Mitarashi Dango (みたらし団子), a traditional Japanese snack of rice dumplings paired with a sweet soy sauce glaze. This classic spring treat is soft, chewy and incredibly easy to make!
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Mitarashi Dango
- Total Time: 14 minutes
- Yield: 4 skewers
Description
Mitarashi Dango (みたらし団子), a traditional Japanese snack of rice dumplings paired with a sweet soy sauce glaze. This classic spring treat is soft, chewy and incredibly easy to make!
Ingredients
Dango
- 50g shiratamako (sweet rice flour)
- 30g joshinko rice flour (optional, or sub with more shiratamako)
- 110–115g silken tofu
Sauce
- 1 tbsp Japanese soy sauce (15ml)*
- 1/2–1 tbsp mirin (7-15ml)**
- 3 tbsp water (45ml)
- 2–3 tbsp coconut sugar (24-36g // or cane sugar)
- 1 1/2 tsp potato starch
Instructions
- Soak the bamboo sticks in water. This makes it easier to slide the dango on and it prevents it from burning if using a blow torch.
- Roughly mash the tofu with a fork. Add the shiratamako flour and knead it together until a smooth soft dough forms
- Divide the dough into 12 pieces (15g each). Roll them into balls.
- Bring a pot of water to a boil and then add all the dango. Boil for 3 minutes, stirring occasionally so they do not stick to the bottom. If they float to the top before 3 minutes is over, continue to cook to ensure the inside is done as well. Use a skimmer or slotted spoon to remove the dango and place in ice cold water.
- Add all the sauce ingredients to a small sauce pan and stir. Once the potato starch has dissolved, turn on the heat to medium high. Whisk continuously– once it begins to thicken remove from the heat and transfer it to a bowl.
- Pierce 3-5 dango onto a skewer. From here you can keep as is or add some charring for flavour with a grill, pan fry or blow torch. Pour the sweet soy glaze on top and enjoy!
Notes
- *Japanese soy sauce tastes different than Chinese soy sauce. Please use Japanese shoyu for the right flavour. If you only have Chinese soy sauce, adjust amount as well as the sugar.
- **If you do not have mirin, replace with sake or water and sugar.
- Helpful Equipment: blow torch, skewers, mixing bowls, whisk
- Nutritional Information Disclaimer: Nutrition information is a rough estimate calculated on an online tool (Cronometer)
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 4 minutes
- Category: dessert
- Method: stove top
- Cuisine: vegan, japanese
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 skewer (3 balls)
- Calories: 130
SAVE IT FOR LATER! ↓
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Giiiiiiiirrrl…. I don’t know what I did, but this was one of my most spectacular cooking failures ever.
So I’ve made Dango before with just glutenous rice flour and water, worked perfectly. but I see a lot of recipes that want silken tofu and figured it would probably be more authentic.
So tonight I happened to have a container of silken tofu and thought, hell ya, Dango sounds dope… measure everything out, make the dough, turns out just like the flour/water dough I’ve made in the past, I did add a little more flour because it was a little too wet, got to earlobe squish, popped them in the boiling water.
3 minutes later they start to float, I probably remove them a minute after that and put them on a plate while I finish sauce. Grab my torch, give the tops a good flaming, go to turn them over to do the other side (opted to not do sticks this time) and when I say they turned into glue…. I mean, they were literally the stickiest thing I’ve ever touched in my life… I mean, no amount of soap and scrubbing would get this mixture off of me… here I am trying to flip these guys and they’re just stuck to my fingers and each other…. it was a mess 🤣 I can’t even imagine what it would have looked like if I tried to skewer them.
After a good giggle, I figured, maybe they weren’t cooked enough, so I tossed them back in the boiling water and again, waited for them to float, and then waited a little longer. tossed them straight into the sauce and gave them a little stir. they’re either better, or the sauce created enough of a barrier to keep them from turning into glue.
They’re still delicious! but I’m trying to figure out where I went wrong for next time! I’m going to be peeling rice super glue off my fingers all week 🤣
Hi! I was wondering, if I can’t specifically find shiratamako/joshinko, is it fine to use regular glutinous rice flour? (Like the one used in your hanami dango recipe!) I can’t wait to try and make both types of dango. 😀
Yes you can! 🙂
What kind of silken tofu are you supposed to use, because there is soft, medium-soft, firm, and extra firm. Or are you supposed to squeeze the water out of the tofu?
Soft 🙂
I´m just in love with these. They turned out so good. My bf loves japanese food and was so happy.
This was an AWESOME recipe! I’d been tempted to buy dango for a while cause I kept seeing them at Chateraise but the sauce wasn’t vegan :((( I was so excited when I saw this recipe! It’s extremely easy, super fast and the texture is sooo good!! Thanksss for posting ittt :))))
First time I har dango but this was so yummy!
Amazing dango! Reminded us so much of walking around Higashiyama!
We tried this recipe without the joshinko flour for simplicity – and it was still incredible!
Thanks Lisa!
Really easy and quick to do, I used “glutinous rice flour” (no idea what kind it’s not written on it) because it’s the only one we can find here and it was still delicious. My 2yo loved it !
Easy and delicious, the sauce made me totally natsukashii of times in Japan eating dango ♥ Thank you for another great recipe !
So yummy and easy to make. Everyone loved it.
Adding silken tofu is such a good idea!
I found that just half portkon of the sauce is good enough for me for the portion of dango.
They turned out amazing and brought me right back to Japan. They were soft and the perfect amount of chewy and the sauce was sweet and salty (my favorite flavor combination) 😍
These are so perfect! The most yummy and easiest Dango recipe on the internet! The texture is just spot on!
I tried them once without silken tofu but the texture is not as good. Silken tofu is essential ! Thank you for the recipe. 🙂
I’ve never had dango before so I really wanted to try making it, and I’m so glad I found this recipe. The instructions are very clear and straightforward, so it was quite fun to make! I also loved the taste of the sauce.
Very easy to make and so delicious!! I never thought it would take only ten minutes 😋😋
This was so so fun and simple. Something I’ve been wanting to make for a while, this recipe was so easy.
I tried this today and the recipe was so easy! And yet I still managed to mess it up along the way, haha!
The consistency of my dango was good I think – chewy yet soft, but somehow I could still taste the flour?
I cut a few of them in half and all of them are definitely fully cooked. I even let them boil a bit longer, about 5 minutes.
Any idea what I did wrong? Or are they supposed to be that way? They’re still quite delicious though, so I’m gonna eat them anyway!
It was really easy to make and I love the fact that we need only 2 ingredients to make the dango !
My dango didn’t really look as cute and i have any stick to put them on but i enjoyed it so much ^^
Thanks for that recipe 🙂
turned out so good!
super simple & easy too
So easy and so yummy !
This was good, super easy recipe. I made the adjustments to the sauce as noted since I used Chinese soy sauce and no mirin. I think I will halve the sauce next time I make this since I had a lot leftover.
These are so easy to make and delicious! Reminds me of the ones I had in Japan, thank you for this recipe!
Super easy a tasty!