A good umami-rich dashi is one of the foundations of Japanese cuisine as you probably know. But for vegans, there's a problem with dashi - it is made with katsuobushi (dried bonito flakes) which is a fish product. So, if you don't want any animal products in your food, here's the good news - you can make your own fragrant Japanese dashi stock without using katsubushi. It gets better too - there's absolutely no cooking required!
All you need to make a no cook vegan dashi is three ingredients: cold water, shiitake mushrooms and a piece of dried konbu (kelp.) This no cook dashi is made at least 24 hours in advance of when it will be needed. It spends that time in the fridge with the shiitake and konbu slowly releasing their subtle umami flavours into the water. What you get is a fragrant stock - not as rich as a dashi stock prepared with katsuobushi but a very good substitute which is ideal for Japanese o-sumashi clear soups and vegetable ramen and udon dishes.
So, if you want to try out what must be the easiest ever vegan dashi stock recipe, you can watch the Youtube tutorial by clicking No Cook Vegan Japanese Dashi stock or just scroll to the bottom of the page. The written recipe is just below.
Happy cooking! Kurumi XXXX.
ingredients:
(makes 1 litre / 2 pints of stock)
10g / 0.3 oz dried kelp/konbu
5g / 0.2 oz dried shiitake mushrooms
1 litre / 2 pints of cold water
a sealable container or large screw top bottle
how to:
rinse the dried shiitake mushrooms lightly with some water to remove any bits
pour the water into your container or bottle. add the shiitake
wipe the konbu with a damp cloth or kitchen paper. you don't need to get it wet, just remove anything on the surface. add the konbu to the water
refridgerate for 24 hours
next day, remov ethe kelp/konbu and shiitake mushrooms from the container and you no cook vegan dashi stock is ready to use. you can keep it for up to 14 days in the fridge
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