Lighter gyudon (Japanese beef and onion rice bowl)
35 min · 47 g protein · 551 cals / serving
Thin slices of beef and a big heap of onion simmered in a sweet, gingery soy and dashi broth until the onion turns glassy and the beef soaks up the sauce, with enoki mushrooms for extra slurp. It goes over steamed rice with a soft onsen egg, bright red pickled ginger and scallions, with a crisp cucumber pickle on the side.
Ingredients
Rice
- 3/4 cup sushi rice, Japanese short-grain, rinsed
- 3/4 cup + 1 tsp water
Quick cucumber pickle
- 1 large cucumber, very thinly sliced
- 2 tbsp rice vinegar
- 1/3 tsp salt
Simmering sauce
- 1 1/4 cups water
- 1 tsp dashi granules
- 2 1/2 tbsp reduced sodium soy sauce
- 2 tbsp mirin
- 3/4 tsp granulated sugar
- 2 tsp ginger, grated
- 4 medium onions, halved and sliced 5 mm (1/4 inch) thick
- 10 oz (2 packs) enoki mushroom, roots trimmed, pulled apart
- 1 1/3 lb top sirloin steak, trimmed and sliced paper-thin (half-frozen slices best)
To serve
- 4 large eggs, onsen-style (tip), or jammy soft-boiled
- 4 tbsp pickled ginger, red (beni shoga) or sushi ginger
- 3 green onions, thinly sliced
- 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes, or shichimi togarashi (optional)
Steps
- Cook the rice: rinse it until the water runs nearly clear, then simmer with the water, covered, on the lowest heat for 15 minutes. Leave it covered off the heat for 10 minutes.
- Make the pickle: toss the cucumber with the salt, leave 10 minutes, squeeze gently and stir in the rice vinegar.
- Bring the water, dashi granules, soy, mirin, sugar and ginger to a simmer in a wide pan. Add the onion and simmer 7–8 minutes until soft and translucent.
- Add the enoki, then lay the beef slices over the onion, separating them. Simmer 2–3 minutes, turning the beef, until it has just lost its pink and taken on the colour of the sauce. Skim off any foam.
- Spoon rice into four bowls and top with the beef, onion and mushrooms and a ladle of the sauce. Crack an onsen egg over each bowl (or halve a jammy egg over it) so the yolk runs into the sauce, and finish with pickled ginger, scallions and shichimi. Serve the cucumber pickle on the side.
Good to know
How do I slice beef that thin?
Freeze the steak for 30–40 minutes until firm, then slice across the grain with a sharp knife. Asian grocers also sell ready-sliced beef for sukiyaki or shabu-shabu.
How do I make an onsen egg?
Hold whole eggs in their shells in water at 149–153°F for 30–40 minutes (a sous-vide stick makes it easy), then crack each one into a bowl: the white is barely set and the yolk thick and creamy. For a jammy egg instead, lower cold eggs into boiling water for 6 1/2 minutes, then into ice water before peeling.
Why is this lighter?
Lean sirloin in place of fatty brisket slices, more onion and some mushrooms in the pan. The sauce, the ginger and the egg stay as they are.
Per
- Calories
- 84
- Protein
- (36%)
- 7 g
- Fat
- (22%)
- 2 g
- Carbohydrates
- (42%)
- 9 g
- of which sugar
- 2 g
- Fiber
- 1 g
- Sodium
- 139 mg
About 50% of the alcohol remains after cooking; the label counts only that.
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Computed from the ingredients with our published formula, not yet kitchen-tested. How
As written, 2203 kcal goes into the pot and 2874 g of ingredients comes out as about 2610 g of food: 84 kcal per 100 g. Cooking moves water and energy density is the score's biggest lever, so the dish is scored as cooked, not as an average of its parts. Every ingredient links to its food page, with the same data and score. The label's percentages are each macronutrient's share of the calories. The full formula.