Seasonings

Soy sauce, miso, dashi and syrups. The base of Japanese cooking — and the usual sticking point for plant-based and gluten-free eating.

Why seasonings decide it

In Japanese cooking, a dish can be entirely plant-based and still fall outside the definition because of the seasoning: bonito in the dashi, wheat in the soy sauce, additives in mirin-style seasoning. Sorting this layer out expands what you can cook at home enormously.

Practical substitutions

Bonito dashi → kombu, dried shiitake, or the soaking water from dried daikon
Soy sauce containing wheat → tamari or a gluten-free soy sauce
Honey → maple syrup, agave syrup, or rice malt syrup
Mirin-style seasoning → true hon-mirin, or sugar plus sake

What to check

The order of the ingredient list — it runs by weight
What the dashi is, in “dashi-iri” miso
Process claims such as Organic JAS or long fermentation