This homemade version of Japanese rice seasoning is a salty, sweet, and crunchy mix of ingredients with lots of room for improvisation. With a hint of seafood from smoked and fermented bonito flakes and the slightest heat from Aleppo chili flakes and wasabi powder, use it to flavor soups, salads, sprinkle over salmon or a variety of Asian dishes.


close up of bowl of homemade furikake seasoning with spoon.

The origin of this recipe

Awhile back I made an Asian inspired salmon recipe that uses shichimi togarashi as a garnish/condiment. It was a spicy sichuan pepper infused flavor bomb and its memory stayed with me. Recently, my son, after visiting Japan, told me about furikake, a similar mix. These spice blends are used to add a finishing flavor to Japanese cuisine, versus a spice that is blended into the recipe and are often used as a rice seasoning. I recently saw furikake in the grocery store and purchased some right away. But like with many store bought spice blends, the flavor was lackluster. To make it homemade, is to realize something much more flavorful and nuanced, with hints of seafood from smoked and fermented bonito flakes and the slightest heat from Aleppo chili flakes and wasabi powder. It’s customizable and you can leave out the exotic bonito flakes if you prefer.

close up of mixing aleppo chili and wasabi powder into the furikake mix.

What you’ll love about this recipe!

🍚 Asian flavors with a kick: the mix of toasted sesame and toasted nori seaweed mixed with salt and sugar create amazing flavors. Add in the unique bonito flakes (fermented, sun-dried fish flakes with a delicate seafood flavor) and the uniqueness of Aleppo chili and wasabi and you’ve got yourself an Asian condiment/topping/garnish that packs a great flavor punch. I find it’s more flavorful than typical store bought.
🥣 Easy: While you may need to procure some of the ingredients, as in, they may not typically sit in your pantry, the return is great. Take 10 minutes to mix this furikake seasoning up and you will have it on hand for weeks to come.
🍽️ Versatile: As you will see with my recipes, this furikake can be mixed into a dressing, sprinkled over a soup, or added to a stir fry or rice side dish. The possibilities are endless.

close up of bowl of homemade furikake seasoning with spoon.

Ingredient notes, substitutions and tips

  • Sesame seeds: white, black or both can be used in this recipe. Most come raw, and therefore you will want to toast them as specified in the recipe card. On the off chance you purchase toasted sesame seeds, then obviously forego the toasting step of the recipe. White seeds are easier to toast, as you can see the color change.
  • Toasted seaweed: Since sushi sized Nori sheets (8″ x 7″) often come in large quantities (50 sheets, though they can be found in quantities of 10), I recommend the below discussed Gimme brand roasted seaweed snacks because one pack can be used up for this recipe. Either is fine. The Gimme snacks can be chosen with extra sesame, salt or other flavors which enhance the nori and furikake flavors.
  • Bonito flakes: this specialty item may or may not be readily available for you (and it is online), but don’t worry if not, as furikake is often served without it. Up to you if you want to pursue its inclusion. I found it locally and find the flavor really wonderfully subtle with smoky seafood undertones (they are sun-dried and fermented skipjack fish).
  • Spice: I use wasabi powder (found at local Asian market) and Aleppo chili flakes for that wonderful subtle horseradish heat I love, and for the less spicy, fruity kick from Aleppo chili flakes. see below, under customization for many other ways to add heat. The amount I’ve used only adds a very subtle heat, enjoyed by most I would imagine.
  • Salt/sugar: these two simple ingredients add a necessary balance and enhance the flavors. Taste and adjust to your liking. You could substitute coconut sugar, for a stronger caramelized flavor, if you prefer.
ingredients for homemade furikake
a package of gimme seaweed snacks.

Toasted Seaweed

Toasted seaweed works well in this recipe because the seaweed is crispier and can be crushed into small flakes easily. It also is enhanced a bit with oil and seasonings. I like to buy these small packs of toasted seaweed snacks because one can be used up for this recipe. You can also buy the larger sheets of plain nori or toasted nori that are used to make sushi rolls, but there are many sheets in the pack and you won’t use them all up. Something to consider when choosing your seaweed at the grocery store.

Step-by-step instructions

Toast the Sesame seeds: preheat a saute pan on medium low then add in the sesame seeds and stir steadily for a few minutes until the seeds darken (take care to keep them moving and don’t let them burn- hence the medium-low setting.

Above: at left the sesame seeds are kept moving with a whisk, while they toast over medium-low heat. At right, you can see the small bowl of raw seeds next to the toasted seeds to compare the darkening they take on once toasted.

Break down other ingredients into flakes: Use your clean fingers to crush the bonito flakes and toasted seaweed into small flakes. As you can see in the photos throughout the post, the flakes are mostly larger than the sesame seeds, but some get quite small.

Above: at left are the bonito flakes, broken down in a bowl, and at right is the seaweed also broken down into small flakes

furikake mix before adding in chili or extra bonito.

Mix all the ingredients together: Use a medium bowl to mix all the ingredients together, taste and adjust to taste. You may feel you want more of any of the ingredients to get the right flavor for you. I added in some more bonito flakes not broken down so that there are a few larger pieces. You can make it spicier for sure, if you love a good kick of heat!

Store on cool dry pantry shelf: this mix is mostly very dry and should last a good time in the pantry. I like to take the little moisture sucking silica gel pack that comes in the seaweed snack and add to the mixture.

close up of mixing aleppo chili and wasabi powder into the furikake mix.

Above: Mixing in the wasabi fine powder and the bright red Aleppo chili flakes.

carrot miso soup

Above: one great use for homemade furikake is to garnish my Miso Carrot Soup! (recipe to be published very soon)

Ways to customize this recipe

This recipe represents typical furikake with the subtle seafood taste of bonito flakes, but it also includes some spice, which is not present in all furikake seasoning sold in grocery stores. While I cannot attest to trying all the many types of furikake that are made authentically, in Japan, I have studied how they all bring a variety of flavors for tremendous finishing spices, and you can recreate many of them in the following ways:

  • Mushroom powder: as used in my Asian Spice Blend, you can easily grind some dried shiitake or other mushrooms in your spice grinder to create a mushroom powder that adds significant umami to your furikake seasoning.
  • Vegan: if you want to experience the flavor dimension bonito flakes brings the mix but are vegan, you can add in some nutritional yeast flakes. They tend to taste more cheesy than seafoody, but there is a similar umami flavor that would add to the furikake.
  • Miso powder: honestly, I wanted to include this in my recipe to bring in another fermented flavor, but could not find it in any of three local Asian markets, so decided it was too mush of a specialty item to include. You could order online.
  • Spice: I love the horseradish type heat of wasabi, and have included it. I also love the fruity subtle heat of Aleppo chili peppers but you could sub any type of ground peppercorn (including szechuan pepper which adds that numbing heat some love), or any Asian specialty dried pepper (some come fermented) for added complexity of heat and spice.
  • Basic umami: there’s nothing stopping you from including simple onion and/or garlic powder. As a finishing spice, furikake infused with a bit of onion and garlic tastes great.
  • Crunch: as used in some authentic furikake mixes, you can include poppy or hemp seeds in addition to the sesame seeds for an extra crunch!

Other recipes using my furikake seasoning

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close up of bowl of homemade furikake seasoning with spoon.

Easy Homemade Furikake Seasoning

5 from 1 vote
Prep Time15 minutes
Cook Time0 minutes
0 minutes
Servings16 (1.5 tbsp per ser.)
Calories32
Also known as Japanese Rice Seasoning, this homemade version of Japanese rice seasoning is a salty, sweet and crunchy mix of ingredients with lots of room for improvisation. With a hint of seafood from smoked and fermented bonito flakes and the slightest heat from Aleppo chili flakes and wasabi powder, use it to flavor soups, salads, sprinkle over salmon or a variety of Asian dishes.
Kitchen Tools
  • 1 saute pan, to toast sesame seeds

Ingredients
 

Method:
 

  • Toast sesame seeds in preheated pan on medium-low, until they develop color but don't get overly brown, stirring all the while. They will pop like popcorn, but not break open. This makes it a little challenging so move quickly. Alternatively use toasted sesame seeds and forego this step.
  • Crush the bonito flakes, and the toasted seaweed snacks into smallish flakes. Reference photos in post for sizing compared to sesame seeds. I don't worry about getting them overly small and actually add a few larger bonito flakes into the mix at the end.
  • Store in an airtight container with your spices for up to a month or more. You can repurpose the little silica moisture absorbing pack from your seaweed snacks if you have it, and place it in amongst the furikake.

Notes

Customization: if you aren’t a fan of seafood flavors or are a vegetarian/vegan, you can leave out the bonito flakes. Similarly you can adjust or leave out the wasabi/chili flakes if you don’t like spicy foods. Furikake is not typically spicy, this is my take for flavor. If you leave out both of these, you will have a sweet/salty/sesame flavor, similar to Gomasio. This is a much simpler, but still great seasoning to have around to sprinkle on many foods.

Nutrition (an estimate)

Calories: 32kcal | Carbohydrates: 2g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 2g | Saturated Fat: 0.3g | Cholesterol: 0.1mg | Sodium: 154mg | Potassium: 57mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 0.3g | Vitamin C: 3mg | Calcium: 52mg | Iron: 1mg | Magnesium: 17mg | Net Carbohydrates: 1g
How’d it go?Please take a minute to scroll down and comment/rate this recipe! If it didn’t meet your expectations, please let me know.
5 from 1 vote

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One Comment

  1. 5 stars
    I encourage you to try this furikake seasoning because of its versatility. It is what’s called a finishing spice so it’s sprinkled over anything from rice, eggs, salad, soup, or stir fries!