In the Kitchen with a Southern Sushi Chef

Staying Vegan at the Sushi Bar

Most Japanese restaurants and sushi bars offer several items that would delight any vegan palate. The cuisine is hallmarked by healthy offerings of seaweed, tofu, pickles, steamed rice and vegetables prepared in light broths. But don’t let these offerings catch you off guard when dining out. Dashi, the all star seasoning broth made from konbu seaweed and fish flakes, can end up on the most well intentioned vegan platter. These hidden sources of dashi are simply the nature of the cuisine. Dashi’s inclusion is often the traditional method for preparation of certain dishes. Though some restaurants are taking the needs of vegan diners into account, here are three items you may want to get a full background check on before ordering.

#1 Seaweed Salad (Hijiki)

Hijiki salad, a robust dark seaweed salad that is simmered or roasted with carrots and onions, often contains dashi. This is often not mentioned on the menu, so be sure to ask before ordering.

#2  Dipping Sauces

Many Japanese style dipping sauces also often contain a bit of dashi for an extra dimension of flavor. Ponzu, noodle dipping sauce, tempura sauce, house blended soy sauce and dumpling dipping sauce are the usual suspects. Your best option is to use table soy sauce or tamari.

#3 Tofu Dishes

Dishes such as simmered tofu will almost always be simmered in a dashi based broth or served with a sauce that includes dashi as a flavoring component. And often, the tofu dish is topped with a hefty topping of shaved fish flakes for garnish, though often not listed.

Other tips:

Ask for roe-free seaweed salad. Many places sprinkle the bright green salad with a contrasting orange or bright red fish roe for presentation, though this is not often listed on the menu.

Avoid furikake as a topping for dishes. Furikake mixes often contain sesame, several types of seaweed and fish or shrimp flakes.

If the restaurant offers a vegetable broth based clear soup or miso soup, be sure to request that it come without tempura flakes. Often these soups are offered vegetable broth based as Americans tend to be less fond of dashi based broths and are swimming with bits of egg laden tempura flakes to add richness.

Avoid sweet soy reductions. Many restaurants use the term sweet soy reduction because it sounds more appealing than sweet eel reduction or eel sauce. Unless the reduction is made in house, it most likely contains the broth of simmered sea eels.