Mame Gohan (green pea rice) Recipe

Mame Gohan is Steamed Rice with green peas mixed in.  It is a classic spring-time rice dish when green peas are in season.  In many Mame Gohan recipes, fresh green peas are often cooked with rice at the same time, but cooking green peas separately from rice, and mixing in later, keeps the peas crisper and keeps their bright color which suits a more springy look.  Mame Gohan is nothing fancy, but it is eaten to cerebrate spring and to bring seasonal flavor to the table in Japan.

Because fresh green peas are a seasonal vegetable, the only time you can make it is during a couple of spring months, April and May.  Mame Gohan is very much a home-cooking dish, but it may be found at Bento shops in Japan sometimes.  Although it is seasoned very simply, Mame Gohan is full of Umami flavor from Kombu and green peas themselves.  Steps for cooking it are very easy.  If you can cook rice with a rice cooker, you can definitely make it.

If you have a hard time finding fresh green peas, you may substitute with frozen ones even though the taste and texture of the vegetables are somewhat compromised.  Also, if you want to cook the green peas with rice together in the rice cooker, that’s OK too.  Green peas get soft and green color gets a little faded when cooked longer,  but some people prefer it that way because the rice and peas become more unified.

If you are lucky to find fresh green peas, try our Mame Gohan.  It may become your favorite spring dish!

This post was originally published in April 2013, and it’s re-posted with the new recipe video in April 2023.