20 Simple and Healthy Japanese Breakfast Recipes to Start Your Day (2024)

Japanese people start their days with a typical rice dish set. Traditional Japanese breakfast may vary between households, but they usually consist of rice, fish, miso soup, and pickled plum (umeboshi). This menu also has rolled eggs, salad, and edamame.

Japanese rice balls (onigiri) are popular, fulfilling foods. You can modify the recipes with many ingredients you like because they are so simple. Traditional fillings are pickled plum or tuna, with seaweed wrap. However, you can use other ingredients such as enoki mushrooms, chicken, or even cheese.

This breakfast set is a modern take on a traditional Japanese meal. The menu consists of miso fried rice, sweet potato dumpling, rice ball with pickled plum, and rolled eggs. They are rich with protein, mineral, carbohydrate, and healthy fat to start your day right.

Need something fresh and light in the morning? Try making this daikon and carrot salad. The vegetables are cut thinly for easier eating. They are pickled with sweet vinegar sauce, giving them great flavor combination. You can eat them just like that or as a side dish.

Despite being fried, Japanese tempura tastes light and does not make your digestion “heavy”. This tempura dish is gluten-free because the batter is made with rice flour. It consists of shrimps, peas, zucchinis, and eggplants., perfect as healthy breakfast.

This breakfast bowl is called tamago kake gohan, consisting of hot rice with raw egg. The trick is to place the egg on a very hot rice pile, before immediately mixing them up. The rice temperature makes the egg transform into somewhat over easy consistency. Just add soy sauce, cilantro, and onion.

Japanese egg rolls, or tamagoyaki, are staples in the boxed meal menu (bento). You can make them sweet or savory, using ingredients likeshirodashisauce, olive oil, salt and sugar, or other condiments you like.

Want a complete meal but lack of time? Minimize the Japanese breakfast dish into carbohydrate, protein, fiber, vitamins, and minerals. This breakfast set consists of rice, miso soup with tofu, salmon, and fresh strawberries.

The Japanese version of a breakfast sandwich uses simple ingredients and quick instructions. This dish consists of two hand-formed rice patties, and fillings such as egg, lettuce, and fried cutlets. Once they are arranged into a sandwich, wrap it with a seaweed sheet.

This hearty breakfast bowl consists of sausage, fried egg, and lettuce for a complete meal. The condiment is ginger, soy sauce, and vinegar. The resulting flavor is savory with a little sweetness and heat.

Eating rice with green tea in the bowl sounds strange, but this is the point of theochazukedish. Japanese love eating rice submerged in warm green tea as a quick meal or snack. Traditionally, the rice is eaten with something that has a sharp flavor. You can use pickled plum, salted fish, salmon roe, scallion, rice crackers, or sashimi.

Japanese rice porridge is perfect as a quick breakfast or sick-time meal.Okayu,which is the Japanese version of Chinese rice porridge, is thick and can be flavored with anything. This version is sweet and warm, with honey and grated ginger as the topping.

Dashi eggs are a simple scrambled egg you make until it reaches soft consistency. Placing it on warm rice will slowly cook it further. This recipe uses not only an egg but also boneless chicken cuts. The result is a satisfying meal in one bowl.

This skillet breakfast is cooked in one place, making it easy but delicious. The dish contains various vegetables, such as tomatoes, kale, baby spinach, shiitake mushrooms, and regular mushrooms. Adding soy dressing makes the dish taste more “Japanese”.

Japanese egg custard (chawanmushi) is soft, savory, and warm. It is eaten as an appetizer, but you can turn it into a light breakfast. This recipe uses chicken, shrimps, carrot, fish cake, and mushrooms as the filing. One ramekin consists of enough protein and energy for the day.

It is very easy to make vegan rice balls (onigiri). This menu has six types of onigiri made from the same rice base. Their ingredients vary in flavor and colors. The ingredients include pickled plum, mustard greens, kelp, nori, carrots, black olives, and pine nuts.

Okonomiyaki is often referred to as Japanese omelet, and many sellers cook it on a large frying station. This version is cooked in a skillet, ideal for one sitting. The ingredients include eggs, rice, cabbage, onions, and dashi. You can also add squid, mushrooms, sausage, corn, and other ingredients.

Use your leftover rice to makeochazuke, a Japanese rice dish with warm tea. Warm the rice first in the microwave before pouring bland green tea. If you feel weird eating rice with tea, replace the latter with simple dashi broth.

Japanese omelet with fried rice (omurice) is one of the most iconic comfort foods. The menu consists of a fluffy omelet filled with simple fried rice. The ingredients for the rice are tomato sauce, mushrooms, and peas.

This rice porridge consists of rice, tea bags, and sweet potato cuts. The rice is cooked with tea to get the aroma and unique flavor. The sweet potato is cut and simmered.