluted Stock
- Soak 3 dried shiitake mushrooms in 2 cups cold water in an airtight container. Place a heavy object on top to submerge the shiitake. Steep in the refrigerator for a few hours or preferably overnight until soft.
- Optional quick method: Soak the shiitake in 2 cups warm water (body temperature) for 15 minutes or until softened.
- Squeeze to drain and reserve the liquid.
- Strain the liquid to collect the dashi. Your diluted stock is now ready to use.
Japanese Soup Stock for Vegetarian Cooking
Shiitake dashi stores well in the refrigerator for 2–3 days and up to 1 month in the freezer, so you can prepare your stock ahead of time. That way, you’ll always have dashi on hand whenever you make miso soup or noodle soups.
Try these vegetarian and vegan-friendly recipes that use dashi:
- Vegetarian Ramen
- Vegan Miso Soup
- Spinach Ohitashi (Japanese Spinach Salad)
- Kenchinjiru (clear soup with root vegetables and tofu)
- Kitsune Udon
The Ultimate Dashi Guide
Dashi plays an important role as a flavor enhancer in Japanese cooking, so you don’t need to season the food with too much salt, fat, and sugar. Rich in minerals and other vitamins, dashi is considered a healthy ingredient in our daily diet.
There are six different types of dashi you can use in Japanese cooking, including vegetarian and vegan dashi (*).
- Awase Dashi – a stock made from a combination of dried kelp + bonito flakes
- Kombu Dashi * – a stock made from dried kelp
- Katsuo Dashi – a stock made from dried bonito flakes
- Iriko Dashi – a stock made from dried anchovies/sardines
- Shiitake Dashi * – a stock made from dried shiitake mushrooms
- Vegan Dashi * – a stock made from dried shiitake mushrooms and kombu
If you are new to different types of dashi, check out my Ultimate Dashi Guide.
Wish to learn more about Japanese cooking? Sign up for our free newsletter to receive cooking tips & recipe updates! And stay in touch with me on Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube, and Instagram.
Shiitake Dashi
Video
Ingredients
For Rehydrating the Dried Shiitake and Collecting the Dashi
- 3 dried shiitake mushrooms (5–10 g each; found in Japanese and Asian grocery stores)
- ½–⅔ cup water (enough to cover the mushrooms)
For a Diluted Dashi
- 3 dried shiitake mushrooms (5–10 g each)
- 2 cups water
Instructions
Before You Start…
- In Japan, we collect shiitake dashi as a by-product of reconstituting dried shiitake mushrooms for recipes. We soak them only in just enough water to cover, so the resulting stock has a very strong and concentrated flavor. In this recipe, I‘ll show you two ways to rehydrate dried shiitake for either a typical stock or a diluted stock. Ideally, you want to start your dashi ahead of time and let it steep for a few hours or preferably overnight. Alternatively, I‘ll also show you a quick method that takes only 15 minutes of steeping time.
★ To Rehydrate the Dried Shiitake and Collect the Dashi ★
- Gather all the ingredients. Check the dried shiitake mushrooms to see if there is any dust or dirt trapped in the gills. If there is, use a pastry brush to clean it. Do not wash it under water.
- Place 3 dried shiitake mushrooms in a mason jar or airtight container and add ½–⅔ cup water (cold) to cover the mushrooms. Place a heavy object on top of the mushrooms to keep them submerged so they fully rehydrated. If you have time, let them soak in the refrigerator for a few hours or preferably overnight. If you are in a hurry, soak them in ½–⅔ cup warm water (body temperature) for 15 minutes or until softened.
- When the shiitake mushrooms are tender, squeeze to drain, reserving the liquid.
- Use the rehydrated shiitake mushrooms in the recipe of your choice. You can use them as you would fresh shiitake mushrooms. Simply remove and discard the tough stems with a knife.
- To collect the shiitake dashi, run the soaking liquid through a fine-mesh sieve to catch any dirt or debris. This concentrated Shiitake Dashi is now ready to use for adding to a sauce, steaming, seasoning, and so on.
To Store
- You can store the dashi in the refrigerator for 2–3 days or in the freezer for 1 month.
★ To Make a Diluted Shiitake Dashi ★
- Gather all the ingredients. Check if there is any dust or dirt trapped in the gills of the mushrooms. If there is, use a pastry brush to clean. Do not wash it under water.
- Soak 3 dried shiitake mushrooms in 2 cups water. Place a heavy object on top of the mushrooms to keep them submerged so they fully rehydrated. If you have time, let them soak in the refrigerator for a few hours or preferably overnight. If you’re in a hurry, soak them in 2 cups warm water for 15 minutes or until softened.
- After soaking for several hours…
- When the shiitake mushrooms are tender, squeeze to drain, reserving the liquid.
- Use the rehydrated shiitake mushrooms in the recipe of your choice. You can use them as you would fresh shiitake mushrooms. Simply remove and discard the tough stems with a knife.
- To collect the shiitake dashi, run the soaking liquid through a fine-mesh sieve. Your diluted Shiitake Dashi is now ready to use.
To Store
- You can store the dashi in the refrigerator for 2–3 days or in the freezer for 1 month.
Notes
Nutrition
Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in March 2015. The images and recipe have been updated in April 2019.
Does the shiitake mushroom dashi have the same taste as the kombu+bonito flake dashi?
Hi Jerico! No, COMPLETELY different taste. 🙂
I love to use shiitake dashi but dried shiitake are very expensive where I currently am and I’m often prevented from making a lot of recipes because the dashi part isn’t cost effective. Is there any such thing as a shiitake dashi powder? And is it any good? Love your recipes
Hi J! Thank you for your kind words. 🙂 Unfortunately, it’s not very common but there is one brand here that is powder from just shiitake: https://amzn.to/372N4kK
The Chinese and Korean use dried shiitake and they may have less expensive dried shiitake mushrooms at the grocery stores.
Hi there! Looks really good. I wonder though- what do I do if I want a litre? Do I just add water or should I scale it all up so I use about 10 times as many shiitake? I mean – I want to use it for miso ramen – but 120 ‘ll is not enough soup for two people 🙂
Hi Jonas! I have edited the recipe so it makes more sense for everyone. In Japan, we actually consider the rehydrated shiitake mushrooms as the main purpose of doing this process. The leftover liquid is considered more like a secondary product and call it “modoshi-jiru” which means the liquid came from rehydration. We don’t want to throw away such liquid so we use it for cooking, but we do not make “shiitake dashi” for using it as dashi. The “modoshi-jiru” is always used with other dashi and not used solely. But I know a lot of people (outside of Japan) like the flavor of shiitake dashi and use it as main dashi and especially popular among vegan/vegetarians. So I edited the ingredient section in the recipe and the method of preparation is the same.
If you need to rehydrate the mushrooms for your recipe
2-3 Dried shiitake mushrooms (10-20 g; See Notes)
½ cup water (120 ml) (enough to cover mushrooms)
If you need the liquid (shiitake dashi)
2-3 Dried shiitake mushrooms (10-20 g; See Notes)
2 cups water (480 ml)
Thanks a lot! It makes a lot of sense – so it can be mixed with kombu dashi?
What should the balance be? How much shiitake dashi for 1 liter kombu?
And can the dehydrated mushrooms be used in ramen or should they be fried or anything first (after they are rehydrated)
Hi Jonas! Yes, you can mix with kombu dashi. In Japan, it would be mainly kombudashi and we add “modoshi-jiru” (leftover liquid from rehydrating). The flavor is totally up to you. There is no “wrong” for this. You can use the mushrooms – should be cooked after you hydrated. You can simmer with soy sauce, sugar, sake, mirin etc. But remember, these mushrooms taste strong, so you may want to want to slice thinly and cook in seasonings.
Awesome! Thanks a lot!
Hi, thanks for the recipe! How many grams of shiitake would that roughly be?
HI Artur! I just measured and updated the recipe. Each dried shiitake mushroom is roughly 5-7 grams (one had 11 g!). It depends on the cap and stem’s sizes and thickness.
Thank you!
When do you use fresh shiitake? I was wondering if I can use fresh shiitake to make the dashi. I don’t think it will have intense flavor but it will have some flavor right? Thank you.
Hi Yu! We use fresh shiitake as an ingredient for many recipes, but we do not use fresh shiitake to extract the flavors for making dashi. When you bite into shiitake, you can taste it but it won’t yield much flavor by cooking it.
Hi Nami-san! I tried your tonyu nabe the other day and loved it. The problem is, I now have an abundance of shiitake dashi since we rehydrate them first before putting them into the nabe. Can you recommend some recipes that I can use them for? Preferably one that does not need accompaniment of another dashi since we are running very low on awase dashi. Thank you!
Hi Rebecca! I’m so happy you liked Tonyu Nabe recipe! You can use for cooking mixed rice (Takikomi Gohan), soup (including miso soup or clear soup), and simmered dishes (I have simmered dish category in Recipe index). You can use it solely. Hope this helps…
How many mushrooms should I use if I am making 4 cups of miso soup?
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. 🙂
Hi Nami! Do you mean using 1/4 to 1/2 cup of dried shiitake to soak in the kombu dashi? Or do you mean combining 1/4 to 1/2 of shiitake dashi with the kombu dashi to make miso soup?
Thanks!
Hi Llucinda! What I meant was 1/4 cup out of 4 cups dashi will be Shiitake Dashi (so 1/4 cup shiitake dashi + 3 3/4 cup kombu dashi. The ratio is really up to you. Like I mentioned, we do not use shiitake dashi for miso soup, so I would keep it minimal. But if you like it, you can add more. It’s really up to your preference. 🙂
Thank you for this recipe. I made the Shiitake and Kombu Dashi broth as written, it is so delicious!
Hi Tricia! I’m so glad you enjoyed it! Thank you for your kind feedback. 🙂
Hi Nami-san,
I was wondering if a shiitake dashi can also last as long as other dashis?
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! 🙂
hello, very good in written and easy to understand. thanks for the recepi.
i gonna try. (^_^)
Hope you enjoy my recipes! 🙂
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.
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. 🙂
Thank you. Does this process work for dried shiitake pieces as well. And can you freeze the shiitake dashi?
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. 🙂
Maybe I might misunderstood. What are dried shiitake pieces? There are small pieces of dried shiitake instead of whole piece?
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!
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. 🙂
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?
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!
Thank you. That answers my question. Can’t wait to make my Miso soup now.
You’re very welcome! Enjoy! 🙂
Hi there! Just looking up different dashi recipes! My goodness there are so many slight variations everywhere I look!
Would you say there is a right and wrong way of making it? I’m looking at recipes posted by different Japanese cooks and there’s still differences.
I like the idea of making separate shiitake and kombu dashi and combining them for miso soup, what would the ratio of cups be for each type if I’m combining them? Thanks!
Hi Lucinda! There is no right or wrong way to make dashi. Ingredients can be expensive, so at home you may not put too much to make rich dashi. But traditional Japanese restaurant will make really nice dashi with good amount of ingredients to get the basic flavor – dashi is the key for Japanese food after all.
A lot of people just make dashi by guess, not always measuring with a scale etc. So you can see how it can be slightly different too. And depending on the dish you’re making, we do adjust the amount of bonito flakes or kombu etc…
As I mentioned in the post, we do not use shiitake dashi for miso soup, so if you’re using, it’s really up to you how much you want that shiitake flavor in the dashi. 🙂
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
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!
Just wanted to ask, could you make a katsuboshi + shiitake broth? I’m trying to find Kombu where I live, but it’s proving a little difficult. I wanna make one of your udon dishes this week, and can make either individually, but wondering if they’d taste okay together!
Hi Kay, Thank you very much for trying recipes! For Udon dishes like Kitsune Udon, you can use just Katsuobushi instead of mixing it with Shiitake broth. Both have a robust flavor, and we normally mix them with mild Kombu dashi. However, it is up to your preference and of course you can mix them too.🙂
Namiko ,thank you for this recipe. You said to rehydrate at least overnight, would more than overnight,say 3 days, makes it taste bettter?
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!