As it’s getting colder recently, I would like to introduce a warm soup recipe, Tonjiru (豚汁, This Chinese character simply means pork soup). This is one of the miso soup variations with sliced pork and lots of vegetables. All those ingredients, especially pork enhance its flavours and match really well with Konyaku. I think that the basic miso soup is a bit too lightly seasoned if you want to put Konyaku in it.

Tonjiru is also easier to make compared to normal miso soups. Dashi is the most important part for making miso soup but you don’t need it for Tonjiru as pork works as delicious dashi. We normally use thinly sliced pork in Japan but it is easier to get pork belly slices here which is absolutely perfect for Tonjiru. You can cut it thinly (no need of super thin!) against the fiber direction.

In the original recipe, it normally uses some exotic root vegetables such as burdock, mooli, and taro. If you could get them, it’s great but otherwise, you can put any other root vegetables like carrot, parsnip, turnip, celeriac, radish and potato along with some basic vegetables like onion and leak. When you put a lot of them, it can be a healthy lunch on its own. When you don’t have enough time, only leak, pork and konyaku will be also enjoyable as a side dish. I hope it will warm you up.

Mari