After our seemingly endless winter, spring has sprung rather quickly! Warm weather brings warmer thoughts of sunshine, sandals and summertime get-togethers. It’s also time to revamp our weekly menus, as heartier fare such as soups, braised meat and stews give way to grilled meats and veggies, seasonal fruits, and refreshing summer salads.
Summertime Japanese Recipe Series
When the temperature rises, the last thing you want to do is heat up your kitchen for hours at a time or spend too much time sweating over your cutting board to create your meal’s mise en place. You don’t need to pour your energy into making delicious Japanese cuisine as long as you have a few pantry staples on hand and are willing to experiment with fun new flavor combinations!
For example, you’ll see a series on summertime salads and salad dressings coming up here on Umami Insider in June. Flavorful salad dressings are a clever way to dress up your greens. Not only that, they can also be utilized to dress meats, vegetables and tofu for a final flavor bomb.
The best part? You don’t need to scour specialty stores to create authentic Japanese flavors — you likely have what you need already in your pantry or can easily find it in your local grocery store. For example, mayonnaise, sesame oil, rice vinegar and a few other basics like sugar and soy sauce can combine into a creamy Wafu sesame dressing. Drizzle this sauce over fresh summer greens or as a dipping sauce for freshly grilled chicken, and the dark days of winter will seem like ancient history.
Here at Umami Insider, you can look forward to our June content covering this seasonal switch. We always want to make sure our content is both topical and seasonal when covering Japanese cuisine. Be excited to see what we have in store for the month of June!
