Japanese Egg Drop Soup (Kakitamajiru)

Kakitamajiru is a type of clear Japanese soup made with fluffy ribbons of egg, served in a delicious homemade dashi broth and seasoned with soy sauce and salt. It's a simple dish that is both light yet packed with umami. Best of all, it's easy to make and requires minimal ingredients.

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Jump to:

• What is Kakitamajiru?
• Chinese vs. Japanese
• Tips for making the ultimate Kakitamajiru
• Community feedback

What is Kakitamajiru?

Kakitamajiru is basically a Japanese style egg drop soup made with a light, clear dashi broth. It's quite subtle, yet packed with umami and the thin yet fluffy ribbons of egg are perfectly distributed through the soup.

Kakitamajiru (かきたま汁) is made up of three words. "Kaki" (掻き) means "to stir", tama comes from "tamago" (卵) which means egg and shiru/jiru (汁) is the Japanese word for soup. When we put them together we get "kakitamajiru" which literally means "stirred egg soup".

Key Ingredients

Kakitamajiru is a simple recipe that only uses a few ingredients. The following 5 ingredients each play an important part in the dish:

• Dashi
• Egg
• Potato starch (or cornstarch)
• Soy sauce
• Salt

In my recipe, I also add spring onions (scallions). This is optional but you can customize your kakitamajiru with other ingredients such as Japanese mushrooms (like shiitake or shimeji) or wakame etc.

I also like to sprinkle it with shichimi togarashi (Japanese seven spice) for a bit of an added kick.

How to eat Kakitamajiru

Soup is an important element of a Japanese meal. It's not considered a starter, but instead usually served alongside rice, a main dish of meat or fish and then side dishes of vegetables, salads and pickles.

You can enjoy kakitamajiru with any meal that would usually be served with miso soup for a change!

Chinese vs. Japanese

You might of heard of "egg drop soup" in Chinese cuisine, but there are a few key differences between Chinese egg drop soup and Japanese kakitamajiru.

Japanese Kakitamajiru	Chinese Egg Drop Soup
Dashi broth	Chicken stock
Thickened with potato starch	Thickened with corn starch
Thin consistency	Thick consistency
Seasoned with soy sauce	Seasoned with white pepper

Japanese egg drop soup is made with dashi and dashi doesn't contain salt. This is why it needs the saltiness from the soy sauce to bring out the flavours. On the other hand, Chinese egg drop soup uses chicken stock which is generally already salty, therefore adding pepper is more common in the Chinese variety.

Tips for making the ultimate Kakitamajiru

Kakitamajiru is a simple recipe, but here are a few important tips to make it the best it can be!

Dashi

One of the most important elements of kakitamajiru is a good quality dashi. While you can buy dashi powders, I personally don't like using those for making soups.

Dashi is very simple to make, it only requires a few ingredients and very little effort. It also brings the flavour up a level, I highly recommend it!

I like using "my favourite awase dashi recipe" which contains dried kelp, bonito flakes and dried sardines. If you prefer to leave out the sardines I also have a recipe for a "simple awase dashi" or a "vegetarian dashi" made with dried kelp and shiitake mushrooms. Any of these work well for kakitamajiru!

Make a slurry

Using potato starch slightly thickens the soup. It also helps the egg ribbons distribute evenly throughout the broth, rather than letting it float at the top or sink to the bottom.

However, if you add the potato starch straight into the hot dashi, it will clump up and you will have lumps of starch in your broth. This is why I make a slurry by mixing 1 tbsp of potato starch and 1 tbsp of cold water in a small bowl. It's also okay to use corn starch instead.

Make sure to mix the slurry right before adding it to the broth and drizzle it into the broth before adding the eggs.

Soy sauce and salt

Japanese egg drop soup is usually flavoured with soy sauce. Dashi is not salty so it needs the soy sauce to help bring out the flavours and umami in the broth.

You can use regular soy sauce for this dish, I only use a small amount so it doesn't affect the colour too much. Some people like to use "usukuchi" soy sauce which is lighter in colour and stronger in flavour, but it's not essential.

While the soy sauce adds some saltiness and umami, I like to add a small amount of salt as well to help round off the dish and bring out the flavours of the soup. Using soy sauce and salt together helps bring the whole dish together in my opinion!

Adding the egg

It's important to whisk the egg before adding it to the soup. We also add it after the slurry, and pour it in slowly one third at a time.

This is to ensure that the egg forms thin ribbons rather than thick clumps.

The temperature of the broth will drop each time you add the egg, so wait for it to start bubbling again before adding the next third.

Once all of the egg is added, stir it a couple of times gently with chopsticks and serve up. It shouldn't be overmixed.

I hope you enjoy making this simple yet delicious Japanese style egg drop soup!

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