D.I.Y. Recipe: Vegetarian Furikake Rice Seasoning

Furikake is a Japanese condiment typically sprinkled over or mixed into rice. There are dozens of varieties on the market – most contain seaweed, sesame seeds, sugar, and salt. Other ingredients may include MSG and dried fish, shrimp, roe, egg, and vegetables. Although I love looking at the rows of colorful furikake jars at the Japanese grocery store, I recently decided to conserve money and packaging by making my own. As a vegetarian, this also makes sense as many store-bought varieties include fish. It's also a good way to control the amount of sugar, salt, or other additives.

Here is a very basic recipe for homemade furikake. If you've experimented with other ingredients – or are inspired to after this post – let us know in the comments!

You can just use whole sesame seeds, but I like to include both whole and ground for added texture.

Vegetarian Furikake Rice Seasoning

2 sheets toasted nori seaweed
1/4 cup toasted white and/or black sesame seeds
1/2 teaspoon coarse sea salt
1/2 teaspoon sugar

Toast the nori over a low flame or burner, waving each sheet over the burner until it crisps and the color changes. Using scissors, cut into small pieces.

With a mortar and pestle or coffee grinder, combine 1/8 cup sesame seeds, salt, and sugar.

Combine nori with ground sesame seed mixture and remaining 1/8 cup whole sesame seeds. Store in an airtight container.

To serve, sprinkle over or mix into rice or noodles.

(Image: Emily Ho)

Comments (8)

Just Bento has a curried peanut and a sesame carrot furikake which I just love and are vegetarian.

posted by lizaboo on April 3rd 2009 at 11:17am
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If you don't have a gas stove, you can easily toast seaweed sheets in a toaster oven.

posted by heather77 on April 3rd 2009 at 11:21am
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i brought back some kimchi flavored furikake from a recent trip to hawaii but i have yet to use it. my step-dad suggested crusting fish or chicken? any other suggestions?
http://oureats.tumblr.com/post/85692362/this-kimchi-rice-seasoning-was-suggested-by-the

posted by nenasadije on April 3rd 2009 at 11:23am
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Nevermind the furikake, I want to know more about that gorgeous tablecloth!! The design reminds me of slices of daikon radish.

posted by suthernbell on April 3rd 2009 at 11:46am
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Beautiful (and tasty) lotus root is represented on the cloth design, suthernbell :)

posted by gregory on April 3rd 2009 at 1:37pm
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And its really good sprinkled over popcorn.
mmm....darn good.

posted by bluenude on April 3rd 2009 at 2:16pm
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Ooh, those look wonderful, lizaboo - thanks for sharing the links!

suthernbell, the cloth was sent to me by a friend in Japan. As gregory mentioned, the print is lotus root - one of my favorite foods.

posted by Emily Ho on April 3rd 2009 at 5:30pm
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This is great! Thank you! I can't stand most store bought furikake, it's obscenely sweet. Ugh. This is fantastic :)

posted by missdk on April 3rd 2009 at 9:50pm
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