Japanese Breakfast usually consists of Steamed Rice, some kind of protein such as eggs or fish, Miso Soup, and a small vegetable side dish like pickles. It is crucial to adjust how you prepare a traditional Japanese breakfast to be able to suit modern busy mornings.
The first thing you should do is the night before set the timer on the rice cooker to make steamed rice. It normally takes 40-50 minutes to cook rice, so it will save that much time by preparing and setting the timer in advance. When choosing protein, you have to consider how much cooking time you can spare in the morning. Eggs are a very good choice as a morning entree because they are a good source of protein and can be cooked quickly. If you have no time to cook, Natto, fermented soy beans, may be a good protein dish, but it has a very distinct flavor and texture, and may not be your preference. We cooked grilled salmon here, which is a very common Japanese breakfast. It is quite easy and doesn’t take that much time if prepared in advance.
Miso Soup is a staple dish for Japanese breakfast or any meal, really. To shorten the cooking time, you can use instant Dashi powder or Dashi packets. Also choosing what to put in Miso Soup is important. We chose baby spinach which doesn’t need to be cut and whole eggs which don’t need to be beaten. Japanese Breakfast almost always includes vegetables, often fermented pickled vegetables, but we opted for an easy cucumber dish anybody can make.
Although it may look like too much work to make Japanese breakfast, it really doesn’t take that much time if it’s thought out ahead. Try this easy combination, and you’ll be satisfied with a healthy and delicious meal.
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Yield: 2 servings
Ingredients
- 2 bowls Rice
- 2 pieces Shiozake (grilled salted salmon)
- 1 Japanese cucumber or 2 Persian cucumbers
- 2-3 Tbsp Salted Kombu
- 2 1/2 cups Dashi
- 3 Tbsp Miso paste
- 1 cup baby spinach
- 2 eggs
Instructions
- Cook Steamed Rice in advance. Salt the salmon the night before and keep refrigerated.
- For Cucumber and Kombu Tsukemono, slice cucumber thinly and diagonally. In a plastic bag, put cucumber and salted Kombu together and mix well. Leave for 15 minutes.
- For grilled salmon, cook fillets in the frying pan at medium heat covered about 3-4 minutes. Remove the lid, turn over, and cook another 3 minutes until cooked through.
- For Miso Soup, make Dashi first. Here, add a packet of Dashi mix in water in a pot and boil for 2 minutes. Turn down heat to low, dissolve Miso paste in soup, add spinach, and drop in eggs. Cover and cook for a couple of minutes until eggs reach the doneness you like.
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