This homemade spicy furikake seasoning recipe is made with miso and gochujang powder, fried garlic, bonito flakes, toasted sesame seeds, and nori seaweed.
Table of Contents
What is Furikake Seasoning?
Furikake is a Japanese seasoning that can be sprinkled on many types of dishes like eggs, pasta, popcorn, congee, soups, salads, stews, rice, udon noodles, etc. to give it more flavor. It's
It is made with a mix of dried seaweed (nori), sugar, salt, toasted sesame seeds, and bonito flakes.
This furikake recipe is quite easy, but it's definitely not a quick process. The miso/gochujang powder takes about 2.5 hours to dry out in the oven before you can use it. It makes about 2 cups but you can easily double it if you think you will be going through it quickly.
Since the drying process for the miso/gochujang powder takes quite a bit of time, I made this recipe to create double miso/gochujang powder than the recipe calls for so you can have extras to season your meats, create a second batch of furikake or sprinkle it as a seasoning on other foods. (Your oven is already on, you might as well right?)
Furikake Ingredients
- Miso and Gochujang - these 2 ingredients are what will be the flavor bombs of this furikake seasoning recipe. They provide a bulk of the savoriness as well as a lot of umami. You cannot substitute them out but you can use 1 or the other but I find using both gives this furikake a lot more flavor. Alternatively, you can also buy miso powder as well if you want to skip the process of making your own.
- Bonito Flakes - I like to use bonito flakes in this furikake recipe to give this seasoning a slightly smoky flavor. You can find this at any Asian grocery store or online.
- Soy Sauce - I use soy sauce to coat the bonito flakes to give it an additional umami flavor. It also provides a bit of savoriness as well.
- Mirin - this is used to sweeten the furikake seasoning. If you cannot find this at an Asian grocery store or online, you can dissolve sugar into soy sauce instead.
- Sesame Seeds - sesame seeds will give everything a very nice nutty flavor, especially since they will be toasted.
- Garlic - garlic adds additional flavor and aromatics.
- Nori Seaweed - You can't have furikake without nori seaweed! 🙂
How To Make Furikake Seasoning at Home
Dry the Miso/Gochujang Paste Into Powder
- To make the miso/gochujang paste, simply just mix the 2 pastes together in a bowl. It is very important that you spread the paste very thinly on parchment paper before drying it. It will reduce the drying time significantly. I spread mine 1 mm thick.
- Using parchment paper to line the pan will help make it easier to remove the dried miso/gochujang paste once it has been dried.
- Once you have the dried miso/gochujang paste broken up, blitz it into a fine powder in a food processor or blender. This recipe will make extra powder - use it to flavor anything that you would normally use salt on for an added umami flavor boost! 🙂
Toast the Rest of the Ingredients
- Crisping up the rest of the ingredients was the easiest part. Just make sure you toast the garlic and sesame seeds during the second half of the toasting so they don't burn. The goal for this is to make everything 'candied' by drying out the soy sauce and mirin right onto the bonito flakes and then toasting everything to give it a bit more of a nutty flavor.
- Once everything is candied and cooled, you should be able to easily crumble it with your fingers into even smaller pieces. If the ingredients still feel a bit wet to you after it has cooled, add it back onto the heat and dry it up for a few more minutes by toasting it.
Shred up the Seaweed
- Rip the seaweed into small manageable sizes; stack them up into a pile; cut them into long strips ½ width in size and stack them up again, then cut them up into smaller pieces.
How To Store It
Store your furikake in an airtight container. Any moisture will make it clump, so make sure everything is completely dried before you store it.
It will last for about 6 months.
How To Use Furikake
You can sprinkle this on anything and it will taste fantastic!
- Rice or Noodles - It can be sprinkled into a bowl of ramen, all sorts of rice dishes like our easy tuna mayo deopbap rice bowl, poke bowls, or over some pasta. It can also be added to plain white rice to make furikake rice.
- Protein - It can also be added to any delicate protein dishes like fish, scrambled eggs, omelettes, sunny side fried eggs, or sushi.
- Soups and Salads - I love adding this to tuna salads, our roasted garlic blue cheese pasta salad, any type of creamy soup like our garlic mushroom soup. It is also an amazing congee topping for chicken congee or plain congee!
- Snacks and Dips - This can be sprinkled over popcorn but you'll need to spray it with a bit of oil so that will stick to it. I also love sprinkling this on top snack dips, avocado toasts, and making cheeseballs with it!
Tips
- If your furikake clumps together, you can easily break it apart by running a fork through it a few times or by shaking the container vigorously.
- Add this to plain rice with some Kewpie Japanese mayonnaise for easy furikake rice.
- If you want to make this more quickly, you can skip making your own powder and purchase miso powder.
- For an umami boost, you can also add in some shiitake mushroom powder as well.
Recipes That Use Furikake
More Japanese Recipes You May Like
- Miso Butter
- Teriyaki Chicken Yaki Udon
- Spicy Sriracha Mayo
- Easy Cold Soba Noodles (Zaru Soba)
- Sesame-Crusted Teriyaki Salmon
- Miso Eggplant (Nasu Dengaku) with Black Garlic
- Charred Lemon Garlic Edamame
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Recipe Card
Homemade Furikake Seasoning Recipe
Homemade furikake, seasoned with miso and gochujang powder, fried garlic, bonito flakes, toasted sesame seeds and nori seaweed.
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2 cups of furikake
Recipe Notes
- The miso/gochujang powder will make approximately ¼ cup of powder. You will have extra leftover powder. Use the extra powder to sprinkle on any dish you would sprinkle salt on for some added flavor!
- Store your furikake in an airtight container. Any moisture in the air will make it clump together - but if it does clump together, it's also not a big deal you can easily break it apart by running a fork through it a few times or shake the container vigorously.
- If you are putting this on plain rice, it tastes phenomenal with some Japanese kewpie mayonnaise mixed into the rice before sprinkling on the furikake!
- If you want to make this more quickly, you can skip making your own powder and purchase miso powder.
- For an umami boost, you can also add in some shiitake mushroom powder as well.
Ingredients
Miso/Gochujang Powder Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons miso paste
- 1 ½ tablespoon gochujang (Korean hot pepper paste)
Furikake Ingredients
- 1 cup bonito flakes
- ½ tablespoon soy sauce
- 2 teaspoon mirin
- ¼ cup sesame seeds
- 2 cloves garlic (finely chopped)
- 1 sheet nori seaweed
- 3 tablespoon of miso/gochujang powder that was previously made
Instructions
Making the Miso/Gochujang Powder
- In a small bowl, combine the miso paste and gochujang paste together. Put a piece of parchment paper into a cookie sheet and spread the paste thinly (1mm thick) onto the parchment paper.
- Set the oven to 150F (66C) or as low as your oven can go and bake for 1 hour and 30 minutes.
- While you are waiting for the paste to dry in the oven, you can start the "Toasting the Ingredients" steps.
- Once 1 hour and 30 minutes has passed, check to see if the paste feels 'bendy' or 'gummy'. When you bend the parchment paper, the paste should crack slightly. If it still feels moist, continue to bake it for another 30 minutes until it is dry.
- Once the paste has dried, rip it off the parchment paper and break it up into smaller pieces and blitz it in a food processor or blender until it becomes a powder.
- Set the powder aside for later.
Toasting the Ingredients
- Finely chop 2 cloves of garlic and set aside for later.
- In a frying pan, set the stove to low heat and add in the bonito flakes, soy sauce and mirin and start toasting it for approximatly 5-7 minutes. (Don't worry, it's supposed to clump together at first)
- Add the sesame seeds, and finely chopped garlic and mix it together and toast it for another 4-6 minutes until they are 'candied'. It should be golden brown colour, make sure to keep everything moving in the pan to prevent it from burning. Pay attention the the garlic bits the most, as they tend to burn the quickest.
- Remove it from the heat and set it aside to cool for 10 minutes. When it is cool it should feel crispy and candied. (If it still feels moist, add it back into the frying pan to toast for another 1-2 minutes and let cool again)
- Once the bits have cooled, use your fingers to break apart the pieces. Some of the bonito flakes might still be in large chunks. Once everything has been crumbled into small pieces, set it aside for later.
Shredding the Seaweed
- Using your hand, rip the seaweed sheet in half.
- Then take first sheet and rip it into thin pieces 1-2 cm wide strips (they don't need to be perfectly sized), repeat the same process on the second sheet
- Once all the seaweed are in short 1-2 cm strips stack 3-4 of them on top of each other and use scissors to cut them into tiny pieces. I like to be whimsical and not cut them uniformly sized, by cutting triangle shapes from the corners of the strips.
- Once the seaweed is all shredded up, set it aside for later.
Mixing Everything Together
- Once you have finished making the miso/gochujang powder, toasted the ingredients and shredded the seaweed and everything has cooled, combine all the seaweed, toasted ingredients and 3 tablespoons of miso/gochujang powder and mix well in a small bowl.
- Store in an air tight container for a few weeks.
- Enjoy with: plain white rice, eggs, pasta, popcorn, roasted potatoes..etc 🙂
Nutrition
Serving: 1tablespoon | Calories: 41kcal | Carbohydrates: 3g | Protein: 11g | Fat: 3g | Sodium: 156mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 1g
*Nutritional information is calculated using online tools and is an estimate*
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