How to Make Karashi: 4 Ways to Use Karashi in Your Cooking

Karashi is spicy Japanese-style mustard made from crushed mustard seeds—Brassica juncea, a species of mustard also known as brown mustard or Chinese mustard—and horseradish. You can use karashi in many applications, including as a condiment, pickling agent, or filling. The hot mustard can add a punch to dishes like gyoza dumplings, tonkatsu, and chicken katsu and impart notes of peppery heat into salad dressings and soups.

Karashi is a potent vehicle of mustard’s signature heat, thanks to the addition of peppery, bitter horseradish. Unlike the vinegar-driven heat of Western mustard, karashi mustard evokes the same tingly feeling as freshly grated wasabi.

Karashi is used to bring heat and dimension to dishes across Japanese cuisine.

1. 1. As a condiment. A traditional plate of tonkatsu (fried pork cutlet) wouldn’t be complete without a swipe of karashi. The hot mustard is a traditional condiment for snacks like shumai dumplings (traditional Chinese dumplings), and karashi packets are included with packages of nattō, sticky fermented soybeans.
2. 2. As a filling. Karashi renkon—lotus roots stuffed with a mix of miso and karashi, then sliced, battered, and fried until crispy—is a regional specialty of Kumamoto, a city in Kyushu.
3. 3. As a pickling agent. Karashi is a key ingredient in karashizuke, a kicky realm of tsukemono pickles in which a bit of karashi is added to the base of sake lees before pickling. Karashi-nasu, pickled Japanese eggplant, is one of the more popular kinds of karashizuke.
4. 4. As a seasoning. Karashi is used to season dishes like oden, a one-pot stew made with a dashi broth. You can also mix it into spreads and dipping sauces for sandwiches and salads, like karashi butter, karashi mayonnaise, and karashi-su-miso, a mustard-miso dressing.

Karashi is sold in pre-made paste or powder form, which allows for a personalized level of spiciness. Simply combine a few teaspoons of karashi powder with warm water to preference, and mix until paste forms. Cover the mixture with plastic wrap and allow it to steam for five minutes for best results.

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