Dashi is an integral part of Japanese cooking. A good dashi is essential to most meals and is a key ingredient to this Japanese inspired dish using stinging nettle. Ohitashi means “to steep vegetables in a dashi base”. Cooking vegetables or meats on a dashi base is very common in Japan. Nishimi is a dish made from carrots, potato, burdock, lotus root, mushrooms and thick yam noodles are cooked in dashi and then eaten during the New Year. It is enjoyable to eat these sort of veggies cold in the summer too. I sometimes take it as a travel safe lunch since it requires no refrigeration if eaten within a day or so, depending on the weather.

Another favorite of mine are stinging nettles cooked in dashi. Whether is a veggie dashi or one that contains fish, I love both. Imagine all of the health benefits of nettles, rich in vitamins and minerals as well as protein combined with those of the ingredients you make your dashi from. Do this now, in spring while the nettles are abundant.

Here is a great recipe for stinging nettles cooked in dashi. Remember to collect your nettles from a clean, pollution-free location.

IRAKUSHA DASHI

Ingredients:

20 young nettle tops, this is just an estimate.

1 tablespoon of mirin

1 tablespoon of Japanese light soy sauce

½ cup dashi (make your own or use a powdered one)

Katsuobushi (Dried bonito flakes) or toasted sesame seeds *optional garnish

Instructions:

Thoroughly wash the nettles under cold running water using gloves, then steam until wilted, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool. In a saucepan, heat the mirin to evaporate the alcohol for about a minute, remove from heat, then add the dashi and soy sauce. Pour this over the nettles and leave to soak up the flavors for about 3-4 hours (minimum 1 hour). Garnish with katsuobushi or toasted sesame seeds before serving. This dish should be served cold.

If you are interested in more ways to eat nettles, you can find my Nettle pesto recipe here.