The One Ingredient To Add Instant Umami To Any Sauce

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Those familiar with the fifth taste, umami, know that it often arrives in a subtle shift of flavor — something you hardly notice at first but can't help but become captivated by once you do. It isn't just salty – the taste is characteristically deep and complex, and it brings those characteristics to everything you add it to, including your go-to sauce. But, there's no need to overwhelm yourself looking for umami-packed ingredients to do so. All you need is instant dashi.

Dashi is a ubiquitous fixture in Japanese culture. In fact, you've likely already had it countless times while enjoying ramen, miso soup, and many other Japanese dishes. This broth – made from kombu seaweed and bonito flakes, a combination of dried, fermented, and smoked fish – is true and pure umami. Of course, we don't always have time or enough ingredients to cook it from scratch — but that's where the instant powder comes in.

Sprinkled into your favorite sauces, instant dashi powders like the Ajinomoto Soup Stock Hondashi can bring the very essence of umami to life. The rich, savory depth and sweetness lie in the undertone, subtly lifting the sauce without overwhelming the palate. It feels a lot less like piling on more flavors and more like bridging together all the missing gaps, rounding out the taste profile of any and every sauce you like. 

Dashi has long been used as a base or enhancer for many Japanese sauces, and the powdered version is no different. You should always have a container of dashi soy sauce in your pantry, but if you don't, simply boil Japanese soy sauce (shoyu) with the dashi granules and mirin together for about 5 minutes. It's the best sauce you could ask for when eating sushi, sashimi, okonomiyaki, soba noodles, and much more. The same goes for ponzu sauce, which pairs the dashi's umami tone with yuzu lemon's citrusy zing. Sizzling on the grill, your at-home teriyaki sauce could also use some dashi powder for an extra kick of umami.

Far more unconventional is the pairing of dashi with traditional American condiments likes mayonnaise. Although it may not be so strange, since mixing it with instant dashi is an easy way to make Kewpie mayo at home. Instant dashi can also bring an umami punch to tomato sauce simmering on the stove, possibly in conjunction with other canned ingredients that add an umami punch to sauces, like shiitake mushrooms and anchovies. You can even add dashi powder to cream sauces and taste the wonders it laces into your favorite pasta dish.

As a vinaigrette addition, instant dashi is no less adaptable. Dashi soy sauce gets the job done every time, but you might also love adding it to a zesty concoction of yuzu lemon juice, rice vinegar, honey, and ginger. Sweetness can be found in a balsamic vinegar instead, where the instant dashi joins it, mirin, and ginger, for an umami take on your typical salad dressing.