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3 Healthy and Easy Japanese Dishes You Can Make at Home

How to make a full ichiju-sansai meal in less than 30 minutes

Kaki Okumura

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5 min readApr 26, 2020

What is ichiju-sansai?

Ichiju-sansai is a term used to describe the way traditional Japanese meals are constructed. It translates to “one soup, three sides” (or 「一汁三菜」) and is one of the main principles guiding Japanese healthy eating and nutrition.

This style of eating allows for us to eat healthily without compromising our favorite foods — unlike elimination diets or strict dogmatic eating rules, it serves more as a philosophy on how we can enjoy food and eat more of the vegetables, meats, and seasonings we love to heal and nourish our bodies. To read more about ichiju-sansai and the Japanese art of eating healthily, you can check out my previous writing here.

How to make a full ichiju-sansai meal in less than 30 minutes

Ichiju-sansai meals can look intimidating, but with the right knowledge, ingredients, and a bit of foresight and preparation, you can definitely make a full traditional Japanese meal in less than 30 minutes. Here’s how:

Ingredients

Rice
Red miso paste (I often use Marukome’s Dashi Ryotei No Aji)

I am lucky enough to make my dashi from scratch. Rather than wait until I want miso soup or need it as an ingredient elsewhere, I make about 4 cups of it and freeze it in small quantities. That way, it's available for use in miso soup and other…

Hello! I really enjoyed your articles. My husband lived and worked in Japan before I met him and we frequent our Japanese grocery store often. I’m very interested in learning more about this type of meal. Do you offer more recipes online somewhere?

This looks absolutely delicious. I will make it tomorrow. Keep the healthy recipes coming. Japanese cuisine is just the right balance of flavor and healthy ingredients without being too heavy of a meal.