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96 Vegetarian Japanese Foods
posted by John Spacey, January 29, 2015 updated on July 02, 2019
Japan is a vegetarian paradise wrapped in a vegetarian hell. Love of seafood is deeply engrained in Japanese culture. Japan is mostly mountains and has little arable land. It's also an island with a high population density. Historically, fish was key to survival. In Japan, you will quickly start to feel that there's fish in everything. The good news is that Japan has a rich tradition of cooking with vegetables. Hundreds of interesting vegetarian foods await you. If you only know how to find them.This list may help. It's roughly the 96 most common vegetable dishes in Japan. Keep in mind that these foods are available in Japan as vegetarian dishes but individual restaurants may add fish flavoring and other non-vegetarian ingredients because there is little awareness of purely vegetarian diets. The guide below notes such possibilities several times. Note: read the section on dashi.Japanese rice is a short grain, slightly sticky variety. The Japanese are mostly convinced it's the best rice in the world. If you spend enough time in Japan you may begin to agree.If you can't find enough vegetable dishes on the menu to fill up. It's often possible to order a bowl of plain rice. 2. Nama Tofu Fresh tofu served with grated ginger and shoyu. There's a big difference from one tofu to the next. You might be surprised how good tofu can taste if you hit a tofuya (restaurant that specializes in tofu dishes). Mochi are used in a wide variety of tasty dishes. The simplest is toasted or grilled mochi known as Kirimochi. It's topped with shoyu or kinako (roasted soy flour). 4. Zaru SobaCold buckwheat noodles served with a dipping sauce, negi, sesame seeds and shredded nori. Considered a summer dish. 5. Kitsune UdonKitsune Udon (literally: fox wheat noodles) are thick Japanese wheat noodles with aburaage on top. Aburaage is a favorite food of foxes and gods. 6. OchazukeA simple dish of green tea on cooked rice. Normally served with vegetables such as negi. Everyone's favorite salty young soybeans. A popular Japanese party food. Dashi is a simple Japanese soup and cooking stock made with umami ingredients such as kombu, shiitake mushrooms, niboshi, katsuobushi or chemical flavor enhancers. Dashi is most typically fish based but vegetarian dashi, especially kombu dashi is reasonably common.Dashi is an ingredient in hundreds of Japanese foods. It's as common as soy sauce. It's easy to find a vegetarian dashi stock at a supermarket in Japan. It's also easy to prepare vegetarian dashi by simmering kombu and shiitake. Most restaurants in Japan do include fish in their dashi but exceptions are common. More often than not it depends on the dish and the same restaurant may use both kombu dashi that's vegetarian and katsuobushi dashi that contains fish. 9. Miso VegetablesMiso is produced by fermenting soybeans, rice, wheat or barley. Miso paste is another fundamental ingredient in Japanese cuisine. It's also used as a vegetable dip for fresh or steamed vegetables.  Miso soup is a staple of the Japanese diet that's easy to find. At its most simple, miso soup is just dashi and miso. Many variations of dashi are vegetarian but many are also fish based. It is easy to find vegetarian miso ingredients at supermarkets in Japan but at restaurants it's hard to tell what dashi was used in a miso soup.The goal of any good miso soup is to balance ingredients that float and ingredients that sink in the soup. Vegetable and tofu ingredients are most common. It's also common to add fish.  (miso soup with daikon)11. Shiitake YakitoriYakitori restaurants are focused on grilled meat. However, they typically offer a number of vegetable items such as skewered, grilled shiitake mushrooms (shiitake yakitori). 12. KabochaBoiled or steamed Japanese winter squash is a common bento item and side dish. It's naturally sweet and filling. 13. TaiyakiTaiyaki are fish shaped cakes filled with anko, custard, chocolate, cheese or sweet potato. They are a popular festival food. Daikon are amongst the most common Japanese vegetables. They may be served grilled with a rich sauce such as miso. 15. GanmodokiA fried tofu fritter made with vegetables. Contains egg whites. Ganmodoki are said to taste like goose. Nama Yuba (fresh tofu skin) has a texture similar to mozzarella cheese. It's served with a light dipping sauce such as ponzu. 17. Natto Natto are smelly, slimy, stinky fermented soybeans that people love. It's a common breakfast food that's thought to be healthy. Anything that tastes like natto must be healthy. 18. YudofuA simple hotpot of tofu and vegetables in hot water. Served at Japanese temples. Temple restaurants are often an amazing value. Many have a view of a garden. They usually serve beer. Atsuage is a type of tofu that has been deep fried twice. This process makes the tofu strong enough to be grilled. 20. KenpiSugar coated deep fried sweet potato.
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Ginnan yakitori, senbei, inarizushi, sekihan, kuromame, shabu-shabu, zosui, natto maki, koya dofu, vegetable oden, hinomaru bento, shiso tempura, daikon salad, agedashi dofu, vegetable gyoza, yaki imo, konnyaku oden, yaki onigiri, kappa maki and shiitake kushiage.
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Irimame, umeboshi onigiri, okonomiyaki, chikuzenni, age yuba, kabocha tempura, kinchaku oden, kabocha soup, kombu maki, tsukemono, arare, gomaae, renkon tempura, maitake tempura, wakame salad, tororo soba, nasu tsukemono, tofuyo, nasu tempura and tanuki soba.
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Yakiniku, somen, kiritanpo, dango, furikake gohan, umibudo, gobo tempura, melon pan, umeboshi maki, hijiki, veggie burger, kombu onigiri, chikara udon, monjayaki, umekyu, nameko soba, zoni, abokado maki, kinpira and jaga bata.
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Vegetable korokke, tomorokoshi, komatsuna, dengaku nasu, japanese curry rice, yuba don, sansai soba, zenmai, takenoko gohan, kombu tsukudani, okayu, goma dofu, oshinko maki, mizuna, kusa mochi and Shojin Ryori.
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