A hearty pork-and-vegetable miso soup, far more substantial than everyday miso soup: thin slices of pork belly are sauteed then simmered with daikon, carrot, burdock, konnyaku and tofu in a dashi broth finished with miso. A warming, almost stew-like staple of Japanese home cooking and winter.
Tonjiru — also butajiru — is the heartier cousin of everyday miso soup, enriched with pork and root vegetables into a warming one-bowl meal. It is classic Japanese home and winter cooking, the soup that doubles as supper.
This is miso soup with body: the broth is cloudy and rich with rendered pork fat, sweet from soft daikon and carrot, with earthy burdock and springy konnyaku throughout. Each spoonful is savory, warming and filling enough to be a meal.
Sauteing the pork first renders fat that emulsifies into the dashi, giving the soup richness and body. Miso is added off the boil because high heat destroys its aromatic compounds and live enzymes, dulling the flavor.
Variations
regional miso blends, with sake lees (kasujiru style), sweet potato instead of daikon, chicken version (kenchinjiru is the meatless cousin)
On the Palate
Where Tonjiru sits in the Japanese flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 4
How it's made
8 steps · 20 min
- 18 min
Cut pork belly into bite-sized strips and slice the vegetables thinly.
- 24 min
Soak konnyaku and tear or slice it, then blanch briefly to remove odor.
- 35 min
Saute the pork in a little oil until the fat renders and it lightly browns.
Watch outSaute the pork until the fat runs clear and the edges lightly brown — that rendered fat is what gives the soup its body.
- 43 min
Add the root vegetables, burdock and konnyaku and stir to coat.
- 54 min
Pour in dashi and bring to a simmer, skimming any scum from the surface.
Watch outSkim off the gray scum as it rises after the dashi comes to a simmer — leave it and the broth turns cloudy and muddy-tasting.
- 68 min
Simmer until the daikon and carrot are tender.
- 73 min
Add tofu, then lower the heat and dissolve in the miso paste.
Watch outTurn the heat down before dissolving the miso, and never boil it after — a hard boil blows off the aroma and leaves it flat.
- 82 min
Warm through without boiling and serve topped with sliced scallion.
