10 Easy Japanese Cookbooks for Beginners

Easy Japanese Cookbooks for Beginners

Learning how to cook is fun, but learning how to cook Japanese food is even more fun! It’s not just that Japanese cuisine has its own unique flavors, but also that it’s incredibly healthy.

Cooking Japanese food takes practice, patience, and lots of trial and error. But once you learn how to do it, you’ll never go back to eating ramen noodles again. In this article, I’ll share with you 10 great books that will help you get started cooking delicious Japanese dishes.

These books are all excellent resources for beginners who want to master Japanese cooking. They cover everything from making sushi rolls to mastering the art of miso soup.

If you’re looking to learn how to make authentic Japanese recipes, then check out these 10 books below.

Japanese Cookbook for Beginners: Classic and Modern Recipes Made Easy

Japanese Cookbook for Beginners: Classic and Modern Recipes Made Easy

Japan’s cuisine owes its existence to a long and complicated history, as well as exposure to and influence from a diverse range of other cultures. This cookbook has everything you need to learn the basics of Japanese cooking and then move on to mastering more complicated techniques.

The author of this cookbook shows you how to get the basic cooking tools and real Japanese ingredients.

It’s tough to pick a favorite dish when there are so many delectable options, such as traditional Miso Soup and Super Simple Ramen, and cutting-edge Bacon Fried Rice and Football Sushi.

All of the recipes are simple to follow and use common, easy-to-find ingredients as well as Japanese cooking methods. Many dishes can be made in 30 minutes or less, which means that families can eat together every night.

The Japanese Cookbook for Beginners makes it easy to learn how to cook Japanese food.

JapanEasy: Classic and Modern Japanese Recipes to Cook at Home

JapanEasy: Classic and Modern Japanese Recipes to Cook at Home

When thinking about Japanese cuisine, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed, but in JapanEasy, Tim Anderson introduces you to the basics of Japanese cooking with some simple (but still delicious) recipes. 

Learn how to make pickles, grilled squid, Katsu Curry, Yakisoba, Yakitori, and so much more with this comprehensive guide. The harder parts are broken down into steps that are easy to follow, and there are pictures to help people along the way. 

JapanEasy is a fun and easy-to-follow book that shows you how to make real Japanese food in your own kitchen.

Japanese Home Cooking: Simple Meals, Authentic Flavors

Japanese Home Cooking: Simple Meals, Authentic Flavors

Using only the freshest seasonal ingredients, Sonoko Sakai prepares her recipes with minimal fuss. The flavors, staples (like dashi and pickles), and cooking methods (like making noodles and rice) that make up this cuisine are discussed in detail. Make grilled onigiri and Japanese chicken curry using these ingredients.

The next chapters focus on the book’s main course topics: breakfast, vegetables and grains, meat and seafood, noodles and dumplings, savory pancakes, and desserts and drinks. Mochi Waffles with Tatsuta (fried chicken) and Maple Yuzu Kosho, First Garden Soba Salad with Lemon-White Miso Vinaigrette, and Amazake (Japanese Fried Chicken) are among the more inventive dishes. Fantastic photographs and stories about restaurants and food shops in California and Japan by Rick Poon. 

This cookbook gives you the ingredients, methods, and more than a hundred recipes you need to make authentic Japanese food at home. It’s perfect for both experienced chefs and novices who want to learn how to cook using real Japanese ingredients.  

Every home cook will enjoy the recipes and tips in Japanese Home Cooking.

Japanese Cooking Made Simple

Japanese Cooking Made Simple: A Japanese Cookbook with Authentic Recipes for Ramen, Bento, Sushi & More

Japanese food is popular, but not many people actually cook it at home. Without having to devote a lot of time or money, you can now make traditional Japanese food for your friends and family at home with the help of Japanese Cooking Made Simple.

With ingredients readily available at any supermarket, Japanese Cooking Made Simple provides more than a hundred authentic Japanese recipes that anyone can make. You’ll make sushi and bento boxes a regular part of your diet, as well as ramen with braised pork belly, Tempura Soba, fried tofu in broth, California Rolls, Pan-Broiled Salmon with Scallions, Chicken Yakitori, and Green Tea Ice Cream. 

With these step-by-step instructions and pictures, it’s easy to make sushi like nori maki and temaki. With the color pictures that go with the recipe, it’s never been easier to make a beautiful Japanese dinner.

Salinas Press has done it again with Japanese Cooking Made Simple, a cookbook that offers not only a wide selection of tasty dishes but also the straightforward tools necessary to prepare them.

The Real Japanese Izakaya Cookbook: 120 Classic Bar Bites from Japan

The Real Japanese Izakaya Cookbook: 120 Classic Bar Bites from Japan

Izakaya cooking is all about enjoying traditional Japanese food with beverages and companionship. Served alongside beer or sake, the cuisine at an izakaya might include everything from bar snacks to salads, stews, grilled meats, and seafood entrees.

There are more than 120 traditional izakaya dishes in The Real Japanese Izakaya Cookbook. Fans rave about the grilled Wagyu beef with shiso and shiso skewers, as well as the gyoza with their extra crunch. Daikon salad with yuzu dressing, chargrilled fava beans, and baked tofu with ginger sauce are just a few of the options for plant-based diets. Traditional Japanese dishes like Miso-Simmered Pork and Grilled Mackerel with Plum Sauce get Wataru Yokota’s own unique spin.

The quick and easy meals at Yokota are perfect for busy professionals who want to try something new. Each recipe in this book is accompanied by an illustration and detailed directions. The best way to quickly grill and smoke meat for that true izakaya flavor is covered in the introduction, along with some suggestions for drinks to pair with the food.

Japanese Food Made Easy

Japanese Food Made Easy

Cooking at home in Japan doesn’t require any fancy methods or ingredients that would be hard to come by in a restaurant. Creating a memorable meal is as simple as picking the right ingredients and seasonings.

Ramen, gyoza, teriyaki, and tonkatsu are just a few of the more popular dishes in Japanese Food Made Easy, but the cookbook also includes recipes for more traditional dishes (grilled peppers with bonito flakes, kakiage fritters, and homemade fried tofu). 

You will learn how to make your own teriyaki sauce, tonkatsu sauce, miso dressing, and shichimi togarashi (seven chili mix), all of which are healthier than their store-bought counterparts and can be used to instantly elevate even the most basic food. If you want to try your hand at more authentic Japanese cooking, you can find recipes for things like dashi soup, sushi, and sashimi here.

Winner of the Gourmand World Cookbook Award for Food Culture in 2021, Japanese Food Made Easy is a must-have for any kitchen.

Just One Cookbook Essential Japanese Recipes

Just One Cookbook Essential Japanese Recipes

Nami wrote Essential Japanese Recipes Cookbook-Vol. 1 because readers from all over the world asked her to put together a book of her most popular recipes.

This cookbook features 33 recipes for both traditional Japanese dishes like chawanmushi and gyudon and more contemporary favorites like California rolls and green tea ice cream. Nami emphasizes the traditional techniques used by Japanese household cooks to create these wonderful dishes.

She will teach you how to make chicken teriyaki the way she learned from her mother and grandmother. The perfect steamed rice, sushi rice, and dashi soup stock are just a few of the cooking basics covered in this book. The people who read her blog all over the world have tried and liked these recipes, so you can feel confident making them in your own kitchen.

If you’re new to Japanese cuisine, Just One Cookbook Essential Japanese Recipes is the book for you.

The Japanese Larder: Bringing Japanese Ingredients into Your Everyday Cooking

The Japanese Larder: Bringing Japanese Ingredients into Your Everyday Cooking

Using simple, easy-to-find ingredients and clear instructions, The Japanese Larder takes the mystery out of making real Japanese food.

Some of us may be familiar with miso, mirin, tofu, and matcha, but that doesn’t mean we use them consistently. This gorgeously illustrated cookbook by Luiz Hara shows how real Japanese ingredients can change the taste of well-known dishes. Miso, noodles, and soy sauce are just a few of the leftovers that could be put to good use in the over one hundred simple dishes included.

From tofu to dashi soup, the Japanese Larder highlights the diversity and depth of traditional Japanese foods. Explore a whole new realm of flavor with Luiz’s cooking.

Japanese Soul Cooking

Japanese Soul Cooking: Ramen, Tonkatsu, Tempura, and More from the Streets and Kitchens of Tokyo and Beyond [A Cookbook]

In their book, Japanese Soul Cooking, Tadashi Ono and Harris Salat introduce you to this delicious, down-home style of cooking. You might recognize dishes like ramen, soba, udon, and tempura when you try the wide range of interesting and tasty foods. Wafu pasta (spaghetti with robust, fragrant toppings like miso meat sauce), tatsuta-age (fried chicken marinated in garlic, ginger, and other Japanese ingredients), and delicious omelets with crabmeat and shiitake mushrooms will also quickly become staples in your kitchen. 

Cooking for friends and family will be a breeze with the help of the detailed directions and clear photos in this cookbook.

For the first time, well-loved Japanese comfort food is available to home cooks in the West. Ono and Salat explore the interesting origins and global influences of well-known recipes, which are accompanied by stunning location photography that captures the spirit and essence of this meal in everyday life.

Japanese Cuisine: An Illustrated Guide

Japanese Cuisine: An Illustrated Guide

This beautiful cookbook is an invitation to explore the sights, smells, and flavors of Japan through its cuisine. It features recipes, anecdotes, histories, stories, maps, techniques, stylings, tools, and native ingredients.

What goes into making sushi? Where can I find out the conventional approach to preparing miso soup? Just what goes into a traditional Japanese meal? What are the izakaya’s most popular dishes? What are the proper methods for garnishing and packing a bento box?

Here, in a delightful and exquisitely illustrated paperback book, are the solutions.

The graphics are clear, atmospheric, and inspiring and cover a wide range of topics, including how to use Japanese knives, chopsticks, and cooking vessels; common and exotic fish (and seaweed! ); and Japanese vegetables, fruits, and soy. The things that are talked about range from goods and stores to simple recipes and full meals.

This is a guide that any home cook would be happy to have in their own collection (or to give as a gift) because of its engaging layout.

Similar Posts