Vegan & Vegetarian Friendly Dashi Stock

Dashi （だし or 出汁）is a type of stock commonly used on a variety of dishes ranging from Miso Soup to Fried Rice. The problem for Vegans and Vegetarians is that it could be difficult to find dashi stock that doesn’t use meat or fish. Although I personally am not a Vegan or Vegetarian, I know some people that are. That lead me to creating this article for people like them. I hope that this guide becomes useful for those who are interested in cooking Japanese food at home using vegan or vegetarian-friendly dashi stock, or for those who wants to cook Japanese food for someone else.

Konbu Dashi Stock

Konbu, or kelp seaweed is commonly used to make delicious dashi stock. The package comes in powder form, and it has English writing on the back so you can use the packaged dashi stock below by adding it to your dish at the ratio described on the package instructions. For those who can’t read Japanese, you can use about half of a stick of dashi for 3 cups of water. Of course, you can adjust the amount as you wish. This particular brand of konbu dashi stock has more than 130 positive ratings on Amazon, and it is rated Amazon’s Choice, and I personally enjoy using it for my meals as well.

Get your konbu dashi stock here: https://amzn.to/3qMrj2M

Shiitake Mushroom Dashi Stock

If you don’t feel like using konbu dashi stock, alternatively you can get dashi stock made from shiitake mushrooms. Or, the other option is for you to combine both dashi stocks for some additional flavor for your dish. The packet below are made from sun-dried shiitake mushrooms and they are great with soups and stir-fry dishes.

Get your shiitake stock here: https://amzn.to/3hA5krR

If you’re interested in making your own Dashi stock, some cooks have created guides for them: https://www.justonecookbook.com/how-to-make-kombu-dashi-vegetarian-dashi/