Onigiri Recipes Japanese Rice Balls

Onigiri are triangular rice balls that you can get with various fillings or cook yourself. The onigiri rice balls range from vegetarian, vegan to meaty varieties. The fillings consist, for example, of umeboshi (Japanese plums), shake (cooked salmon), konbu (seaweed) or furikake (dried fish, meat or even vegetables).

Long-lasting and Versatile

Due to the cooking, drying or fermenting of the respective ingredients, onigiri can be stored for a long time even at room temperature. This has the advantage that the rice balls are perfect for picnics and your bento box. Of course, you should not include raw fish or raw meat in your homemade onigiri if you are planning a longer trip :) For even more variations, you can stir different spices into the onigiri rice. Here, the spice powder furikake, which is based on seaweed and salt, is perfect. Furikake is also available in different flavors and would give your onigiri really special flavors. One of my favorite combinations, for example, is to mix some onigiri rice with fish furikake, add a few drops of sesame oil and then fill the rice triangle with a tuna-mayo cream.

The Healthy "Fast Food"

Onigiri is ahead of sushi, Japan's number one fast food. In Japan, there are small onigiri shops on almost every corner where you can take your lunch break with freshly prepared onigiri and tea. Meanwhile, onigiri are also becoming trendy in Germany. In Düsseldorf, almost every Asian shop, even if it's not Japanese, offers onigiri.

The healthy fast food is also becoming increasingly popular in other German cities. The prices are not exactly a bargain at between 2.5 and 4 euros, but as a rule, two onigiri should be enough to fill you up.

If you want to make the onigiri yourself, there are different aids that make shaping easier for you. Basically, these very inexpensive plastic aids are very well suited for onigiri beginners, but the "professional" quickly shapes the rice triangles by hand.

Feel free to check out our previous onigiri recipes. Here we introduce you to different fillings that you can already use to stock your bento box with variations.