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Gomoku-zushi with aburaage, lotus root, carrot, dried shiitake and kanpyo mixed through the rice, scattered with snow peas
Serves4 servings
CuisineJapanese
East Asia

Chirashizushi: Gomoku-zushi with Simmered Root Vegetables and Aburaage (ちらし寿司・五目ずし)

How to make chirashizushi as gomoku-zushi, the style where simmered fillings are folded into vinegared rice. Aburaage, lotus root, carrot, dried shiitake and kanpyo are simmered in shiitake soaking liquid, mixed into fan-cooled sushi rice and finished with diagonally sliced snow peas. Covers the sweet vinegar dressing, how this mixed-in style differs from topped chirashi, fixing common problems and handling leftovers.

Cooking flow

Cooking steps

STEP 11 / 10

Wash and cook the rice

Washed rice in a rice cooker's inner pot with water at the sushi 2-go level, ready to cook
Use the sushi water line on the rice cooker

Wash the rice, put it in the rice cooker's inner pot and add water to the sushi 2-go line. Cook as usual.

STEP 22 / 10

Rehydrate the dried shiitake and kanpyo

Dried shiitake soaking in 300ml water, with kanpyo soaking in a separate bowl of water
Soak the shiitake and kanpyo in separate bowls; the shiitake water becomes the simmering liquid

Soak the dried shiitake in 300ml water. When soft, cut into thin strips, and set aside 200ml of the soaking liquid for simmering. Soak the kanpyo in water separately until soft, then cut it into pieces about 1 cm long.

STEP 33 / 10

Cut the remaining fillings

Carrot being cut into fine julienne, with lotus root in ginkgo-leaf slices, aburaage strips, sliced shiitake and short kanpyo pieces nearby
Keep each filling cut small so it mixes evenly through the rice

Cut the lotus root into ginkgo-leaf slices (quarter rounds), the carrot into fine julienne and the aburaage into strips.

STEP 44 / 10

Simmer the fillings in the shiitake liquid

Aburaage, root vegetables, shiitake and kanpyo simmering with soy sauce, mirin and shiitake soaking liquid
Stop when only a little simmering liquid is left in the pan

Put the aburaage, lotus root, carrot, shiitake, kanpyo, 2 tsp soy sauce, 1/2 tsp mirin and the 200ml shiitake soaking liquid in a saucepan. Simmer until only a little liquid remains.

STEP 55 / 10

Blanch the snow peas

Snow peas blanching in boiling water with a little salt
Blanch the snow peas in lightly salted boiling water

Bring a small pot of water to a boil with a little salt and blanch the snow peas.

STEP 66 / 10

Slice the snow peas diagonally

Blanched snow peas being cut diagonally into thin strips
Thin diagonal strips scatter evenly over the finished rice

Cut the blanched snow peas diagonally into thin strips. Set them aside for the topping.

STEP 77 / 10

Make the vinegar dressing

Grain vinegar, sugar and salt stirred together after heating to make the vinegar dressing
Stir until no sugar or salt remains undissolved

Put the grain vinegar, sugar and 1/2 tsp salt in a microwave-safe bowl and microwave for 30 seconds. Stir until the sugar and salt are fully dissolved.

STEP 88 / 10

Season the hot rice and fan it

Freshly cooked rice being cut and folded with a paddle while fanned, after a portion of the vinegar dressing has been added
Add the dressing in portions, cutting through the rice rather than stirring it

Transfer the freshly cooked rice to a large bowl or sushi tub. Add the vinegar dressing a little at a time, cutting and folding the rice with a wooden paddle while fanning it with a hand fan to cool it. Fanning drives off excess moisture and gives the rice its gloss.

STEP 99 / 10

Fold in the simmered fillings

The simmered fillings, with a little liquid left, being folded into the seasoned sushi rice
Turn the fillings through the rice so they are spread evenly, not piled on top

Add the simmered fillings to the sushi rice and mix them through.

STEP 1010 / 10

Serve and scatter the snow peas

Blanched snow pea strips being scattered over a bowl of gomoku-zushi
The snow peas are the only topping

Mound the rice in a serving bowl or on plates and scatter the snow peas over the top.

0 / 0
Ingredients

Ingredients

1 / 4

Rice

Ingredient Amount Role
White rice (seihakumai) 2 go Washed and cooked in a rice cooker
Water for cooking the rice To the rice cooker's sushi 2-go line For cooking the rice
2 / 4

Fillings to mix in

Ingredient Amount Role
Aburaage (fried tofu pouch) 50g Cut into strips and simmered
Lotus root (renkon) 40g Cut into ginkgo-leaf slices and simmered
Carrot 40g Cut into fine julienne and simmered
Dried shiitake (hoshi shiitake) 5g Rehydrated, cut into thin strips and simmered
Kanpyo (dried gourd strips) 5g Rehydrated, cut into about 1 cm pieces and simmered
Water for soaking the shiitake 300ml 200ml of the soaking liquid becomes the simmering liquid
Water for soaking the kanpyo As needed For rehydrating only
Soy sauce 2 tsp Seasons the fillings
Mirin 1/2 tsp Seasons the fillings
3 / 4

Finish

Ingredient Amount Role
Snow peas (sayaendo) 15g Blanched, sliced diagonally and scattered on top
Salt for the blanching water A little Added to the boiling water for the snow peas
4 / 4

Vinegar dressing (awasezu)

Ingredient Amount Role
Grain vinegar (kokumotsu-su) 2 1/2 tbsp Base of the dressing
Sugar 2 tbsp Sweetens the dressing
Salt 1/2 tsp Seasons the dressing
0 / 0

Chirashizushi Where the Fillings Go Into the Rice, Not Just On Top

What this bowl should keep

Simmer the fillings until only a little liquid remains, season the hot rice with sweet vinegar little by little while fanning it, then fold the fillings straight in. The snow peas are the only thing that goes on top.

Dried shiitake swell in a bowl of water, and that soaking water becomes the simmering liquid for strips of aburaage (fried tofu), small ginkgo-leaf slices of lotus root, fine carrot, shiitake and short pieces of kanpyo (dried gourd strips). Meanwhile, freshly cooked rice is turned with a wooden paddle while someone fans it, a little sweet vinegar at a time, until it takes on a gloss. The simmered fillings are folded through, and thin green slivers of snow pea are scattered over the top.

Chirashizushi is not only rice with toppings arranged over it. This article follows one specific home version: the gomoku-zushi published by Wako City in Saitama Prefecture in its food-education recipe collection, using dried ingredients. It serves 4 and uses no raw fish, no egg and no nori. The city's material describes gomoku-zushi as a sushi in which several ingredients are mixed in, and explains the name "gomoku" (literally "five items") as coming from mixing in five or more kinds. That is the city's explanation for this dish, not a rule that every chirashizushi must have exactly five fillings.

The recipe is credited here to Wako City as an institutional recipe; no individual cook is named as its author. Being published by the city does not make it a Wako-born regional dish either — it is simply a clear, complete home version of the mixed-in style.

Not kitchen-tested

This recipe has not been kitchen-tested by Sekai Gohan. The amounts and order follow the city's published recipe, and the food-safety guidance comes from public health agencies.

Names

Chirashizushi (ちらし寿司) is the broad name for "scattered" sushi. Gomoku-zushi (五目ずし) and gomoku chirashi (五目ちらし) refer to the style with several fillings. In English you will also see chirashi sushi or chirashi-zushi.

Mixed-In or Topped: Two Ways to Build Chirashizushi

Within the sources used for this article, chirashizushi appears in two clearly different shapes.

Mixed-in style. Wako City's gomoku-zushi simmers its fillings and folds them through the vinegared rice. A separate recipe from NHK Educational's "Minna no Kyou no Ryouri," "Quick Gomoku Chirashizushi" by cooking instructor Junko Takagi, also simmers fillings and mixes them into sushi rice. It is a different formulation, though — it starts from 400g of warm cooked rice and uses its own vinegar dressing with carrot, boiled bamboo shoot, fresh shiitake and chikuwa — so none of its amounts or ingredients are used here.

Topped style. The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) publishes a chirashizushi recipe, supervised by culinary researcher Go Igarashi, in which seasoned rice is placed in a dish and topped with scrambled egg, boiled asparagus and smoked salmon. It shows another way the dish is served, but those toppings belong to that recipe, not to this one.

Axis Mixed-in gomoku-zushi (this recipe) Topped chirashizushi (MAFF example)
Where the fillings go Folded through the rice Arranged over the rice
Fillings Simmered aburaage, lotus root, carrot, dried shiitake, kanpyo Scrambled egg, boiled asparagus, smoked salmon
On top Snow peas only The toppings themselves

The materials behind this article do not establish where chirashizushi or gomoku-zushi originated, when they arose, or a fixed link to particular festivals, so this article does not make those claims. For more dishes from the same country, see the Japan page.

Ingredients (Serves 4)

Rice, aburaage, lotus root, carrot, dried shiitake, kanpyo, snow peas and the vinegar dressing ingredients
Keep the filling seasonings, the vinegar dressing and the soaking water separate from the start

The soy sauce and mirin season only the fillings. The sugar and 1/2 tsp salt go only into the vinegar dressing. The pinch of salt for the snow peas is separate from both.

Equipment

  • Rice cooker with a sushi rice water line
  • Two bowls for soaking the shiitake and kanpyo
  • Knife and cutting board
  • Saucepan for simmering the fillings
  • Small pot and slotted spoon for the snow peas
  • Microwave-safe bowl for the vinegar dressing
  • Large bowl or wooden sushi tub (hangiri)
  • Wooden rice paddle (shamoji)
  • Hand fan (uchiwa)
  • Serving bowl or plates

Choosing and Finding the Ingredients

This version builds its flavor from dried ingredients and their soaking water rather than adding a separate stock: the shiitake soaking liquid, soy sauce and mirin are the whole simmering liquid. There is no oil, dashi or extra sugar in the fillings.

  • Rice measured in go. Use the rice cooker's sushi 2-go line.
  • Grain vinegar (kokumotsu-su) is used for the dressing.

Don't substitute ingredients here. If you swap any, treat it as your own variation rather than this gomoku-zushi.

Method: Simmer, Season, Fold, Scatter

Order matters

The rice is seasoned with the vinegar dressing and fanned before any filling goes in. The fillings are mixed in directly; the snow peas wait until the very end.

When Things Go Wrong

Condition Likely cause What to do
The fillings are swimming in liquid They came off the heat too early Keep simmering until only a little liquid remains, then mix them in
Grains of sugar remain in the dressing It was not stirred long enough after heating Keep stirring until fully dissolved before adding it to the rice
The rice is mushy or the grains are crushed The dressing went in all at once, or the rice was stirred instead of cut Add the dressing in portions and use a cutting, folding motion with the paddle
The rice looks dull and wet It was not fanned while the dressing was mixed in Fan as you fold so the excess moisture can evaporate
The snow peas look lost in the rice They were mixed in with the fillings Keep them aside and scatter them only at the end

Leftovers and Food Safety

Handling cooked rice

Fanning the rice is for texture and moisture. It is not a step that makes the dish safe to keep at room temperature.

Japan's Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) advises home cooks to serve with clean hands, utensils and dishes, and not to leave food at room temperature for long before or after cooking. For leftovers, divide them into shallow containers so they cool quickly, and refrigerate them quickly.

MHLW also notes that Bacillus cereus can be a problem in foods including rice dishes, and advises avoiding leaving them at room temperature, refrigerating them quickly after cooking or keeping them hot, and keeping storage as short as possible. No specific storage time for this gomoku-zushi is given, so none is stated here.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does this chirashizushi use raw fish?

No. Every filling is simmered or blanched, and there is no raw fish, egg or nori in this version.

Why is it called gomoku?

Wako City's recipe explains that gomoku-zushi mixes in several ingredients and is called gomoku because five or more kinds are mixed in. Treat this as the explanation attached to this dish rather than a fixed count for all chirashizushi.

Can I add scrambled egg, asparagus or smoked salmon?

Those belong to the topped-style chirashizushi published by MAFF, a different recipe. They are not part of this gomoku-zushi, which finishes with snow peas only.

Why microwave the vinegar dressing?

The 30 seconds of heating helps the sugar and salt dissolve into the vinegar. Stir until nothing undissolved remains before adding it to the rice.

Should I drain the fillings before mixing them in?

This recipe has no draining step. Instead, simmer the fillings until only a little liquid remains, then fold them straight into the rice.

How do I store leftovers?

Divide them into shallow, clean containers so they cool quickly, and refrigerate quickly, following MHLW's general home food-safety guidance. Do not leave the rice at room temperature for long.

Sources

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