6 Best Electric Hot Pot Cookers in 2023 (Aroma, Zojirushi, and More)

The standard nabe hot pot recipes in Japan are fairly healthy since you just need three main components: soup, a ton of vegetables, and meat (optional). This recipe by Kikkoman (original recipe is in Japanese only) is a fairly standard yet highly customizable nabe recipe you can easily make at home.

Ingredients (serves 3 people):

• 7 ounces thinly sliced pork
• 1 block of soft tofu
• A few leaves of Chinese napa cabbage
• A handful of mizuna (can also be substituted with spinach)
• 1 stalk of green onions
• 1/2 carrot
• 1 pack of shimeji/brown mushrooms
• 3 shiitake mushrooms

• 1/2 cup shirodashi (white dashi fish broth)
• 2 cups plain soy milk
• 2/5 cup water

Recipe:

1. Chop all of your veggies and tofu into bite-sized pieces. For the shiitake mushrooms, you can just cut off the stems.
2. Add your soup base ingredients to the hot pot and bring to a boil.
3. Lower the heat and add the rest of your ingredients, simmering until cooked. You can add them in stages or batches as you like. It's also okay to use pretty much any vegetable or meat you want, since this mellow soup goes with anything!

Sukiyaki beef hot pot is another classic Japanese hot pot recipe, and this one is also provided by Kikkoman. Like the tofu nabe recipe above, you're free to mix and match ingredients, but you'll at least need the beef and the soup base for an authentic experience.

Ingredients (serves 3 to 4 people):

10.5 ounces thinly-sliced beef

1 block of grilled tofu

2 stalks of green onions

7 ounces of shirataki rice noodles

1 pack of enoki mushrooms (optional, if this is difficult to find)

4 shiitake mushrooms

1 handful of crowndaisy (optional; any mild-tasting greens will work)

Cooking oil

4 eggs (optional)

(for soup base)

2/5 cup soy sauce

2/5 cup mirin cooking wine

4 tablespoons white sugar

2/5 cup water

Recipe:

1. Cut all of your ingredients into bite-sized pieces. For the shiitake mushrooms, you can just cut off the stems.
2. Add your soup base ingredients to the hot pot and bring to a boil.
3. Lower the heat and add the rest of your ingredients, simmering until cooked. You can add them in stages or batches as you like. 
4. (optional) Sukiyaki is traditionally eaten by dipping the beef into raw egg that's lightly beaten, but if you're concerned about the possibility of salmonella, we encourage you to skip this step!

Let's say you've already finished your delicious hot pot recipe, but you still have soup leftover. It's actually pretty easy to turn this into another meal! In Japan, this is sometimes referred to as shime (SHEE-meh), or closing out the meal.

Some ways you can make your leftover soup into a shime meal is to add uncooked ramen noodles (adding heat to cook the noodles in the soup, of course), buckwheat soba noodles, chewy udon noodles, or even cooked rice. 

It's also common to add in a few extra ingredients like green onions or eggs to give it even more flavor, and you can give it another flavor boost by adding a dash of your favorite condiments like soy sauce, hot sauce, and more. Go crazy with it!