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Any American anime fan worth his salt knows about the food in their favorite anime or manga. The top 7 would be Japanese curry, katsu, tomagoyaki, omurice, sushi, ramen, and okonomiyaki.
Of course being nowhere near a Japanese restaurant that serves okonomiyaki, I have to make it myself with a limited American pantry. Now if you have things like dashi and bonito flakes on hand, feel free to add it! This is a bare bones vegetarian recipe that you can expand on.
My favorite part is definitely that sauce. So good and fun making the pattern on top. To make it truly vegetarian you need to use a substitute for Worcestershire sauce. There is a recipe linked below.
I will totally make this again, but maybe next time I’ll try it in a meat version with pork belly or bacon. Another variation that i’d like to make is the Hiroshima okonomiyaki with noodles!
Vegetable Okonomiyaki
Ingredients
PANCAKES
- 2 cups cabbage shredded
- 2 green onions chopped plus 1 for garnish
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup flour
- 1 cup water
- 2 tsp soy sauce
- ¼ tsp baking powder
- 2 tbsp panko
- 1 tsp minced red pickled ginger
- 2 tbsp Sesame oil
OKONOMIYAKI SAUCE
- 3 tbsp ketchup
- 1 tsp sugar
- 2 ½ tbsp Worcestershire sauce (vegetarian version – see recipe)
MAYO
- 3 tbsp mayonnaise
- 2 tsp rice wine vinegar
- 1 tsp sugar
Instructions
PANCAKE
- Mix eggs, water, soy sauce, baking powder and flour. Whisk until just incorporated.
- Add cabbage, panko, and 2 green onions chopped.
- Heat sesame oil in a fry pan that has a lid.
- Pour half of mixture into pan, form a rough circle. Cook about 4 minutes or until underneath has color.
- Carefully flip using 2 spatulas. Cook 4 more minutes. Cover the last 2 minutes.
- Repeat with rest of batter.
SAUCES
- Mix ingredients together for each sauce.
- Spoon and smooth okonomiyaki sauce onto cooked pancake. Stripe mayo using a plastic baggie with corner cut off. You can marble the mayo with a chopstick.
- Garnish with green onions and toasted sesame seeds.