Soy-Marinated Shiso — The Leaf That Waits for Warm Rice

In Japanese kitchens there are pickles that take months — and then there is this one, which asks for a single night. Shiso leaves, layered in soy sauce and sesame oil, come out the next morning glossy and fragrant, somewhere between a pickle and a condiment but more vivid than either. You lay one over warm rice, fold it around a bite, and breakfast is suddenly interesting.

Makes 20–30 leaves · 10 minutes + 1 hour to overnight in the fridge

Ingredients

• 20–30 shiso leaves (also sold as perilla at Asian grocers — or grow a pot on the windowsill; it's an easy, generous plant)
• 2 Tbsp soy sauce
• 2 tsp sesame oil
• 1 Tbsp toasted white sesame seeds
• Optional: a little grated ginger or garlic

How to make it

1. Trim the tough ends of the stems and rinse the leaves briefly.
2. Pat each leaf completely dry with paper towels — this is the step that keeps the marinade clean.
3. In a container, stir together the soy sauce, sesame oil, sesame seeds, and the ginger or garlic if using.
4. Coat the leaves one at a time in the marinade, stacking them as you go.
5. Press plastic wrap directly onto the surface and refrigerate for 1 hour, or better, overnight.

Tip

Serve a leaf at a time over warm rice. When the stack runs low, chop the last leaves fine, stir them into rice with a spoonful of the marinade, and shape it into onigiri — they freeze beautifully. Make a few extra on Sunday, and a weekday breakfast is just a microwave and one green leaf away.

If you have fresh shiso left over before it gets marinated, it keeps much longer with a damp paper towel tucked above and below the leaves in the storage container.

Part of The Sunday Batch — small things made ahead, for easier weekday mornings.

Part of our Vegan & Vegetarian collection — Japanese dishes that leave out the fish.

From our Pantry

Tsuru Bishio

Four-year barrel-aged soy sauce from Shodoshima — round and deep enough to carry this marinade on its own.

View product →

Kuki Yamashichi Pure Sesame Oil

Cold-pressed in Mie since 1886 — the two teaspoons in the marinade are what make the leaves smell like more than soy sauce.

View product →

Shiso Kosho

Shiso from Ueki Farm in Oita, aged with green chili and salt — the leaf's aroma kept in a jar for when fresh shiso is hard to find.

View product →

Continue

Shiso Miso

the same leaves, cooked down into miso with sesame oil.