Negidare: Japanese Green Onion Sauce Recipe and Usage
When you think of a versatile sauce that matches well with foods like meat, fish, vegetables, and tofu, what comes to mind?
Although there are several multi-purpose sauces widely used in Japan, including “Ninniku Shoyu (にんにく醤油)“, that reminds me of “Negidare (ねぎだれ)”.
Negidare (ねぎだれ)
Negidare is a simple sauce that Japanese home cooks sometimes make at home.
Its name is composed of 2 words, “Negi (ねぎ)” meaning green onion or scallion in Japanese, and “Dare (だれ)” that refers to a Tare.
So the main ingredient in this sauce is green onion.
Recipe
Image: Cookpad.com
Negidare is easy to make like this.
- First, chop green onion’s white part into small pieces.
- Then combine them with a mixture of seasonings such as soy sauce, vinegar, and sesame oil. That’s it!
For those who want to know the mixing ratio of seasonings to make tasty Negidare sauce, here are two examples from the official website of Kikkoman and Nadia, a Japanese recipe site.
From Kikkoman
| Ingredient | Ratio |
|---|---|
| Soy sauce | 2 |
| Mirin sweet cooking rice wine | 2 |
| Sesame oil | 1 |
| Ground sesame seeds | 2 |
| Black pepper | A little |
From Nadia
| Ingredient | Ratio |
|---|---|
| Soy sauce | 3 |
| Rice vinegar | 3 |
| Sesame oil | 1 |
| Sugar | 1.5 |
Choose one of these and mix all the ingredients well. Then, combine the mixture with finely chopped green onions (the white part).
The resulting Negidare sauce can be preserved for 4 days or 5 in the refrigerator.
Uses
Image: Rakuten Recipe
As I mentioned above, Negidare is a kind of multi-purpose sauce. So we use it in various ways.
The green onion sauce goes well with various foods, like cooked meat/fish and cold tofu or Hiyayakko. It can also be used as a dressing for vegetable salads.
