Spinach Ohitashi (Japanese Spinach Salad)

This Japanese Spinach Salad applies a simple method called the Ohitashi to infuse vegetables with umami and subtle flavor. It’s one of the common techniques Japanese use to prepare vegetable dishes.

Do you know what type of recipes Just One Cookbook readers request most? They are side dishes and vegan recipes! I’ve been sharing popular Japanese recipes and main dishes for many years, however, it’s time to add more sides!

Today’s recipe, Spinach Ohitashi (ほうれん草のお浸し) is a Japanese Spinach Salad with Savory Broth, and I included a vegan-friendly version!

Watch How to Make Spinach Ohitashi (Japanese Spinach Salad)

This Japanese Spinach Salad applies a simple method called the Ohitashi to infuse vegetables with umami and subtle flavor. It’s one of the common techniques Japanese use to prepare vegetable dishes.

What is Ohitashi?

Ohitashi (お浸し) is a dish which vegetables are steeped in a dashi based sauce and it’s a common Japanese cooking technique we use for preparing vegetable dishes. This method infuses ingredients with dashi’s umami and subtle flavor but retains ingredient’s natural taste.

To make ohitashi, you first blanch the vegetable, then halt the cooking in the ice bath. Then allow the vegetable to absorb the dashi based sauce.

Typically, the ohitashi is served with a sprinkle of Katsuobushi (dried bonito flakes) on top. However, for today’s recipe, I included a vegan-friendly version in mind.

Vegan-friendly version: As I made this Spinach Ohitashi with vegan-friendly Kombu Dashi, you can skip Katsuobushi and sprinkle toasted sesame seeds instead.

Regular version: If you prefer dashi flavor to be more prominent in the sauce, use Awase Dashi, a combination of both kombu and katsuobushi, instead of Kombu Dashi.

Serve Spinach Ohitashi with Your Japanese Meal

Typical Japanese meal consists of steamed rice, miso soup (with different ingredients every day), main dish, and side dishes. This set meal is called Ichiju Sansai (一汁三菜) and we have a detailed post on this topic here.

Japanese set meal encourages to eat a balanced meal. Each dish is served in an individual dish, and side dishes are usually in a kobachi (小鉢, literally meaning “small bowl”). Being served in small dishes, the portion of the food is well-controlled. In addition, traditional Japanese cuisine is known for being healthy and low in fat.

Here are a few suggestions that I would serve with Spinach Ohitashi.

Rice

• Steamed Rice
• Takikomi Gohan (Mixed Rice)
• Chestnut Rice

Miso Soup

• Vegetable Miso Soup
• Tonjiru (Pork and Vegetable Miso Soup)
• Sanpeijiru (Salmon Miso Soup)

Main Dish

• Eggplant Miso Dengaku
• Warm Mushroom Salad
• Mapo Tofu
• Grilled Mackerel
• Nikujaga (Meat and Pork Stew)
• Baked Tonkatsu
• Teriyaki Steak Rolls

Side Dishes

• Chilled Tofu
• Hijiki Seaweed Salad
• Kinpira Renkon (Stir-Fried Lotus Root)
• Simmered Kabocha
• Kinpira Gobo (Stir-Fried Burdock Root)
• Spinach Gomaae (Spinach Salad with Sesame Sauce)

Ohitashi is Great for Meal Prep!

The best part about Ohitashi is that you have to make ahead of time. It’s a perfect side dish if you meal prep for the week!

In general, vegetables can be steeped in the dashi soy broth for 3 days. Therefore, if you have 20-30 minutes to spare, make this dish and let the vegetables absorb all the flavor as you store in the refrigerator.

To ensure the food last longer time, use a clean utensil and container and put it in the refrigerator as soon as the food is cool.

If you’re interested in meal prep recipes, click here for more inspiration!

Don’t like Spinach?

If you are not a spinach fan, please remember that we can use this ohitashi method for almost any kind of vegetable!

Okra Ohitashi

Eggplant Agebitashi (variation of Ohitashi)

Japanese Ingredient Substitution: If you want to look for substitutes for Japanese condiments and ingredients, click here.

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Spinach Ohitashi (Japanese Spinach Salad with Savory Broth)

This method infuses ingredients with umami and subtle flavor but retains the food’s natural taste. It’s one of common methods we use to prepare vegetable dishes. 

• 1 bunch spinach
• Pinch salt (kosher or sea salt; use half if using table salt)

Kombu Dashi (You can also use Awase Dashi (a combination of kombu + katsuobushi)

• ½ cup water
• 1 kombu (dried kelp) ((5 g, about 2"x 2"))

Seasonings

• 1 Tbsp mirin
• 1 Tbsp usukuchi (light-color) soy sauce

Toppings

• white sesame seeds (roasted/toasted) ((for vegan/vegetarian))
• katsuobushi (dried bonito flakes) ((for non-vegan/vegetarian))

1. Gather all the ingredients.

   

To Make Kombu Dashi

1. In a saucepan, put water and kombu.

   

2. Slowly bring it to a boil. Once boiling, remove the kombu from the liquid (You can make Kombu Tsukudani with the used kombu). If you are not vegan/vegetarian, you can add a little bit of katsuobushi to make Awase Dashi for more flavors. Please see the instruction here. If you're using dashi powder, please read here.

   

To Make Savory Broth

1. In Kombu Dashi, add mirin and usukuchi soy sauce.

   

2. Mix together and once it boils, turn off the heat.

   

To Prepare Spinach

1. Rinse the spinach and boil a large pot of water.

   

2. When the water is boiling, add the salt and put the spinach in the pot from the stem side first because it takes longer to cook. After 15 seconds, you can push down the leafy part into the water and cook for 1 minute. (US spinach is tender than Japanese spinach, so it’ll cook faster).

   

3. Once the spinach is cooked through, pick it up quickly, roughly less than 1 minute.

   

4. Transfer to iced water and let it cool (but don’t leave the spinach too long as you will lose the nutrients).

   

5. As soon as it’s cooled, collect spinach and squeeze water out. If you like to serve as I do, collect the stem and put together. I like to serve both stem and leafy parts separately instead of mixing it up together.

   

6. Cut the spinach into 1 ½ inch lengths and squeeze the water out one more time.

   

7. Put the spinach in the airtight container and pour the sauce over.

   

8. Make sure the spinach is evenly distributed in the container and soak in the sauce. Put the lid on and let it soak in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour (3-4 hours ideally).

   

To Serve

1. Serve the spinach in a bowl and pour the sauce over. I like to make sure each bowl gets both spinach stem and leafy part. Love the dark and light color contrast to each other.

   

2. Sprinkle sesame seeds for vegan/vegetarian version, and bonito flakes for non-vegan/vegetarian version.

   

To Store

1. You can keep in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.

Recipe by Namiko Chen of Just One Cookbook. All images and content on this site are copyright protected. Please do not use my images without my permission. If you’d like to share this recipe on your site, please re-write the recipe and link to this post as the original source. Thank you.

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on January 26, 2012. It’s been updated with a new video on September 2019.