Inarizushi Rice-Stuffed Fried Tofu Sushi Ideal to Bring Along on Summer Picnics

By Tomoyo Yamada / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer

12:30 JST, June 8, 2025

The pleasant early summer weather makes one feel like going on a picnic. Culinary specialist Ryuta Kijima says the best food to bring along is inarizushi, or aburaage thin fried tofu stuffed with rice. The dashi stock used to cook aburaage adds a nicely mild taste to it.

Kijima’s grandmother, culinary specialist Akiko Murakami who died in 2004, loved going to hanami cherry blossom viewing parties. Whenever she attended such occasions with her editor and business associates, she always made inarizushi, a vital part of the events. As a child, Kijima would cool the freshly cooked rice with an uchiwa fan. Soon, he was also given the job of stuffing the rice in aburaage.

“I was a granny’s boy, so I would follow my grandmother wherever she went, and she happened to be always in the kitchen,” Kijima said.

The inarizushi made by Murakami was a little on the saltier side, but this recipe has a taste Kijima arranged to his liking. The use of coarse sugar and other ingredients adds a little sweetness and richness, and he makes the inarizushi when inviting guests to his home.

The most important step in making inarizushi is removing the excess oil from the aburaage.

“My grandmother would cook [aburaage] thoroughly in hot water and then wash the pieces with water. Doing so makes it easier to absorb the dashi stock well,” Kijima said.

To cook aburaage, arrange the cut aburaage pieces in the pan in the shape of a doughnut. By doing so, the boiling stock can mixture move evenly in the pan and be easily absorbed by the fried tofu.

“After cooking aburaage pieces, it would work even better to place them in a refrigerator overnight to let the dashi flavor firmly soak in them,” Kijima said.

Fried tofu pieces cooked in this way can be used as a topping for soup noodles and other dishes, so they are suited to meal prepping.

Add sushi vinegar to freshly cooked hot rice, and stir it like cutting the rice with a shamoji rice paddle while fanning with an uchiwa fan. This helps remove excess water from the rice, which prevents it from being watery.

Lastly, stuff the vinegared rice inside the aburaage using your hands, and the inarizushi is done.

“I am reminded of my grandmother’s wisdom of wetting your hands with the stock mixture, which guarantees that the flavor [of inarizushi] won’t get diluted,” Kijima said.

Biting into the inarizushi, you can taste the cooked juice seeping from the aburaage. It should make you want to eat more and more. Young ginger pieces pickled in sweet vinegar serve as a fresh palate cleanser. Busy yourself on a weekend making a lot of inarizushi, after which you’ll be able to rest and relax.

Inarizushi

Ingredients (for 16 inarizushi):

• 680 grams warm, cooked rice
• 8 pieces aburaage thin fried tofu
• 100 grams fresh ginger
• An appropriate amount of snap peas
• 400 milliliters dashi stock
• 4 tbsp coarse sugar (or regular sugar)
• 2 tbsp roasted white sesame seeds



Directions:

1. Wash fresh ginger without peeling the skin. Slice the ginger to a thickness of 2 to 3 millimeters, put the slices in boiled water for 30 seconds and drain them well. Mix 100 milliliters of vinegar, 2½ tablespoons of sugar and 1/3 teaspoon of salt in a bowl or some other container. Put the ginger slices in the mixture and leave for more than an hour to make sweet vinegared ginger. Boil snap peas in hot water with some salt.

2. Cut aburaage pieces in half and open the cut ends. If it is difficult to open them like bags, first roll a chopstick or a rolling pin over the pieces.

3. Boil water in a pan and put the cut open aburaage pieces in. Place a drop lid on them and cook over a low-level medium heat for about 3 minutes. Wash them with water and then remove excess water by squeezing them between both palms.

4. Put dashi stock, 6 tablespoons of soy sauce, 4 tablespoons of mirin and coarse sugar in the pan. Place aburaage pieces evenly in the pan and turn on the heat. When the mixture has reached the boiling point, place a drop lid on the aburaage pieces and cook on low heat for 15 minutes. Turn off the heat and let cool down a bit.

5. Mix 3 tablespoons of vinegar, 1½ tablespoons of sugar and ½ teaspoon of salt to make sushi vinegar. Mix the sushi vinegar and sesame seeds in the rice, and let it cool down a little.

6. Hold an aburaage piece and squeeze it lightly between the palms of both hands, one by one. Divide the vinegared rice in 16 portions. Stuff each aburaage with one portion of the rice, adjust the shape of each inarizushi and close its open side. Place on a plate and serve with the boiled snap peas and slices of pickled fresh ginger.

• 

  The Yomiuri Shimbun
  Roll a chopstick on two aburaage pieces to make it easier to open them and make them into bags for vinegared rice.

• 

  The Yomiuri Shimbun
  Aburaage pieces are simmered in a pan.

• 

•