Categories: Food

Citrus Furikake

We juice a good amount of citrus (especially in winter), and I can’t stand to let the flavor-packed peels go to waste. Citrus peel is a favorite ingredient of mine – strong, fragrant, and able to work both sweet and savory fronts, it’s a hero ingredient in my kitchen. This citrus and cardamom-accented take on Japanese furikake is a great way to use it. Don’t skip the cardamom, it brings the wildcard magic. Leave the fragrant furikake on your counter and reach for it throughout the day to top toasts, tarts, bowls, salads, eggs, and on and on.

Japanese furikake is a seasoning that typically uses seaweed along with sesame seeds and, often, bonito or dried fish. It is frequently enjoyed dry – sprinkled over something – but not always. I use this vegetarian-friendly citrus version in much the same spirit you might use the traditional one. Use it for added seasoning and flavor notes, added texture and crunch, along with nutritional variation (I like to adds some flax seeds to my blend). This citrus furikake is wildly fragrant and worth the extra effort of making your own dried citrus peel.

Citrus Furikake: Ingredients

The ingredients for the citrus furikake blend pictured above:

Nori
Black and white sesame seeds
Flax seeds
Dried citrus peel
Flaky salt
Cardamom

Citrus Furikake: When to Use it

I kept track of all the ways I’ve used this citrus furikake over the past week. A few highlights include:

Sprinkled over avocado toast: pictured below
Sprinkled across rice bowl: Along with poached egg, bit of tofu, ripe avocado, and a tangle of arugula, all drizzled with tangerine oil.
Sprinkled over soba noodles: With lots of broccoli and some crushed peanuts for good measure with an otsu-ish dressing.
On a Norweigan cracker: topped first with good cottage cheese and a sprinkling of nutritional yeast.
Generous finishing sprinkle across a big platter of oven roasted vegetables: Under the roasted vegetables was a layer of yogurt seasoned with a bit of salt, some whole-grain mustard, and a spoonful of both onion powder and garlic powder. The yogurt was dotted with drops of Calabrian chili paste thinned with a kiss of extra-virgin olive oil before arranging the vegetables on top. Then went some torn olives, crushed kale chips, and the citrus furikake.
Finishing touch on every salad I tossed.