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Onigiri Recipe (Japanese Rice Balls) - easy and delicious Japanese rice balls shaped in triangles and wrapped with seaweed, topped with fish roe. The best onigiri recipe!
How To Make Onigiri Recipe
This onigiri recipe makes for the perfect snack or lunch, no matter the occasion.
If you are not familiar with onigiri, they are balls of rice shaped in triangles wrapped with “nori”, or seaweed, with or without filling.
Traditionally, they have fillings of grilled salmon, salted cod roe, tuna mayonnaise, Japanese pickled plum, etc. But, feel free to use whatever ingredients you like.
Ingredients For Japanese Rice Balls
- Japanese sushi rice
- Rice vinegar (optional)
- Furikake
- Salt
- White sesame
- Seaweed
- Tobiko or fish roe
See the recipe card for full information on ingredients.
Cooking Tips
- If you like your sushi rice seasoned with rice vinegar like sushi, add some rice vinegar to your onigiri recipe
- You can also add Furikake, or Japanese seasonings, to add flavor to the rice
Frequently Asked Questions
Onigiri is basically a lightly seasoned rice ball, which is flavored with salt.
These rice balls are similar to sandwiches in that you can take them to eat anywhere, so there is no need to eat them warm. They can be eaten cold, warm, or room temperature.
This onigiri recipe has 114 calories per serving.
What To Serve With Onigiri
This meal is best served on its own. For a wholesome Japanese meal, I recommend the following recipes.
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Onigiri Recipe (Japanese Rice Balls)
Ingredients
- 1 cup Japanese sushi rice
- 1 tablespoon rice vinegar, optional
- 2 tablespoons furikake, bottled Japanese seasoning
- 1 pinch salt
- 1 pinch white sesame
- toasted seaweed
- 1 tablespoon tobiko , or fish roe
Instructions
- Cook the rice in a rice cooker and let it cool.
- Add the rice vinegar (if using), furikake, salt, and white sesame seeds to the rice. Stir to mix well.
- Using a triangle onigiri mold or your hands, shape the rice into six triangle rice balls. Wrap the bottom part of each rice ball with seaweed and top with tobiko. Serve immediately.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Where can get ingredients especially the seaweed for wrapping ?
Asian supermarket.
Hi, I am using short grain rice but the rice don’t seem to stick together well :( Any clue what could be the cause?
Thank you.
Not wet enough.
Great recipe. I actually really appreciate this amazing recipe. I will make it for my family. Thanks!
Can’t remember when I first had these..
Hmmm… 5 years old ?
We weren’t affluent so they were unadorned except for a pickled-plum (Ume-boshi) in the middle and wrapped completely with “nori”.
I still enjoy them today.. many, many, many years later.
That’s awesome Doug. :)
Round rice balls are made for a funeral or mourning period, other times are triangle shape. Also the seaweed sprinkle is furikake.
This looks delicious and sounds awesome to make. Have you made the ones that are stuffed before? I’m going to have to make this. Looks great!