Steeped in a savory dashi broth, Japanese Spinach Salad uses a simple method called ohitashi to infuse the greens with subtle umami flavor. It‘s one of the classic Japanese cooking techniques used to prepare vegetable side dishes. {Vegan Adaptable}
Do you know what type of recipes Just One Cookbook readers request most? They are side dishes and vegan recipes! I’ve been sharing popular Japanese recipes and main dishes for many years, however, it’s time to add more sides!
Today’s recipe, Spinach Ohitashi (ほうれん草のお浸し) is a Japanese Spinach Salad with Savory Broth, and I included a vegan-friendly version!
What is Ohitashi?
Ohitashi (お浸し) refers to a dish in which vegetables are steeped in a dashi-based sauce. It’s a common Japanese cooking technique we use for preparing vegetable dishes. This method infuses the ingredients with dashi’s umami and subtle flavor but still retains its natural taste.
To make ohitashi, you first blanch the vegetable, then halt the cooking in the ice bath. Afterward, allow the vegetable to absorb the dashi-based sauce.
We typically serve Ohitashi with a sprinkle of Katsuobushi (dried bonito flakes) on top. For today’s recipe, I included a vegan-friendly version in mind.
Vegan-friendly version: Use vegan-friendly Kombu Dashi for steeping and garnish with toasted sesame seeds instead of katsuobushi.
Regular version: If you prefer a more prominent dashi flavor, use Awase Dashi, a combination of both kombu and katsuobushi.
Serve Spinach Ohitashi with Your Japanese Meal
A typical Japanese meal consists of steamed rice, miso soup, main dish, and side dishes. This set meal is called Ichiju Sansai (一汁三菜) and we have a detailed post on this topic here.
Japanese set meal encourages you to eat a balanced diet. You’ll find each dish presented in individual serving wares, and side dishes are usually in a kobachi (小鉢, literally meaning “small bowl”). As a result of this attentive arrangement, we can easily control the portion of the food.
Here are a few suggestions that I would serve with Spinach Ohitashi (Japanese Spinach Salad):
Rice
Miso Soup
Main Dish
- Eggplant Miso Dengaku
- Warm Mushroom Salad
- Mapo Tofu
- Grilled Mackerel
- Nikujaga (Meat and Pork Stew)
- Baked Tonkatsu
- Teriyaki Steak Rolls
Side Dishes
- Chilled Tofu
- Hijiki Seaweed Salad
- Kinpira Renkon (Stir-Fried Lotus Root)
- Simmered Kabocha
- Kinpira Gobo (Stir-Fried Burdock Root)
- Spinach Gomaae (Spinach Salad with Sesame Sauce)
Ohitashi is Great for Meal Prep!
Since ohitashi requires making ahead of time, it makes a perfect side dish for meal prepping.
In general, you can steep the vegetables in the dashi soy broth for 3 days. If you have 20-30 minutes to spare, prepare your vegetables and let them absorb all the flavor as you store in the refrigerator. Use a clean utensil and container and put it in the refrigerator as soon as the food is cool. This allows the food to last longer.
If you’re interested in meal prep recipes, click here for more inspiration!
Don’t like Spinach?
You can apply the Ohitashi method to almost any kind of vegetable! If you are not a fan of spinach, try other vegetables like okra, eggplant, boy choy, and other leafy greens.
Eggplant Agebitashi (variation of Ohitashi)
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Spinach Ohitashi (Japanese Spinach Salad)
Ingredients
For the Kombu Dashi
- ½ cup water (or use Awase Dashi or Vegan Dashi and skip the kombu)
- 1 piece kombu (dried kelp) (5 g; 2 x 2 inches or 5 x 5 cm per piece; or substitute a dashi packet or powder)
For the Seasonings
- 1 Tbsp mirin
- 1 Tbsp usukuchi (light-colored) soy sauce
For the Spinach
- 1 bunch spinach (8 oz, 227 g)
- 1 pinch Diamond Crystal kosher salt
For the Toppings
- katsuobushi (dried bonito flakes) (skip for vegan/vegetarian)
- toasted white sesame seeds
Instructions
- Gather all the ingredients.
To Make the Kombu Dashi
- In a saucepan, put ½ cup water and 1 piece kombu (dried kelp).
- Slowly bring it to a boil. Once boiling, remove the kombu from the liquid (and reserve it to make Kombu Tsukudani). Now, you have kombu dashi. If you are not vegan/vegetarian, you can add a small amount of katsuobushi for more flavor (see my Awase Dashi recipe for instructions).
To Make the Savory Broth
- To the dashi, add 1 Tbsp mirin and 1 Tbsp usukuchi (light-colored) soy sauce.
- Mix together, bring to a boil, and turn off the heat. Set aside.
To Prepare the Spinach
- Rinse well 1 bunch spinach.
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Once boiling, add 1 pinch Diamond Crystal kosher salt. Add the spinach to the boiling water stem side first since the stems take longer to cook.
- After 15 seconds, push down the leafy part into the water and cook for up to 1 minute. (Spinach in the US is more tender than Japanese spinach, so it cooks faster.) Once the spinach is cooked through in roughly less than 1 minute, remove it quickly from the boiling water.
- Transfer to a bowl of iced water and let it cool (but don’t leave the spinach too long, as it will lose nutrients).
- As soon as it‘s cooled, collect the spinach and squeeze out the water. If you like to serve this dish as I do, gather together the spinach neatly by the stems. I like to serve both the stem and leafy parts separately instead of mixing it up together.
- Cut the spinach into 1½-inch (3.75-cm) lengths and squeeze the water out one more time.
To Soak in the Broth
- Put the spinach in an airtight container. Now, pour the savory broth over the spinach.
- Make sure the spinach is evenly distributed in the container and fully submerged in the broth. Put the lid on and let it soak in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour and ideally up to 3–4 hours.
To Serve
- Serve the spinach in small individual bowls and pour some broth on top. I like to make sure each bowl gets both the stem and leafy parts. The dark and light green color contrast makes a beautiful presentation.
- Sprinkle with toasted white sesame seeds for a vegan/vegetarian version. For the standard version, add katsuobushi (dried bonito flakes) on top. Enjoy!
To Store
- You can keep Spinach Ohitashi in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
Nutrition
Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on January 26, 2012. It’s been updated with a new video on September 2019.
Made this recipe this weekend, and absolutely loved it! Easy to make and incredibly flavorful.
Thank you for sharing it!
Taline from Paris
Hi Taline! I’m so happy to hear you enjoyed this recipe! Thank you for your kind feedback. xo
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How long ahead of time can one make this?
Hi Jennifer! You can store this for up to 2-3 days in the fridge. 🙂
Hi Nami, may I ask if it is okay to boil the kelp (to make dashi) together with Mirin and soy sauce? I made this dish a few times already but looks like I don’t remember the exact process. Thanks Nami for sharing such a wonderful recipe.
Hi Shelly! Sure! I’m glad you enjoy my recipes. Thank you for your kind comment. 🙂
Nami,
I have a question. In the stores where i live, the only types of Mirin are for cooking and are sweet. Is this normal or is Mirin suppose to not be so sweet?
Hi Kamaile! Mirin is supposed to be sweet. It’s basically sake (rice wine) and sugar. 🙂
I made this for dinner this evening to accompany Chicken Karaage. It was great! My daughter loves, loves, loves spinach.
Hi Deborah! Thank you for your kind feedback! I’m so happy to hear your daughter loved it! 🙂
Can I make this the night before and let it soak overnight of will that be bad for the dish?
Hi Courtney! Ideally 3-4 hours, and I’m afraid overnight is a bit too long which might end up with too salty. You can give it a try. Japanese dishes are usually lightly seasoned and you might be okay with overnight. It’s not for marinating meat, and it’s just spinach, so it’s not necessarily needed to be soaked for a long time. I’d probably do just 1 hour instead of overnight. 🙂
Thank you! We were going to something all day and I wanted to make some yummy bentos, so I wanted to know what things I could make the night before, but I will just save this for the morning.
Can you use the Japanese Spinach for this? Komatsuna, I think?
English spinach seems to be rare in Taipei but xiao song cai (小松菜) is really easy to get.
Hi Angelo! Yes you can use komatsuna for this. People use shungiku (春菊 or Tong Ho) too! 🙂
Thank you, good to know. Ironically I went to the supermarket yesterday and they were overflowing with not English spinach but 菠菜, which is basically the same thing.
I guess it helps to be able to read a bit of mandarin.
Hi Angelo! Haha yes, definitely!! I use Japanese (kanji) to guess what it means… 🙂
The prep time should say 3-4 hours rather than 15 min!
Hi Genie! Thank you so much for pointing that out. To keep it consistent with other recipes, I put a note saying that prep time does not include 2-3 hours of soaking time. Prep and Cook time is only for active cooking time. Thank you so much for your feedback!
I made this last night and it was as good as I hoped it would be. You really must soak the spinach as instructed. It develops so much flavor from the soaking. I’ve also made your recipe “Spinach Gomaae” and that is my husbands favorite. Very savory. Your recipes are so authentic! Thanks for sharing Nami.
Btw, your recipe for Tamagoyaki is the BEST!
Hi Esther! Thank you so much for trying this recipe as well as others. I’m glad to hear you enjoy them. 🙂 Thank you for your kind feedback! xo
Hi! Great recipe and I have been using this for my bentos for the past 2 days
I’ve added shimeji and julienned carrots to my ohitashi for more colour
Would it be better to cool the soy sauce and mirin marinade before pouring them into the veggies? This is so you avoid over cooking the spinach and having to cool the spinach + marinade before putting everything into the fridge
Hi Lisa! Thank you for pointing it out. We actually made a video and retake all the pictures for this recipe and the order is exactly how you described. I swapped the steps for now, but I’ll add new images and video soon. I’m so happy to hear you enjoy this dish! I love that you added colors too. 🙂
Hello, I love Japanese foods and I have enjoyed making Japanese foods by following your recipes here 🙂 You have such a great collection of recipes which are easy to follow!
I just have a question when making this recipe, the spinach got slimey after I blanched and squeezed the water out of it (and I hate slimey foods). Is that normal? Is there anything wrong in the cooking process like blanching it too long (I did it about 1 minute) or squeezing it too hard? Do you have any advice? Thanks alot!
Hi Hikari! Thank you so much for trying my recipes and I’m so glad to hear you like them. 🙂
When you over cook spinach, leaves become slimy and make the bitter flavor more prominent. In Japan, spinach is thicker and can’t be eaten raw so we cook longer, but here in the U.S. we just need to take it out as soon as it starts to get wilted. It depends on how much spinach you put it in the pot too (let’s say if you cook small amount, you prob don’t need 1 minute). Next time try to take it out earlier especially if you dislike the slimy spinach. Hope that helps. 🙂
Thanks so much for the advice Nami-san! I will try it next time, hope this time it will work. Please keep on posting wonderful recipes 🙂
Thank you Hikari! 🙂