Japanese

Onigiri (Rice Balls with Salmon and Pickled Plum)

Name: Onigiri (Rice Balls with Salmon and Pickled Plum)
Total time: 20 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Japanese
Ingredients: 5 cups cooked white rice; 1/2 lb salmon fillets; 4 umeboshi; 4 nori sheets; 1 tsp salt

Kenji @kenji_notebook

Onigiri (Rice Balls with Salmon and Pickled Plum) is Japanese home cooking, eaten at breakfast. On the plate it is the dish at the centre. Below is what usually sits beside it, what it does and does not contain, and what else to cook once you have made it.

20 min Medium Pescatarian Dairy free Gluten free

Ingredients

Serves

The quantities follow this count.

5 cups cooked white rice
1/2 lb salmon fillets
4 umeboshi
4 nori sheets
1 tsp salt

How to cook it

Salt the salmon and pan-sear or broil until cooked through, then flake it into small pieces, discarding skin and bones.
Pit the umeboshi and chop the flesh into a coarse paste.
Wet your hands and rub them with a little salt, then scoop a mound of warm rice into one palm.
Press a thumb into the center to make a pocket, tuck in a spoonful of salmon or umeboshi, and fold the rice over to seal it.
Shape into a triangle by pressing with both palms, then wrap a strip of nori around the base.

Watch how to cook Onigiri (Rice Balls with Salmon and Pickled Plum)

Someone making it start to finish, so you can see what the steps look like.

Onigiri Recipe (Japanese Rice Balls with Delicious Fillings) [Remastered] Play the video

Serve it with

A Japanese breakfast is a plate rather than a single dish. These are the courses that normally sit beside Onigiri (Rice Balls with Salmon and Pickled Plum), read from the same composition Dinejot builds a real meal from.

What it is eaten with
- Genmai Gohan (Steamed Brown Rice)
  
  45 min

Safe at your table

Dinejot tracks ten allergens and tags every one of them by hand, so the absences below are as deliberate as the presences. Onigiri (Rice Balls with Salmon and Pickled Plum) carries fish. It is free of the remaining 9 allergens on that list.

Every tracked allergen in Onigiri (Rice Balls with Salmon and Pickled Plum)
Allergen	In this dish	Cook this instead
Peanuts	No
Tree nuts	No
Dairy	No
Gluten	No
Shellfish	No
Eggs	No
Soy	No
Fish	Yes	Asa Sarada (Morning Cabbage and Corn Salad)
Sesame	No
Coconut	No

These tags are set by a person rather than inferred from an ingredient list, and they describe the recipe as written here. Read the labels on whatever you actually buy.

What it brings to the plate

Estimated, per serving

Calories: 400 kcal
Protein: 18 g
Carbs: 67 g
Fat: 7 g
Fiber: 1 g
Sugar: 1 g
Sodium: 650 mg
Saturated fat: 1 g

Estimated values. Actual nutrition varies with ingredients, brands, and how you cook.

When to cook it

Onigiri (Rice Balls with Salmon and Pickled Plum) takes about 20 minutes from a cold stove to the table, and the cooking itself is a fair bit of work. It is eaten at breakfast. Nothing in the calendar rules it out, so it is a year round dish.