Vegetarian Japanese Food: The Best Dishes to Try!

Let’s not be under any pretenses here: being a vegetarian – let alone vegan – in Japan can be hard. But with a bit of knowledge and preparation, it’s totally doable. You just have to know what vegetarian Japanese food is out there, waiting to be eaten. 

Read on for information on vegetarian Japanese dishes, how to find plant-based Japanese cuisine, and what to look out for.

Why is it hard to eat vegetarian food in Japan?

Japanese cooking is traditionally focused on balance, known commonly as Ichiju Sansai. This is the concept of ‘one soup, three dishes,’ and is followed to some extent by most Japanese people, in both cooking and Japanese table setting. 

Soups such as miso soup, tonjiru (pork and vegetable miso soup), and even the broth of different noodles (more on that shortly) are all part of this. This balance is seen as fundamental to washoku (Japanese food). 

To this end, full meals in Japan contain a mix of rice, pickles, vegetables, and protein. Generally, the protein is meat or fish, with the soup having fish flakes for added umami (savoriness).

In fact, taking out one part of it just may not compute for the average Japanese person. 

Another reason is that many Japanese people don’t associate broth and extract with meat or fish. For instance, I ate soba (thin buckwheat noodles) for ages because my friends believed it was vegetarian. After all, there was no meat or fish in the soup. 

In actuality, the soup was made with fish broth! However, while it can be difficult to find vegetarian Japanese food, it does exist. And it’s delicious! Read on for some plant-based goodness.

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Japanese Noodle Dishes

Everyone knows the Japanese love noodles. And by default, none of them are vegetarian. Let’s have a look…

Japanese Soba Noodles

As mentioned above, Japanese soba noodles contain ‘dashi’ (fish stock), as a base ingredient. Soba noodles are delicious noodles made of either 20-80% buckwheat or 100% buckwheat – great for celiacs! 

Following the ichiju-sansai principle, soba noodles always have soup and a topping. Hot soba (kake) comes with soba noodles inside hot soup, cold soba (seiro) comes with noodles on a tray, and a small dipping bowl of cold soup with toppings on the side. 

Order cold soba without the soup and ask for a small dipping bowl with water and soy sauce instead to make this as veggie as possible. Ask if they have shiitake mushroom broth or kombu (seaweed). If you’re cooking at home, switching out the dipping sauce and making shiitake mushroom or kombu broth yourself is easy.

Japanese Udon Noodles

Udon noodles (thick wheat flour noodles) are almost the same as soba noodles in terms of toppings and so on. Just the noodle type is different. Udon noodles are made with wheat flour and are somewhat chewier, with a whiter color than soba. 

Japanese Ramen

Did you know that ramen is originally Chinese? Japan adopted and adapted ramen many years ago and never looked back, even creating regional ramen varieties, like tonkotsu ramen (Chinese-style wheat noodles in pork bone broth) in Fukuoka Prefecture. 

Tonkotsu ramen has spread across the world, and shops selling it have sprung up across the world. Many shops in Western countries offer a vegetarian version, but this is way less common in Japan. 

However, thanks to the Tokyo 2020 (2021) Olympics, ramen restaurants attempting to appeal to the crowds from overseas upped their vegan and vegetarian offerings. Now several ramen joints offer vegetarian options along with the traditional meaty versions. There are also vegan and vegetarian ramen options in Tokyo Station.

Instant ramen is similar, with many instant ramen brands containing some meat extract. That said, vegetarian or vegan options are coming to natural food stores and, occasionally, some convenience store selections too. In fact, one of the vegan ramen shops in Tokyo created a popular Japanese vegan cup ramen too. 

If you want to make your own ramen at home, it’s a good idea to make the stock out of shiitake and kombu the night before to ensure the most flavorful vegan ramen. Tip – add a drizzle of sesame oil at the end to bring out the flavor.

Japanese Teishoku Foods

Japanese teishoku (home-cooked food set) is the easiest food to recreate. A base of Japanese teishoku is miso, simply soy beans, salt, and koji (rice bacteria).

Miso Soup

Japanese teishoku relies heavily on miso soup. The good news? Miso is vegan. The bad news? 

Like pumpkin pie in the US or roast dinner in the UK, everyone has their own ‘special recipe’ for miso soup. Unfortunately, miso soup often contains bonito flake dashi for that all-important umami. Many variations also include shellfish or clams. 

A way around this is using shiitake mushroom broth, kombu seaweed broth, or even vegetable broth instead of dashi. Instead of clams, you can use pure wheat gluten. 

Nasu-Miso (Eggplant and Miso)

As expected of an island, many Japanese foods contain fish. Teishoku is no different, often centering around a big pan-fried or foil-baked fish as a main dish. Nevertheless, a couple of common Japanese home-cooked dishes can easily be made vegan or vegetarian. 

One of these is nasu-miso. Nasu-miso is super easy to make, and features eggplant stir-fried to golden in a sweet miso sauce, often with green peppers thrown in for good measure. Some places include tofu pieces, too.  When ordering in a Japanese restaurant, ask for ‘Katsuo nashi’ or ‘no fish flakes,’ as some places may add fish flakes as a topping.

It’s easy to whip up at home, too. Just chop up some eggplant, tofu, and green peppers. Then, fry them in sesame oil and add a spoonful of miso and a mix of mirin, vinegar, and cooking alcohol (a tablespoon each). Last, fry until completely coated. Serve with a steaming bowl of Japanese rice, pickles, and vegan miso soup.

Vegetarian Japanese Food On-the-go

While many shop-bought savory snacks are likely to have fish broth or chicken extract in them, there are a few Japanese vegetarian staples that you can rely on if you visit and feel peckish on the go. 

Sweet Potato

Yaki-imo (baked Japanese sweet potato) is widely available hot from September to the end of March. As a vegetarian, yaki-imo is one of the best foods to eat during the colder months! 

You can find Japanese sweet potatoes at supermarkets – even Mega-Donki – or some convenience stores, ready to take straight from the oven.

During the summer, head toward the chilled section in a convenience store, and you’ll spot surprisingly yummy, baked-then-chilled Japanese sweet potatoes. A full potato, in all its glory, ready for immediate consumption. 

Rice Balls

Triangular rice balls are sold everywhere, like the Japanese equivalent of a sandwich. The thing to be careful about here is that some convenience store rice balls can contain gelatin. 

One way to get around this is to make some yourself – pop a handful of warm rice into your hand, ball it up, sprinkle it with salt, wrap it in clingfilm, and off you go. You can also add a filling to the middle, such as umeboshi (pickled plum) or kombu, before balling it up. Eating plant-based, vegetarian Japanese food can be a delicious and fun culinary journey! Let us know how you get on below!