Food and Travel writer Georgina Ingham gives us a view on how to begin to build a range of Japanese ingredients and some simple ways to use them. Georgina edits the online magazine Culinary Travels.
For many home cooks in the UK, Japanese food occupies a slightly unusual place. It feels both simple and inaccessible at the same time. The dishes themselves often look clean and uncomplicated, yet the ingredient lists appear unfamiliar, and the names alone can make it unclear where to begin.
The usual response is hesitation. People assume they need specialist equipment, a long shopping list, or a level of precision they don’t yet have. So it often becomes something admired in restaurants rather than attempted in home kitchens.
In reality, everyday Japanese cooking is built on the opposite principle. Instead of a wide range of ingredients used once, it relies on a small group of foundational flavours used repeatedly. Once those are in place, many dishes stop being recipes and start becoming variations.
The idea of a “Japanese pantry” is therefore less about recreating an entire cuisine and more about assembling a handful of reliable building blocks. With only a few additions to your typical kitchen cupboard, it becomes possible to cook simple meals that feel balanced, comforting and achievable rather than complicated.
The flavour backbone
At the centre of most Japanese home cooking is a particular balance: savoury depth, gentle sweetness and clean saltiness rather than strong spice or heavy richness. That balance comes not from elaborate techniques but from a small set of ingredients that appear again and again across very different dishes.
Understanding what each one contributes is more useful than memorising recipes, because once the flavour structure makes sense, meals become adaptable.
Soy sauce
Soy sauce is not simply a replacement for salt. It provides seasoning and depth at the same time. A small amount can season a broth, finish vegetables, or anchor a dipping sauce, which is why it appears across soups, rice dishes and marinades.
Mirin
Mirin is a lightly sweet rice wine used in cooking. Its role is subtle: it softens saltiness and creates the gentle gloss often seen on grilled or pan-fried dishes. Combined with soy sauce, it forms the base of many everyday sauces. Cooking sake can also be used in a similar way, and either works well for home cooking.
Rice vinegar
Rice vinegar brings acidity without sharpness. Where Western cooking might rely on lemon or stronger vinegars, rice vinegar keeps flavours clean and balanced, particularly in quick pickles and dressings.
Miso
Miso paste is made from fermented soybeans and functions almost like a savoury stock concentrate. Stirred into hot water it becomes miso soup, but small amounts can also enrich sauces, marinades and even simple vegetables. For a first pantry, a mild white miso is often the easiest place to begin.
Dashi
Dashi is the background flavour of many Japanese soups and broths. Traditionally it is made from kombu seaweed and bonito flakes, but in everyday home cooking ready-made dashi powders or granules are commonly used. They dissolve instantly in hot water and make a simple soup entirely achievable on a weeknight, providing an easy starting point.
Turning the pantry into meals
Once these core seasonings are in place, the focus shifts from ingredients to routine. Japanese home cooking is less about individual showpiece dishes and more about assembling a balanced meal from a few simple components.
The foundation is usually rice. Short-grain rice is slightly sticky when cooked, which allows it to be eaten with chopsticks and also makes it naturally satisfying. A bowl of rice is not a side dish but the centre of the meal, with other elements arranged around it on the table.
Alongside it, a quick soup is often the easiest place to begin. Miso soup, made by dissolving a spoonful of miso paste into hot dashi, can be prepared in minutes and immediately makes the pantry feel useful. Small additions such as tofu, spring onion or seaweed are optional but not essential.
Vegetables tend to be simple rather than elaborate. A cucumber or radish sliced and dressed with rice vinegar and a pinch of salt becomes a quick pickle in the time it takes to cook the rice. Sesame seeds or a few drops of sesame oil add aroma without undue heaviness.
Protein is equally straightforward. Fish, chicken or tofu can be pan-grilled and brushed lightly with a mixture of soy sauce and mirin. The result is familiar but subtly different — savoury, slightly sweet and glossy without needing complicated preparation.
What emerges is not a single recipe but a pattern: rice, soup, vegetables and a small protein dish. Once this structure is understood, the pantry stops feeling specialised and starts behaving like an everyday kitchen cupboard.
A first meal to try
A useful way to begin is to treat the first attempt as a routine rather than a recipe.
- Cook a pot of short-grain rice as you normally would.
- While it cooks, prepare a simple soup by dissolving a spoonful of miso paste into hot dashi and adding a few cubes of tofu or sliced spring onion.
- Slice a cucumber and dress it lightly with rice vinegar and a pinch of salt.
- Finally, pan-fry a piece of chicken, salmon or tofu and brush it at the end with soy sauce and mirin.
Served together, these small dishes form a complete meal. None of the elements are complicated, but they create balance: warm rice, savoury soup, fresh vegetables and a lightly seasoned protein.
After making it once, the pattern becomes more important than the individual ingredients. Different vegetables, different proteins or a fried egg can be substituted freely. The pantry is no longer theoretical — it is simply dinner.
What to add later (and what can wait)
After the basics, it becomes tempting to collect more ingredients immediately. In practice, a slower approach works better. The core pantry can produce a wide range of meals, and additional items make more sense once cooking has begun.
Noodles, such as udon or soba, expand quick lunches. Furikake — a dry seasoning often sprinkled over rice — can turn a simple bowl of rice into a complete meal with almost no preparation, particularly a classic sesame and seaweed blend. Ponzu, a soy and citrus sauce, offers a ready-made dressing for vegetables or grilled foods.
More specialised ingredients such as yuzu products, pickles or matcha are best treated as exploration rather than necessity. They add interest and individuality but are not required to begin cooking.
The aim is confidence rather than completeness. A small number of familiar ingredients used regularly is more useful than a cupboard full of items used once.
A different way to think about cooking
Building a Japanese pantry is less about learning a new cuisine and more about learning a different approach. Many meals rely on balance rather than intensity, repetition rather than novelty, and small adjustments rather than precise measurements.
Once the basic ingredients are familiar, cooking becomes flexible. A soup changes with whatever vegetables are available, rice accompanies almost anything, and simple seasoning replaces complicated recipes.
The result is not restaurant food but everyday food: quick, calming to prepare, and satisfying to eat. What begins as an experiment with a few unfamiliar bottles often becomes part of a regular cooking routine, not because it is exotic, but because it is practical. Instead of collecting recipes, you begin to repeat small combinations that work. Over time the ingredients stop feeling unfamiliar and start feeling dependable.
About the author:
Georgina Ingham is a UK-based food and travel writer and the editor of Culinary Travels, an online magazine exploring culture through cuisine, place and everyday cooking. Her work focuses on helping readers understand the background behind dishes and recreate them at home with confidence.
