Cooking with Yutaka | Japanese Condiment and Ingredients

Cooking with Yutaka | Japanese Condiment and Ingredients

• April 26, 2015

I cook a lot of Asian food at home, and Japanese is one that I have grown particularly fond of after our incredible honeymoon in Japan in 2013.

When the lovely people at Yutaka* asked if I'd like to try out their new range of products, of course I said yes! Yutaka products can be easily picked up from the usual supermarkets like Sainsbury's/Tesco/Waitrose and fits in with my usual weekly grocery shop. The Yutaka products I've tried in the past also taste authentic too, something that is very important to me especially when it comes to Asian cooking.  

The most exciting products from the new range has to be the Shirataki Noodles and Konnyaku. For those who are not familiar with them, they are virtually calorie free! They are made from the konjac plant (also known as devil's tongue) and water, and contain around 10 calories per 200g! 

Great news for those on a low-carb diet, as the shirataki noodles and konnyaku tastes somewhat like carbs, yet being low in calories, sugar and fat. I tried them a few years ago when I was on the Dukan diet, and they were a saviour to the never-ending meat days. 

And if you're not yet convinced by them, they have been used for over 1,500 years in Japan and aids digestion, normalises blood sugar levels, lowers cholesterol and prevents high blood pressure. They also soak up any flavour from stews, stir fries and soups which makes them very versatile to cook with. 

Yutaka's 'Mellow Yellow' miso soup combines 2 different types of miso together and impressively won a gold star at The Great Taste Awards 2014. Having tried it for myself, it absolutely deserved it! White miso is my favourite type of miso soup, and the yellow mellow miso is similar as it has a 'clean' taste. I could also taste a lovely aroma of fermented alcohol in the soup which added another wave of umami. Delicious!  

And last but not least is the Tamari soya sauce. Tamari soya sauce is the rich, dark liquid which gathers at the surface of fermenting miso paste. Different to regular soya sauce, Tamari is made without wheat and has a more complex and smooth flavour. It's organic and also gluten-free! 

I used the shirataki noodles in place of regular noodles for a stir fry dish. For the konnyaku, I turned it into a homey stew with beef. The recipes for both will be in my next posts. 

Have you guys used Yutaka products before?

*Yutaka sent me these products to review. All opinions are my own and unbiased. Product info has been adapted from Yutaka's product release