Homemade Ponzu Sauce
Classic Japanese citrus-soy condiment. Five minutes of work; the magic happens overnight in the fridge.
Quick
Adapted from Just One Cookbook (Namiko Hirasawa Chen)
Ingredients
cup
- 0.5 cup soy sauce
- 0.5 cup citrus juice (mix of lemon, orange, and/or grapefruit — see notes)
- 1 lemon, zested (zest only)
- 2 tbsp mirin (or substitute 2 tsp sugar + 2 tbsp sake or water)
- 0.5 cup katsuobushi (dried bonito flakes), packed — see notes for vegetarian sub
- 1 piece kombu (about 2×3 inches / 5×7.6 cm, ~6 g)
Steps
- Combine. In a sterilized mason jar, combine the soy sauce, citrus juice, lemon zest, mirin, katsuobushi, and kombu. Stir.
- Steep in the fridge for at least overnight — better at a few days, best at a week. (Some restaurants steep for a month for big batches.)
- Strain the mixture through a sieve to remove the bonito flakes and kombu.
- Bottle in a jar with a tight-fitting lid. Ready to use.
Notes
- Citrus mix: the author’s go-to is 6 tbsp lemon juice + 2 tbsp orange juice. Any combination of lemon, orange, grapefruit, sudachi, kabosu, or yuzu works — yuzu makes it especially good (yuzu ponzu) if you can find it.
- Vegan/vegetarian: omit the bonito flakes, or substitute 1–2 dried shiitake mushrooms.
- Storage: keeps 1 month in the fridge when made with mirin; 1 week if you substituted sugar + water. Always use clean utensils to avoid contamination. Properly sterilized jars + clean handling can stretch it to 6–12 months.
- Don’t throw out the leftover kombu and katsuobushi. They’re the base of homemade furikake (rice seasoning) — bag and freeze until you have enough.
Uses: dipping sauce for shabu-shabu, tuna tataki, gyoza, spring rolls, grilled oysters, or pan-fried eggplant. Also great as a salad dressing or over cold soba/somen noodles.
My Notes
(your own tweaks go here)