3 Ways To Make Dashi (Video) (2024)

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 nottaste authentic. You cannotreplace dashiwith chicken or vegetable stock. If you skip it, the resulting dishwill not reflect it’strue 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 ofmiso 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 are4types of dashi:Awase Dashi (most basic), Kombu Dashi (Vegetarian/Vegan), Iriko Dashi, and Shiitake Dashi. To learn about each dashi, please read more onthis post.

How To Make Dashi 3 Ways

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

The three methods includea dashi packet, which I use the most often in my daily cooking, dashi powder, if you’re in hurry, and lastlyhomemade 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 purchaseitonline from this store (ships internationally) or Amazon.

Method 2: Use Dashi Powder

If you occasionallycook Japanese food andneed dashi for Japanese cooking, many of you probably start with the powdermethod.

It makes sense because dashi powder isrelatively easily accessible inAsian grocery stores (and even in American supermarket) and availablein many countries (Amazonalso 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 makingdashi.

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 seehow 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 forhow to make Awase Dashi(with video),Kombu Dashi, Iriko Dashi(with video), and Shiitake Dashi(with video).

Wish to learn more about Japanese cooking?Sign up for ourfreenewsletterto receive cooking tips & recipeupdates! Andstay in touch with me onFacebook,Pinterest,YouTube, andInstagram.