So I am trying to cook more at home but I have a difficult time to come up with receipes with the ingredients I can find from Japanese supermarket…
My issue is that I want to cook “western” food as much as possible, given that I eat Japanese food everyday at work and pretty often when dining out.
Another thing is I want to cook, healthy, cost efficient dishes.
I am currently rotating bteween two dishes: Fajitas (chicken, green peppers, onions, …) and chicken mushroom (with cream and kinu tofu). I am desperately looking for new receipes that fit the bill (easy, healthy, cost efficient and “western”).
42 comments
I don’t think there’s a single “western” dish I would cook regularily in Canada that I don’t also cook in Japan. I like to freeze meals for later dates, so various pasta sauces and chilis work great.
I make my own preserved lemons for [Moroccan Chicken](https://www.thespruceeats.com/moroccan-chicken-with-preserved-lemon-olives-2394669) – make sure you get Japanese lemons that say the skin is edible. It’s my understanding that the skin of imported lemons is generally not due to chemicals used prevent mould when shipping.
I made Goulash yesterday. 2 days ago my wife and I baked a Sachertorte. Then on other days: lasagna, spaghetti carbonara, schnitzel, Bratkartoffeln mit Speck und Zwiebeln (potato dish), croquetas de jamón, Frikadellen(German meatballs), banana + oats pancakes.. the list goes on and on.
Pizza, homemade mac and cheese, bbq chicken, smashburgers, mashed potatoes – make these in the rice cooker, just don’t leave them on keep warm after for too long. The rice cooker doesn’t go to a complete boil, so they don’t get too hot and go bland.
Cookpad.
easy summer pasta salad
step 1: boil shit ton of macaroni or other pasta not spaghetti. strain it, put it in large bowl, mix in olive oil so it doesn’t stick together
step 2: in frying pan, roast mini tomatoes and olives in more olive oil. to taste. put in large bowl.
step 3: depending on how rich you are, cut mozarella cheese balls from the super market into bite size pieces. put in the bowl.
step 4: depending on how rich you are, buy pine nuts from the super market and dump them in the bowl.
step 5: buy some of that instant basil pasta mix from the supermarket into the bowl. mix gently but furiously
cool it down and then eat
What is “western”? I cook thai, middle eastern, korean and some western staples like stews etc but hard to give advice when the vibe I get is you basically don’t cook?
Couscous: It’s cheap, you can throw all the veggies you love, some chickpeas.
Homemade tacos: flour, water and some oil. You’re set to do what you want for the fillings.
Pasta: It could be pesto base, cheese base, tomato base, anything really
Just scroll on Pinterest and you’ll find plenty of great ideas
I recommend it every time this thread comes up- despite the blandness of Japanese ingredients it is *super* easy to source all the essentials for Cajun and Creole cooking from japanese supermarkets.
Frozen bell peppers from Gyomu, onions and celery (buy big bulk from farmers market in the summer, freeze for the rest of the year). Canned tomatos for Creole city slickers. Johnsonville sausages aren’t great but they work well enough in gumbo and jambalaya. Plenty of seafood. Mix your own Cajun spice rub using the big S&B spice cans.
Only thing you can’t get here is fresh caught possum.
I had the same problem I think.
My issue was that I wasn’t using base ingredients to cook. You can make nearly anything here that you would back home if you break it down.
I make a killer butter chicken now because I make it completely from scratch. There’s very few base spices and vegetables that aren’t available here.
I find romaine lettuce and Granny Smith apples tough to find though. Maybe I need to go hardcore and start a farm.
How about chili? You can find most of the ingredients in regular supermarkets, except that the variety of red peppers is more limited in Japan.
I cook a lot of Asian food and my hubby cooks a lot of American food. We’re pretty lucky that we have an A-price beside our home and an Aeon close by so we can get groceries easily.
I make Filipino and Chinese food a lot – adobo, barbecue, menudo, kakuni, Mabo tofu, etc. Usually stuff that are eaten with rice.
Hubby makes casseroles, salmon, mashed potatoes, fried rice, and pasta.
We both cook Japanese food too. So a lot of teriyaki chicken, gyudon, etc.
We try each other’s recipes every once in a while because it’s fun!
Gyomu + slow cooker = cheap easy meals for dayyyys
There is a Lincos supermarket with some western options across the street from a Maruetsu supermarket where I live. Between the two of them, I’m able to prepare quite a bit of western meals.
I have a few Western dishes that I cook on a regular basis:
* Fajitas, tacos and burritos (Lincos sells tortillas and sour cream. Ground beef is easy enough to find but I like to add some potatoes, carrots and maybe squash to the beef)
* Pizza (Lincos also sells pizza crust)
* Spaghetti, sometimes with sausage or meatballs
* Lasagna with red sauce or sometimes with white sauce with seafood. I love that small seafood portions are cheap and plentiful in Japan
* Ratatouille (last night! it was fantastic)
* Soups. Chicken noodle, chicken with rice, vegetable
* Paella or Ajillo
* Schnitzel with red cabbage
* Stuffed bell peppers
* Cupcakes (getting very skilled at making them in my small oven) or brownies. Very popular with the other westerners in my apartment building.
* Pastries like cinnamon rolls, croissants, baklava (I had a lot of time during covid to take up baking)
* Shepard’s pie
* Tuna sandwich, tuna melt or grilled cheese sandwich
* Hashbrowns (formed breakfast potato kind). It seems like most super markets carry hashbrowns nowadays, even in rural areas. They are great with eggs, avocado and toast (also easy to find delicious bread) or made into an egg and hash brown sandwich. Ketchup and sirachi condiments are easy finds.
Cost and healthfulness varies, but I cook 75% of our family dinners. Pizza, hamburgers, pork chops, roast chicken thighs(various marinades), spanish chicken and potatoes, tacos, burritos, chili, spaghetti and meatballs, chicken noodle soup, minestrone soup, chicken tortilla soup.
There’s really quite a bit you can make. If it needs uncommon spices or vegetables it can be a little difficult of expensive but it’s not that difficult really.
I’m a big fan of Josh Weissman’s $2 burrito recipe; except I skip the aioli and the burrito (I make a bowl instead) to keep things healthier. It’s probably similar to your fajitas, but the rice & especially beans make for a tastier and more filling combination.
LINK: https://www.joshuaweissman.com/post/2-dollar-burrito-but-cheaper
I ate a lot of Chipotle when living in the States (it’s actually fairly cheap / healthy if ordered thoughtfully), so this scratches that itch. I prepare the chicken / beans / rice / veggies separately, cook a big batch when one runs out, and freeze / thaw as needed.
Spaghetti is easy “western” food.
Soup is easy to make with cut vegetables and chicken stock.
I make chili sometimes.
My partner is Asian and does most of the cooking because he works from home, so most of our food is some combo of meat, veggies , and rice. I usually bring a sandwich for lunch to work and eat bread for breakfast to give myself variety.
Sliced pork, green peppers, onions, salt, and pepper. Eat over rice or on bread with cheese.
These days I make tons of sandwiches. Two slices of bread fit perfectly in my tamagoyaki pan so that gives lots of options. Sauté some veggies and/or meat, pour eggs over it, plop bread slices on top, when egg is cooked through flip over to toast bread, fold up and yay perfect sandwich. You can also sauté veggies and/or meat then sprinkle shredded cheese over it, place bread slices on top, when the cheese forms a solid layer on the bottom and is melted to the bread, flip over, toast bread, fold and now you have a sandwich. You can also go basic grilled cheese with nanban or shishito (instead of jalapeño) in with the cheese.
It’s summer so I’ve been making ratatouille with all the zucchini and nasu! Easy to pack and can be enjoyed cold!
I just dump it all in the instapot at night and wake up to the smell of it in the morning
Burgers are easy, only downside is its expensive if you want to use beef mince.
Most Italian dishes are also very easy to make.
hey pick up some one “hon-dashi” or chicken dashi and learn how to make a simple nabe. You can make it as hearty or simple as you like, its good in all seasons, you can eat it with rice or udon, i always make mine like a chonko with what ever is available in my fridge.
A large pot could last you like 6 meals. When most of the ingredients are done we turn it into Okayu with eggs.
As far as western dishes go – I cook pasta like how I did in Canada. I used to make a lot of roasts in Canada however in Japan ovens are not as common so we grill a lot of fish instead.
Lastly if you can get a heavy iron cast pan you can cook steak and chicken really nicely. but honestly nabe is great, and can be really healthy if you don’t add a ton of salt!
Pasta dishes are usually less than 400 yen a serving. Aglio olio with canned tuna, cacio e pepe, carbonara if you’re feeling fancy, etc…
Also soups and other wet dishes like chili, stews etc are great. Cook once and you get like 3-4 portions, put in individual plastic containers, refrigerate. Pop one out in the microwave to serve.
I think some practical advice is to invest in a couple of cuisine types that you like:
Italian and French? Buy lots of dried herbs and find sources of fresh ones; have good butter and olive oil on hand and then use seasonal veg, meat and seafood to prepare pasta dishes and one pan dishes galore.
Cajun and Tex’Mex? Go fill a spice rack and head to costco for staples etc.
It is less expensive if you find what you like and learn to do it well. Imo.
I have almost no issues sourcing anything I need. You do not get everything at the same supermarket, so going to 2-3 different ones in order to get everything is an inconvenient necessity when I want to cook non-japanese dishes authentically.
So I assume that you don’t know where to look. What exactly is hard to source for you?
For recipes, go to YouTube, find the top cooking channels of your home country or from another “western” place and click through them in order to find recipes that fit your criteria.
Beef/pork mince:
1. Taco rice (Mexican taco seasoning, ketchup, Worcester sauce added to the meat during cooking)
2. Tacos
3. Spaghetti with meat sauce (dice tomatoes, Italian seasoning, garlic, pinch of sugar, few drops of fish sauce -> simmered for a bit)
Chicken:
1. Kaomongai (rice cooker + chicken + Thai rice + kaomongai sauce from Kaldi)
2. Masaman curry (potatoes, carrots, onion, chicken, box of masaman sauce from Kaldi)
3. Shredded Chicken tacos
Pork:
1. Pork and sweet potato stir fry (hirekatsu pork, j sweet taters, carrots, onion, ginger, soy sauce, thyme)
2. Italian pork chops (pork chops, bag o vegetables, dice tomatoes, balsamic vinegar, thrown in instant pot)
Fish:
1. Mekajiki variant 1: Roll fish in Parm+herbs, pan fry in olive oil
2. variant 2: marinade in lemon juice and rosemary
Vege:
1. Lentils and quinoa bowl (lentil, quinoa, garlic, carrot, shitake mushrooms, rosemary, thyme, oregano, spinach, chilli powder)
And sometimes I’ll be feeling adventurous and will pull a random YouTube recipe that looks good.
Which ingredients are you finding hard to source?
Soak chicken or pork with gochujang and oil, then roast then in an oven or air fryer. Cheap, tasty, and effortless. For veggie I just use frozen broccoli or stir fry some bitter gourd
Dude… with the power of amazon I can cook even my Lebanese grandma’s obscure recipes using her overtly complicated spice mixes. I can get sumac, aleppo pepper, zaatar, bulgur, etc… with same day delivery.
In any case my go to lazy recipe is some variation of NYC food cart chicken rice or lamb rice, you can cook the rice on the suihanki, the chicken/lamb takes less than 10 minutes to grill, sub white sauce for kewpie, sprinkle some 7mi togarashi, there you go, some pretentious place in Manhattan would probably ask you 30 bucks for a plate and call it fusion tori-meshi or whatever the fuck.
Meat and vegetables (aside kale) available are basically the same so what stops you from cooking this so called “western food”?
So damn hot everyday, I went with a main dish of pasta salad yesterday, so the only cooking was boiling the pasta and sauteing peppers. Apples and salami sliced in chunks, olives, chopped sweet basil, Italian dressing (mix it myself if you want me to explain). Side is defrosted duck pastrami. ALL but basil from Gyomu.
https://preview.redd.it/dtf89ucbpkjb1.jpeg?width=4000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b91428b1d77a4d066e23ba184fe98d072769f938
Fish over vegetables in the oven. I use a lot of salmon, buri, and cod, over cabbage, zucchini, carrots, peppers, broccoli, whatever. Stuff like lemons and vinegar can be easy seasonings for fish, and store bought salad dressing works if I’m in a hurry.
Tomato sauce with meatballs. The standard beef-pork ground meat mix at the supermarket is pretty good for meatballs. Other ingredients and both fresh and canned vegetables for sauce are easy to find.
Lentil soup. I buy giant bags of lentils on Amazon, then make soup with whatever vegetables I have available.
Baked chicken over onions and chickpeas.
Jambalaya. Relatively easy to find most of the ingredients (“authentic” sausage is hard to find/expensive, but there are decent alternatives). I’ve also used a rice cooker to finish it after doing the initial prep on the stove top.
Not western but I also make a lot of Korean food, especially stews. Also like using gochujang-based marinades for meat, etc.
One important point is to buy spices in bulk, the shitty little 300y jars from the supermarket are terrible value. I buy big bottles of garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, chili powder etc. Having a big stock of spices on hand makes cooking western stuff easier. Amazon has them, as do various import markets.
I often make Ratatouille with Chicken and potatoes. Lots of different veggies. Chicken with olive oil, salt/pepper, garlic, honey and soy sauce. I do use an oven though, but maybe you can use the little fish grill? Family loves it. Pasta is always great with a salad. Steak with white mushroom sauce, side dishes whatever you like. I also use the „Delish Kitchen“ app, very easy to make with video tutorials
I’m glad I’m super boring and my picky eating makes stir fry easy. Stir fry er’ day.
Save that western eating for vacations and enjoy the praise while you lose the 5kg you gained back home.
I wish I was kidding about the last part.
Edit: I got three to go 😭
I have about 30 different things I can make but I’m tired of all of them. The desperate search for new recipes never ends 🙁
For specifically Japanese foods this website has been my best friend https://www.justonecookbook.com/
A lot of my dinners are just rice + protein+ vegetables in some flavor of sauce. I usually alternate between teriyaki or a mixture of soy sauce, garlic, ginger, rice vinegar and gochujang. I eat various flavors of pasta, fried rice, salads, fried eggs, scrambled eggs, sandwiches. Yakisoba is really easy to make, just get the noodles and a bottle of sauce, add some vegetables and protein. Japanese curry from curry blocks is really easy to make and lasts for a few meals.
I miss shallots!
And cheap lamb and salmon..
otherwise there’s not much difference to what I cooked at home. Japan has made me ditch jar sauces all together… so it’s a good thing… but damn I miss proper salmon and lamb..
Cheap dishes.. can’t go wrong with pasta, chili con carne and salads…
Used to make a lot of bolognese with any kind of meat I could get for cheap- fish discards, chicken breasts, liver/intestines etc. I’d mince them and just use them as if they were beef. Sometimes substituted peppers for celery when celery was too expensive.
My favorite thing most of the time is Orange Chicken
It’s not “western” I guess, but American Chinese food is one of the only cravings I get (and while Panda Express exists here, it’s expensive and usually not fresh). 酢豚 is close, but the quality varies so much.
I buy premade frozen karaage, microwave it, cut it up into bite-sized pieces, then fry those in a little oil until it gets SUPER crispy. The sauce is orange juice, vinegar, soy sauce, garlic, chilis, sugar (you can cut it down some, not sure how a substitute would work), and some potato starch. Cook the sauce, toss with the chicken, finish with sesame oil+seeds. I’ll also quickly cook up some broccoli.
Assuming I have rice ready, it only takes ~20 minutes. Not the healthiest thing, but reduce the sugar and increase veggies and it’s not the worst.
I make Caribbean style curry chicken and I’ll make tacos (I get stuff from The Meat Guy for the tacos)
Pulled pork (or chicken) sandwiches: (requires pressure cooker)
pork shoulder(approx. 400g), gyomu Cajun sauce, add cayenne, habanero, and some table salt, water and throw it in a pressure cooker. Bring to pressure, and cook for 30 minutes. Depressurize. Add herbs, garlic, and other spices/sauces to taste. Mix, separate meat, and let sit for 20 minutes with the lid on and heat off.
I use English muffins for buns, but you can use anything you’d like. Even white bread if you’re desperate. Toast lightly.
Shave up half a head of cabbage, some carrot, and onion to make a semi-slaw, preslice some block cheddar, and you’re set. Grill some corncobs and pan fry some garlic potato wedges for the full experience.
Chili: Bell Peppers, Canned Tomatoes, powdered Cumin (bought on Amazon), powdered Korean pepper flakes (Amazon), minced meat (beef/pork), chicken stock, and any other things you like in your chili, super easy to make.
Taco Salad/ Taco Rice: Minced meat, taco seasoning (Amazon), lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, onions, lime & cilantro if you can get them economically. Use onions, lime, and cilantro to make a simple Pico de Gallo. Top with Avacado if you can get it cheaply.
Chicken soup. Buy chicken bones, make stock (celery, onions, carrots). In pan, brown chicken thighs skin side down, add stock, veggies, cook for ten minutes. Remove chicken (remove skin and discard) shread chicken and add it, any noodles, beans, rice etc. back to the soup stock.
I’ve been making my way down this [list](https://www.delish.com/cooking/recipe-ideas/g2801/summer-dinner-recipes/). Super easy to make and haven’t had any issues finding the ingredients.
I don’t particularly enjoy cooking. I don’t *hate* it, but I don’t really like it, either. And so, I am a lazy cook. Even moreso when I was single, I just couldn’t stand the idea of spending an hour or more cooking food that I was going to scarf down in 5 minutes. My main meals were pasta based, simple, one-pot recipes, and I’d eat out of the pot so I didn’t need to do more dishes. When my then girlfriend (now wife) moved in, I figured I’d try to up my cooking game for a little more variety at the very least (our work schedules were such that I got home earlier so it was more efficient if I did the cooking). I tried looking up quick, easy recipes online. The first thing I learned was that people who post recipes online have a far, far different definition of words like “quick” and “easy” than I do. Over an hour prep time with four different pots & pans? Neither quick nor easy. And why the smeg do they all have to tell me their freaking life story before they give out a recipe?
And then came the second problem of living in Japan: of the recipes I found that looked interesting, 90% of them said to bake in the oven for XX minutes. Right, scratch that.
The third problem: What the heck do they call that in Japanese, and can I even get it here? Evaporated milk? Nope- not even at any of the places people on reddit said they found エバミルク in Japan. Throw in a can of cream of whatever soup? Nope. The only canned soup I can find is minestrone or corn soup, and I don’t think the powder soup mixes or miso paste are going to help much.
I did finally find a few things I could add to the rotation. Number one is chili, as many others have recommended. I haven’t had any problems finding kidney beans, though a couple stores did stop carrying the ones I liked, I was still able to find them (in boxes) at OK grocery. Unfortunately OK no longer has the cans of pinto beans and black beans in chili sauce I used to find there too. But I found I could make chili in the rice cooker. I don’t have a pressure cooker or a hotpot sort of thing, and I don’t have room in my tiny Japanese apartment for one. But the rice cooker does the trick, and I can pretty much just throw everything in, give it a stir, push the button and come back when it beeps. I’d link the recipe I found, but the link appears to be broken.
I also found some [Jambalaya recipe](https://www.diaryofarecipecollector.com/rice-cooker-sausage-jambalaya.html)s that I could get close enough approximations on the ingredients for, and could also do with the throw it all in the rice cooker and push the button method.
This [ground beef & potatoes skillet](https://www.soulfullymade.com/easy-ground-beef-and-potatoes-skillet/) was pretty easy to find stuff for and went over pretty well, too.