Sushis are not only a healthy snack option to eat but also an amazingly delicious meal. However, it is not always possible to fill your appetite with a sushi bar or a sushi roll, so here is to help you with certain suggestions of what to eat with sushi. Certain side dishes served with sushi rolls will make your dining experience fulfilled and more enhanced.
1. What to Eat With Sushi: Side Dishes to Seve With Sushi Meal
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Serve sushi with these lip-smacking side dishes and transform your sushi meal into an unforgettable dining experience mixed with different flavors.
1.1. Gari or Authentic Pickled Ginger
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Gari, also known as pickled ginger is not generally a side dish but it is served with sushi rolls to act as a palate cleanser. To make authentic pickled ginger, baby gingers are used as they have got a mild flavor and soft consistency. Baby gingers have a pink tip and that’s why the pickled ginger tends to have a bright pink hue.
Baby gingers are not so easy to find, so Japanese restaurants often use regular ginger for the recipe and add food coloring to match the actual pickle’s color, and serve it as a palate cleanser with sushis. You can also use pickled vegetables to serve with sushi.
1.2. You Can Try Tempura Batter
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Sushi rolls with vegetable tempura make an amazing classic combo. It is a traditional Japanese dish that is prepared by coating seafood and vegetables in an airy batter and frying well till it is deliciously crispy.
The tempura batter is made of eggs, flour, and ice water which are important for the crisp factor and it’s a delicious side dish to serve with sushi. To make the dip, you can use soy sauce, dashi, mirin, and boiled water.
1.3. Miso Soup or Any Japanese Soup
A Japanese meal always contains soup in it, so soups are a must in case you are having sushi dishes. Miso soup is made of miso paste and dashi stock. The ingredients that you need for making miso soup are water, dashi granules, miso paste, diced tofu, and green onions.
Start preparing miso soup by combining water and dashi stock in a saucepan and make sure to keep the heat in a medium-high flame. After boiling the mixture for some time, you need to whisk in some miso paste and stir in the tofu. After that, you can separate the layers of green onions and add them to the miso soup. Simmer for around two minutes and your warm bowl of miso soup is ready to serve with sushi.
1.4. Seaweed Salad to Serve With Sushi Rice
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Seaweed salad, alongside sushi rice, is a popular dish in Japanese restaurants. It is considered to be an amazing side dish as it balances out the heaviness of sushi rice. You can give your wakame seaweed a delicious dressing by combining soy sauce, rice vinegar, yuzu sauce, chili, salt, and sesame seeds.
Soak the seaweed in water for rehydration and prepare the dressing by whisking soy sauce, rice vinegar, sesame oil, garlic chives, ginger, mirin, sugar, and red pepper flakes. Then, you will have to add seaweed, thin slices of cucumbers, and sesame seeds to the dressing and coat them well.
After the wakame salad is prepared, cover it and let it rest in the refrigerator for around an hour. Serve this Japanese cuisine with sticky rice and enjoy it at a sushi party.
1.5. Green Tea
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Green tea is a main dish in Japan as they drink it for breakfasts, lunch and even afternoon breaks not because it has a sweet taste but because of its curative properties and certain health benefits.
You can find hot or iced green tea in sushi restaurants or Japanese restaurants for free. So, if you eat sushi and have a sushi platter, green tea is the only beverage you should go for.
1.6. You Can Have a Matcha Ice Cream
If you are having a delicious Japanese meal or a sushi night, matcha ice cream is a must-have dessert. To prepare this dessert, you can start off by whisking match powder and milk in a bowl until the match powder is completely dissolved. Then, you will have to transfer the matcha to a pot and add cream, stirring it for around 4-5 minutes in a medium heat flame.
Then, you will have to mix sugar and eggs in a bowl and pour the matcha mixture into it. Cook the match mixture for around 2-3 minutes on low flame and then remove it and let it cool at room temperature. Once it’s cool, put it in the refrigerator and freeze it and it is ready to serve with sushi at a sushi party.
1.7. Kani Salad to Serve With Sushi
Kani Salad is not a traditional Japanese cuisine but it involves Japanese food ingredients such as Kani or imitation crab meat and that’s why it gives the vibe of a Japanese dish. To prepare kani salad, you have to cut crab sticks, mangoes, and cucumbers and put them in a bowl. Imitation crab meat is the main ingredient for preparing this side dish.
To make the dressing for the kani salad, mix mayonnaise, soy sauce, and rice wine vinegar together. After, you prepare the dressing, put the veggies in the bowl and toss them gently until they are fully coated. While you are eating sushi, satisfy your taste buds by serving this salad with avocado slices and panko bread crumbs for a crunchy texture.
1.8. Eggplant
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According to sushi chefs, eggplant is an amazing side dish to serve with sushi as it enhances your sushi with a sweet and smoky flavor. All you have to do is to marinate some eggplant slices with lemon juice and teriyaki sauce and fry them in olive oil. Enjoy those teriyaki sauce-marinated deep-fried eggplants on a sushi night.
You can even try making an eggplant dengaku. It is one of the best side dishes where the eggplant is glazed with miso sauce and pan-fried on the stove until the miso sauce is entirely caramelized. You can even get it at a sushi restaurant while eating sushi.
1.9. Soy Sauce
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Japanese soy sauce is the best to serve with sushi as a dip and it is milder in taste in comparison to the soy sauce that is used for cooking. If you are having a sushi night, make sure to opt for tamari soy sauce alongside sushi heaven.
1.10. Fresh Wasabi
According to a sushi chef. generally cooked or raw fish is used in sushi and wasabi is a good choice to pair up with sushi as it reduces the fish odor and makes your mouth feel fresh and relief to your taste buds. This paste is usually made from Japanese horseradish and it contains isothiocyanate. It is also useful as it stops food poisoning by not letting bacteria germinate in the raw fish.
Make sure that you have wasabi in smaller proportions as it can be very spicy and pungent if you eat it in larger volumes.
1.11. You Have to try Spicy Mayo
If you are looking for dips to serve with sushi, then spicy mayo is a good alternative to original soy sauce. Spicy mayo is famous in America as it is paired with California rolls, Philly rolls, and Boston sushi rolls. To prepare spicy mayo for your sushi, you will have to add sriracha and kewpie mayo and mix them well.
You can also pair spicy mayo with uramaki sushi. Uramaki sushi rolls have rice on the outside instead of seaweed.
1.12. You Can Try Kushiyaki
Kushiyaki is generally a term for grilled skewered food. It contains many ingredients such as vegetables, chicken, meat, and other types of seafood and the best part about it is that it can be paired up with different kinds of sushi.
Kushiyaki is mainly prepared with teriyaki sauce and it adds a smoky and juicy flavor to your grilled chicken or meat. It is one of the best side dishes to serve with sushi as it balances out the plain bland taste of sushi with a smokey and sweet flavor. You can find it in any Japanese restaurant as it is a famous dish.
1.13. You Can Go for Tamagoyaki
These rolled eggs are a Japanese dish and are mainly used as a side dish for ramen or heavy meals but you can also serve them with sushi. The ingredients that you need for this recipe are eggs, dashi, sugar, mirin, oil, and soy sauce.
You can beat the eggs and whisk in the remaining ingredients. Heat oil in a pan and cook the omelette in layers. The creamy texture and egg flavor will pair up really well with your sushi’s tangy taste. Mirin and sugar are added to add some sweetness to the dish.
1.11. Asian Cucumber Salad
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This side dish is also known as sunomono and is a famous appetizer in Japanese restaurants. It is a really simple and delicious salad that has a light vinegary smell to it and a good crunch because of the cucumbers. To make this cold cucumber salad at home, you have to make sure that you can not use cucumbers that are large in size, have thick skin, and are loaded with seeds as they are not at all crunchy.
To make this salad, you will have to start by cutting thin slices of cucumbers and transferring them to a large-sized bowl. Sprinkle some salt on the cucumbers and toss them with your hands until they are well coated and there is enough salt coverage to draw out the moisture.
After keeping the salt-tossed cucumbers for 10-15 minutes, make sure to wash those cucumbers thoroughly to completely remove the salt and squeeze the cucumber slices to remove the excess moisture. Don’t be afraid to squeeze the cucumbers hard as they will be able to take it.
After all the water and moisture are removed from the cucumber slices, you will have to mix the vinegar, sugar, salt, and soya sauce until they are dissolved. You can serve this cold cucumber salad with sushi by topping it with some seeds of sesame.
1.12. You Can Try Having Edamame
If you are wondering what edamame is, they are basically soybeans in the pod. To prepare this side dish, You will need to blanch some beans in salt water. Make sure the percentage of salt water is around four percent. After that, you will need to boil or steam those beans until they are properly cooked and it’s ready to give a crunchy contrast to your soft sushi.
Final Note
If you are the chef of the night and arranging a sushi party, then it is important for you to take responsibility of everyone’s tastes and preferences sitting at the table. If they have never tried sushi before, offer variations of side dishes, for example, the recipes, mentioned above in this article and if certain guests love sushi, complement the dish with pickled ginger, miso soup, and fresh wasabi.
There are various Japanese dishes that you can try alongside sushi and explore a new taste or a new range of flavors with your savory sushi dishes.
FAQs
1. Is sushi considered a main dish?
Yes, sushi is served as a main course in Japanese restaurants as small bite-sized pieces and they are usually eaten with chopsticks. However, certain restaurants keep it in the appetizer section and you can have it as a starter.
2. Which sushi is more on the spicier side?
A makizushi roll is spicy as it contains raw tuna, spicy mayo, and siracha. This is also seasoned with Ichimi togarashi which is generally grounded in red chili powder which makes this sushi even more spicier. This is also one of the most famous sushi rolls in the USA.
3. Which sushi is the best for beginners?
If you are a beginner and you want to explore sushi, then you must go for the Philadelphia roll which is made with salmon, avocados, and cream cheese, King Crab Roll prepared with King crab and mayo, and Boston Roll prepared with shrimp, avocados, and cucumbers.
Last Updated on by Kratika
