5 Shabu Shabu Sauce Recipes For Japanese Hot Pot

Shabu shabu sauce is a delicious must for any Japanese hot pot. The sweet, tangy sauce can also be served as an all-purpose condiment over any meal or snack. 

You might be tempted to buy the premade stuff, but rest assured, it’s easy to make and bursting with flavours. Our recipe will teach you how to make the popular Asian dressing at home. We’ve also included steps to make a few different varieties, such as traditional, creamy sesame, egg, ponzu, and spicy.

We travelled to numerous hotpot restaurants that serve traditional shabu shabu sauce and analysed their styles to develop our recipes. So, learn how to make these 5 excellent Asian condiments for your next hot pot gathering.

Jump to:

• What is Shabu Shabu sauce made of?
• What Does Shabu Shabu Sauce Taste Like?
• Shabu Shabu Sauce Ingredients
• Shabu Shabu Sauce Variations
• Shabu Shabu Sauce Recipe
• Ingredient substitutes 
• What Can You Use It For?
• Where To Buy Shabu Shabu Sauce

What is Shabu Shabu sauce made of?

Shabu shabu sauce is made of soy sauce, dashi, rice vinegar, and mirin. The simplicity of these ingredients allows the flavours of the meat and vegetables to shine through. 

The blend of the four ingredients above creates the unique taste of a classic shabu shabu sauce recipe. However, several flavour combinations can be used.

For example, sesame shabu shabu sauce is a common choice for those who want an extra twist to their meal. There is also a spicy version with more chilli and a citrusy variant with lemon or yuzu.

What Does Shabu Shabu Sauce Taste Like?

Shabu shabu sauce has a savoury yet tangy taste. The soy sauce adds a nice saltiness that works well with the umami of the dashi. On the other hand, the vinegar gives an exciting harshness, which is mellowed by the sweetness of the mirin.

Shabu Shabu Sauce Ingredients

The main ingredients for the best shabu shabu sauce are soy sauce, dashi, rice wine vinegar and mirin. Here are more details about each ingredient.

Soy Sauce 

You’ve probably heard of the Chinese fermented soybean liquid known as soy sauce, so there isn’t much to explain about this one. We’ve tested it and recommend using light soy sauce rather than dark soy sauce if available.

Light soy sauce is available at most grocery stores. It adds a salty savouriness to your shabu shabu sauce.

Dashi 

Dashi is a popular Japanese stock used in miso soup and ramen. It can be made from scratch simply by boiling a mixture of bonito, kelp (Japanese wakame seaweed), and shiitake mushrooms. 

However, in our experience, we found it easier to use instant dashi powder to make shabu shabu sauce at home. You can store them in your pantry for a very long time. To make dashi stock at home, you just have to boil some water and mix in the dashi stock powder. In addition, they are useful for making many different Japanese dishes, too! You can usually get dashi from your local Asian market or online.

Mirin 

Mirin is a rice wine similar to sake, except it’s extremely sweet and low in alcohol. It pairs well with soy sauce and can mellow out the harshness of any condiment you add it to. 

Like dashi, it can be found at any local Asian market or from online stores like Amazon.

If you’ve run out of or cannot find mirin, you can replace it with a combination of cooking sake, water and white sugar. We usually replace 1 cup of mirin with ¼ cup of cooking sake, ¾ cup of water and 4 tablespoon of white sugar. 

Rice Wine Vinegar 

Rice wine vinegar is a vinegar made from rice. It’s pretty close to white wine vinegar and can likely be found in the same section at the supermarket. If you see ‘rice vinegar’, you can grab it, as it’s practically the same as rice wine vinegar. Rice wine vinegar has a balanced ratio of sweet and sour and invigorates the hearty flavour of the meat. We also recommend avoiding Chinese black vinegar for shabu shabu sauce. Although it is also made from rice, black vinegar has a more intense and acidic flavour.

Shabu Shabu Sauce Variations

You can make many variations of shabu shabu sauce and change the flavour of your hot pot meats. Here are some of our favourite variants of the Asian dip and how you can make them. Try adding these variations to our base recipe below.

Creamy

To make a creamy sesame version, simply add the following to our base recipe below. Start by adding 8 tablespoons of tahini and 2 tablespoons of white sugar to our base recipe mixture. Finally, add toasted sesame seeds for garnish.

Egg

It is possible to have shabu shabu sauce with eggs. Adding an egg yolk can enhance the richness of your condiment. Separate the egg yolk and add as many as you want to the final dip.

The more you add, the more profound the flavour will be. Alternatively, grate some cured egg yolks for an even more intense flavour.

Spicy Shabu Shabu Sauce

Want a little bit of flair to your hot pot dip? Try making it a bit spicy. To make your base condiment hot and spicy, mix in some wasabi or chilli oil to taste. Remember, a small amount of wasabi goes a long way.

Citrus

A refreshing dip is a citrus shabu shabu sauce or ponzu (ポン酢). You can make it simply by following these simple steps. First, add 1.5 tablespoons of lemon juice to your base mixture, and then add a few thin slices of lemon zest.

Ingredient substitutes 

If you’re out of any ingredients, can’t find them, or have an allergy, here is a list of substitutes you can use for your shabu shabu sauce.

Soy Sauce 

It’s hard to imitate the signature flavour of soy sauce, but here are some substitutions that work in a pinch:

• Worcheshire sauce (1:1)
• Tamari (1:1)
• Oyster sauce (1:1)
• Salt (¼ teaspoon of salt for every teaspoon of soy sauce)

Just note that substituting with any of the above will create a different base flavour for your hot pot dressing.

Dashi

Since dashi is stock, you have a lot of options. When substituting dashi, try to choose a flavour that adds umami but isn’t too overpowering. Here are some viable substitutions:

• Mushroom stock (1:1)
• Seafood stock (1:1)
• Beef stock (½ cup of beef stock for every cup of dashi)
• Miso paste (1:1)

Rice Wine Vinegar

Are you wondering if the kinds of vinegar you already have can substitute for rice wine vinegar? Here is a list of the best vinegar to substitute for rice wine vinegar (all ratios are 1:1 here):

• Apple cider vinegar
• White wine vinegar
• Sherry vinegar
• Rice vinegar
• Champagne vinegar
• Distilled white vinegar

Mirin

If you can’t seem to find mirin anywhere and the nearest Asian market is hours away, here are some substitutes you can use in place of mirin:

• Dry sherry (1:1)
• Sweet Marsala wine (1:1)
• Cooking sake, water and sugar (Use ¼ cup of cooking sake, ¾ cup of water and 4 tablespoon of white sugar for 1 cup of mirin. 

What Can You Use It For?

Shabu shabu sauce is mainly a dip or dressing for Japanese hotpots, but it is a very versatile condiment that you can use as a side for many other dishes. 

For example, you can use it as a dip for dumplings, potstickers, and wontons. It’s also great to glaze burgers, meatloaf, and grilled chicken. You can use it at your next Korean BBQ at home or even as a salad dressing.

What you use it for is really up to you, so don’t be afraid to get creative with it.

Where To Buy Shabu Shabu Sauce

If you still prefer to buy your shabu shabu sauce, you can find it on Amazon. There are plenty of choices, though the most popular are the sesame sauce and the citrus-flavoured ponzu dip.

Otherwise, we recommend visiting your nearest Chinese grocer or Asian supermarket to see if they have them in stock.

Now that you’ve learned how to make this Asian dressing, try it out. Share with us how yours turned out by posting a photo on Instagram and tagging us @honestfoodtalks.