100 Shiso Recipes - Cook with Confidence with This New Culinary Craze (2024)

FAQs

What does shiso pair well with? ›

The herb pairs well with fatty fish like salmon, yellowtail, and tuna, and can be enjoyed by wrapping a whole leaf around a piece of sashimi and dipping it in soy sauce. Shiso also complements vegetables and fruits. Julienned shiso leaves are often mixed with salads to add a fresh, citrusy flavor.

Shiso is a member of the mint family. With its large, jagged leaves, bright color, and refreshing flavor, it can be eaten fresh, pickled, or deep-fried, and it frequently makes appearances in sushi dishes and sashimi plates. While the green leaves are suited for eating, the red leaves are used in pickling.

Shiso (perilla leaf) has green perilla (青紫蘇) with green leaves and red perilla (赤紫蘇) with reddish-purple leaves. Shiso is originally reddish purple in color, and green perilla is a variant of red perilla. The red color of red perilla is due to the pigment shisonin, a type of anthocyanin.

Shiso leaves are rich in calcium and iron, and are used in Chinese medicine to treat asthma, colds, flu and other respiratory ailments. How to Prepare: Shiso has a unique flavor: pungent and grassy, it contains strong flavors of spearmint, basil, anise and cinnamon.

“Shiso® Green has some typical roasted, nutty notes linking very well to (shell)fish, rice, beef. The floral, rose and peach notes of Shiso® Green make a perfect match to citrus, Cointreau and Gin.”

Ways to Use Shiso

Fresh as a garnish with sushi or sashimi, and wrapped around balls of rice or meat. Try it with tofu. Surprisingly good slivered in pasta and noodle dishes. Try making shiso pesto too!

In English, it is sometimes called the "beefsteak plant", because purple-leaf varieties resemble the blood-red color of meat. Other common names include "perilla mint", "Chinese basil", and "wild basil".

Since shiso naturally repels insects as it a part of the mint family, it does not attract any and will not cause harm to other plants near it in this regard. However, shiso may be apt to get Downey mildew. For this reason, it is important to ensure that it has ample space in the garden and is not overwatered.

NOTE: Shiso leaves are toxic to cows, dogs and other livestock. However, the perilla red and purple forms are used in pickling to give your Japanese sour plum pickle a violet tinge. Even more interesting, the baby leaves make a superb garnish.

As stated earlier, the exact flavor of shiso leaves varies between the red and green varieties. Red, the more pungent of the two, is excellent as topping for rice, as part of salads, or sprinkled on a bowl of cold soba noodles. Red shiso, when dried, makes for a delicious furikake.

Can you freeze shiso leaves? ›

Shred the shiso leaves and place them on the bottom half of a piece of paper towel. Fold over the top half of the paper towel to wrap the shiso leaves. Fold the paper towel with the shiso inside a few times, put it in a freezer bag and freeze it. The frozen shiso leaves are hard and crunchy.

Shiso is a heart-shaped aromatic herb with jagged saw-toothed edges that goes by many names: It is also known as oba, which means big leaf in Japan — and is famous under its Latin name, Perilla, which was used to introduce the leaf to the West in the mid-1800s.

To store the leaves, wrap the unwashed leaves in a moistened paper towel or a sealed plastic bag and keep in the crisper drawer of the refrigerator for no more than four days.

Shelf Life:

Up to five days fresh. Shiso leaves pair very well with soy based sauces and dressings. In Japan they are a traditional accompaniment to raw fish (particularly sashimi), used in salads, or fried as tempura. Shiso leaves can also be pickled (how to quick pickle).

If you ordered "Shiso" in a Japanese restaurant, you would be served Japanese Mint. Shiso is a herb commonly used in Japanese cuisine, known for its refreshing and mint-like flavor. It is often used as a garnish or added to dishes for its aromatic qualities.

SHISO, an herb long used in Japanese cooking, is starting to show up in restaurants of all kinds whose chefs are captivated by its strong flavor. It has a mysterious, bright taste that reminds people of mint, basil, tarragon, cilantro, cinnamon, anise or the smell of a mountain meadow after a rainstorm.

Shiso leaves are an aromatic herb from the same botanical family as mint that traditionally accompanies sushi and sashimi.

The Chef's Garden offers flavorful shiso leaves: green shiso with its curry-like flavor and touches of cumin, cilantro, parsley, mint, and cinnamon; red shiso with its sweeter start that turns into a cinnamon-mint taste; and mixed shiso that allows you to enjoy the best of both.