Spinach Ohitashi (Japanese Spinach Salad)

1. Gather all the ingredients.

To Make the Kombu Dashi

1. In a saucepan, put ½ cup water and 1 piece kombu (dried kelp).
2. Slowly bring it to a boil. Once boiling, remove the kombu from the liquid (and reserve it to make Kombu Tsukudani). Now, you have kombu dashi. If you are not vegan/vegetarian, you can add a small amount of katsuobushi for more flavor (see my Awase Dashi recipe for instructions).

To Make the Savory Broth

1. To the dashi, add 1 Tbsp mirin and 1 Tbsp usukuchi (light-colored) soy sauce.
2. Mix together, bring to a boil, and turn off the heat. Set aside.

To Prepare the Spinach

1. Rinse well 1 bunch spinach.
2. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Once boiling, add 1 pinch Diamond Crystal kosher salt. Add the spinach to the boiling water stem side first since the stems take longer to cook.
3. After 15 seconds, push down the leafy part into the water and cook for up to 1 minute. (Spinach in the US is more tender than Japanese spinach, so it cooks faster.) Once the spinach is cooked through in roughly less than 1 minute, remove it quickly from the boiling water.
4. Transfer to a bowl of iced water and let it cool (but don’t leave the spinach too long, as it will lose nutrients).
5. As soon as it‘s cooled, collect the spinach and squeeze out the water. If you like to serve this dish as I do, gather together the spinach neatly by the stems. I like to serve both the stem and leafy parts separately instead of mixing it up together.
6. Cut the spinach into 1½-inch (3.75-cm) lengths and squeeze the water out one more time.

To Soak in the Broth

1. Put the spinach in an airtight container. Now, pour the savory broth over the spinach.
2. Make sure the spinach is evenly distributed in the container and fully submerged in the broth. Put the lid on and let it soak in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour and ideally up to 3–4 hours.

To Serve

1. Serve the spinach in small individual bowls and pour some broth on top. I like to make sure each bowl gets both the stem and leafy parts. The dark and light green color contrast makes a beautiful presentation.
2. Sprinkle with toasted white sesame seeds for a vegan/vegetarian version. For the standard version, add katsuobushi (dried bonito flakes) on top. Enjoy!

To Store

1. You can keep Spinach Ohitashi in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.