What is Ohitashi?
Ohitashi (お浸し) is a simple side dish made with blanched vegetables that have been soaked in a dashi-based sauce. Because of the short cooking time, the vegetables maintain their natural color and texture whilst the sauce lightly flavors them and adds subtle umami.
While many Japanese people (including myself until recently!) believe ohitashi is simply the name of the dish, it’s actually the name of the type of preparation/cooking method. This is similar to “teriyaki” which is also a cooking method despite many using the term to name the dish itself.
The name comes from the process of soaking food in dashi, but a lot of home cooks don’t do that anymore. You can now also call it ohitashi if you just blanch the vegetables and pour soy sauce over them.
How I Developed This Recipe
Ohitashi is the perfect addition to any Japanese meal because of its delicate and refreshing flavor. It keeps well in the refrigerator for days, so it’s great for meal preparation.
So, I wanted to create a recipe that I would want to make again and again—one that doesn’t need any adjustments.
While this recipe features spinach, feel free to experiment with other vegetables to create your own variations!
Key Ingredients & Substitution Ideas
- Spinach: Since I’m based in Japan, I use Japanese spinach (horenso), but any variety works great! This recipe is also great with bok choy, Napa cabbage, or your favorite local leafy greens. Just remember to adjust the blanching time based on how thick and tender your chosen vegetable is.
- Dashi Stock: Since ohitashi relies heavily on the delicate umami of dashi, I strongly recommend using either homemade dashi or high-quality tea bag-style dashi packets. For the best results, avoid instant dashi granules as they can overpower the subtle flavors of this dish. If you’re following a plant-based diet, kombu/shiitake dashi can be used instead of regular fish-based dashi.
- Dark Soy Sauce & Mirin: These two seasonings work together to create the signature ohitashi base.
- Salt: Salt in the blanching water helps the veggies keep their color and flavor while staying crisp.
- Katsuobushi (dried bonito flakes): While optional, I highly recommend including them for the most authentic flavor. Vegetarians and vegans can add a sprinkle of sesame seeds instead.
Visual Walkthrough & Tips
Here are my step-by-step instructions for how to make Japanese spinach salad at home. For ingredient quantities and simplified instructions, scroll down for the Printable Recipe Card below.
If you prefer to watch the process in action, check out my YouTube video of this recipe for a complete visual walkthrough!
First, rinse the spinach well in cold water, paying extra attention to the stems, where dirt and bits can get stuck.
Then, put the spinach in a bowl of cold water and let it sit for 10 minutes.
In a saucepan, mix together dashi stock, soy sauce, and mirin. Bring the mixture to a boil, then let it cook for two minutes to help evaporate the alcohol in the mirin.
Take it off the heat and set it aside. This base sauce, called “hitashi-ji (浸し地) or happo-ji (八方地) for short” in Japanese cuisine, is the foundation of ohitashi’s flavor.
Ji (地) refers to the base ingredients or foundation for a dish, and includes suiji (a base for clear soup), happo-ji (an all-purpose base, which we’re using today), and wakasa-ji (a base made by combining sake, soy sauce, and mirin).
Fill a large pot with water and add salt at a ratio of 1% (about half a tablespoon per liter of water). While you’re waiting for the water to boil, get a bowl of ice water ready to shock the spinach.
When the water boils, add the spinach stems first and blanch for 30 seconds.
Then, submerge the rest of spinach and cook for an extra 15 seconds.
Then, immediately move the spinach to the ice water and chill it for 10 minutes.
This two-step blanching process makes sure the spinach cooks evenly while keeping it bright and good texture.
After you let the spinach chill, gently squeeze it to get rid of any extra water. For the traditional method, lay the spinach out on a bamboo rolling mat (makisu).
Makisu (巻き簾) is a traditional bamboo rolling mat mostly used to make norimaki (seaweed-wrapped sushi rolls). This uniquely Japanese kitchen tool is essential for sushi preparation.
And use it to squeeze out the water without damaging the delicate leaves.
If you don’t have a rolling mat, just use your hands — squeeze gently but firmly.
Pour about a tablespoon of the sauce you prepared earlier over the squeezed spinach and mix it all together. This will help remove the wateriness further.
Then, squeeze the seasoned spinach one more time using the same method as before.
Put the sauce in a container with a lid and add the squeezed spinach. If the spinach is too long, cut it in half to make it fit.
To cover the sauce completely, put a piece of plastic wrap directly on any exposed spinach (if any).
Refrigerate for at least one hour before serving. If you have time, it tastes even better if you leave it overnight.
Cut into 4 equal parts (if you haven’t already halved it).
Just before serving, garnish with dried bonito flakes (katsuobushi).
The ohitashi will keep in the refrigerator for up to three days, as the sauce acts as a preservative.
Jump to Full Recipe MeasurementsHow to Store
Spinach ohitashi will keep for 2-3 days in a sealed container in the fridge (although this largely depends on the condition of the spinach when you make the dish).
To freeze spinach ohitashi, divide it into individual portions in small containers and pour the marinade over the top. Freeze it together with the marinade. This storage method will keep for 2-3 weeks. Defrost in the fridge overnight or on the counter for an hour or so. Once defrosted, use within 24 hours.
FAQ
Here are answers to frequently asked questions I have received across all platforms, including here, YouTube, Instagram, and Pinterest. If you have any questions, feel free to send them to me anytime! It will be a big help for everyone in this community!
You can squeeze the spinach by hand—just use moderate pressure to get rid of the excess water without crushing the leaves. The goal is to keep the spinach’s texture while getting rid of just enough moisture to let it soak up the dashi.
While one hour is the minimum soaking time, letting it marinate for 24 hours will develop deeper flavors. This makes Ohitashi an excellent make-ahead side dish for your Japanese meals.
For the best flavor and texture, I recommend serving Ohitashi chilled. The cooling and marinating period allows the spinach to fully absorb the dashi flavors. Warm spinach hasn’t had enough time to properly soak in the marinade.
Absolutely! Regular spinach will work perfectly – just adjust the blanching time as it’s typically more delicate than oriental spinach. In fact, in Japan, we often make ohitashi with various greens beyond spinach. Feel free to experiment with any similar leafy vegetables available locally!
I hope you enjoy this Spinach Ohitashi recipe! If you try it out, I’d really appreciate it if you could spare a moment to let me know what you thought by giving a review and star rating in the comments below. It’s also helpful to share any adjustments you made to the recipe with our other readers. Thank you!
More Traditional Side Recipes
- Agedashi Tofu (Deep Fried Tofu)
- Nasu Dengaku (Grilled Eggplant with Miso Glaze)
- Simmered Soybeans and Vegetables (Gomoku-Mame)
- Hijiki Seaweed Salad (Hijiki no Nimono)
Hungry for more? Explore my side recipe collection to find your next favorite dishes!
Spinach Ohitashi (Japanese Spinach Salad in Dashi)
Ingredients
- 200 g Oriental spinach
- 240 ml dashi stock vegans and vegetarians can use plant-based dashi
- 2 tbsp Japanese soy sauce (koikuchi shoyu)
- 2 tbsp mirin
- 2 liters water
- 1 tbsp salt 1% the weight of cooking water
- ice-cold water
- bonito flakes (katsuobushi) optional garnish, replace with sesame seeds for plant-based diets
Instructions
- Wash 200 g Oriental spinach, paying careful attention to the roots where sometimes dirt and sand can become lodged.
- Place the spinach in a bowl of cold water and rest for 10 minutes.
- Take a small saucepan and add 240 ml dashi stock, 2 tbsp Japanese soy sauce (koikuchi shoyu) and 2 tbsp mirin. Bring to a boil and let it bubble for 2 minutes before removing the pan from the heat. This base sauce is called "hitashi-ji" or "happo-ji".
- Heat 2 liters water in a separate pot and prepare a bowl of ice-cold water. Once the pot of water is boiling, add 1 tbsp salt (approx 1% weight of the water) and mix to dissolve. Drain the spinach and place it in the pot so that the stems are submerged but the leaves are poking out. Boil for 30 seconds.
- After 30 seconds, use tongs or chopsticks to press down the rest of the spinach, submerging the leaves. Blanch for 15 seconds.
- Immediately transfer the blanched spinach to the bowl of ice water and leave to chill for 10 minutes.
- Remove the spinach from the bowl after 10 minutes and gently squeeze out the water. Place them on a bamboo sushi mat and roll it tightly.
- Squeeze the sushi mat firmly over a sink to remove as much water as possible.
- Unroll the mat and place it on a flat surface with the spinach still in place. Pour 1 tbsp of the hitashi-ji over the spinach to remove any remaining water.
- Wrap the spinach with the sushi mat again and squeeze once more.
- Transfer the spinach to a lidded container and pour the remaining hitashi-ji over the top. If the spinach is not fully submerged, press plastic wrap directly over the surface. Cover with a lid and refrigerate for at least 1 hour, overnight if time permits.
- Cut off the stems and cut into bitesize pieces.
- Divide into serving bowls with a drizzle of hitashi-ji and a sprinkle of bonito flakes (katsuobushi). Serve as a side dish with Japanese-style meals and enjoy!
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