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Japanese breakfast plate with salmon, rice and miso soup, the whole dishJapanese breakfast plate with salmon, rice and miso soup, close up

Japanese breakfast plate with salmon, rice and miso soup

30 min · 42 g protein · 531 cals / serving

The traditional Japanese breakfast, which is mostly a matter of assembling: a fillet of salted, grilled salmon, a small bowl of steamed rice, miso soup with tofu and wakame, a rolled omelette and a few quick-pickled cucumbers. Savoury, warm and quietly satisfying.

Servings2

Ingredients

Salmon

  • 2 small fillets (7 oz) sockeye salmon, sockeye or other wild salmon, skin on
  • 1/2 tsp salt, divided

Rice

  • 1 2/3 cups cooked sushi rice, from 110 g (1/2 cup) uncooked short-grain rice, freshly steamed

Miso soup

  • 1 3/4 cups water, or dashi
  • 2 tbsp rehydrated wakame, from 1 tbsp dried
  • 5 oz soft tofu, in small cubes
  • 1 1/2 tbsp miso, white or mixed miso
  • 1 green onion, thinly sliced

Rolled omelette

Quick pickles

Steps

  1. Sprinkle the salmon all over with most of the salt and leave 10 minutes. Toss the cucumber with the rice vinegar and the last pinch of salt and set aside to pickle.
  2. Steam or cook the rice if it is not ready (rice cooked the night before and reheated is fine).
  3. Make the soup: bring the water to a simmer, add the wakame and tofu and heat through, 2 minutes. Take off the heat, put the miso in a ladle, dip it into the soup and whisk it smooth with chopsticks, then stir it in. Do not let it boil again. Add the green onion.Step 3, what it should look like
  4. Whisk the eggs with the soy sauce and sugar. Mist a small nonstick pan with spray over medium heat, pour in a third of the egg, and when nearly set roll it to one side. Add the next third, lift the roll so it runs underneath, and roll again; repeat. Rest 1 minute, then slice.Step 4, what it should look like
  5. Pat the salmon dry and grill or pan-fry it skin side first over medium-high heat, 3–4 minutes a side, until the skin is crisp and the flesh flakes (145°F). Serve each person salmon, a bowl of rice, a bowl of soup, half the omelette and the drained pickles.Step 5, what it should look like

Good to know

Do I need dashi?

It is the traditional base and adds a smoky depth: 1 teaspoon of instant dashi powder in the water is the easy way. Plain water makes a lighter, gentler miso soup, and the miso still carries it.

That is a lot of dishes in the morning.

Cook the rice and pickle the cucumber the night before, and salt the salmon then too; it seasons better overnight. In the morning, the soup and fish take 10 minutes together.

Can I use farmed salmon?

Yes. Farmed Atlantic salmon is richer and softer, at about 62 instead of 67. Salted mackerel is another traditional choice.

Per

Calories
80
Protein
(32%)
6 g
Fat
(28%)
2 g
Carbohydrates
(40%)
8 g
of which sugar
1 g
Fiber
<1 g
Sodium
204 mg

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Computed from the ingredients with our published formula, not yet kitchen-tested. How

As written, 1063 kcal goes into the pot and 1406 g of ingredients comes out as about 1325 g of food: 80 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.