Stir-fried and simmered in sweet soy seasoning, Kinpira Gobo is a traditional Japanese dish of shredded burdock root and carrot with a hint of sesame. This crunchy and savory root vegetable is a great make-ahead side dish for your bento lunch or busy weeknight dinner.
Kinpira Gobo (金平牛蒡, きんぴらごぼう) is a classic Japanese side made with gobo burdock root. This humble dish appears frequently in home-cooked meals as it cooks in a flash and can be made ahead of time.
You might not be familiar with the name, but chances are you may have seen it served in the corner of a bento lunch box or at a Japanese-style breakfast buffet during your trip to Japan.
The root vegetables give a nice crunchy texture as you enjoy the sweet and savory flavors. When I make Kinpira Gobo at home, I usually make a lot, saving some for the week (lasts 5-7 days!) in the refrigerator and some for the future in the freezer.
What is Kinpira Gobo
Kinpira Gobo is made with thinly shredded burdock root (gobo), sometimes mixed with another root vegetable like carrot, stir-fried in a frying pan, and seasoned with sweet and savory soy sauce.
Kinpira refers to a cooking style where you first stir fry the ingredients and then simmer them with sugar and soy sauce until the sauce dries out. The most common vegetables used for Kinpira is the combination of gobo and carrot, but lotus root (renkon) is also another popular choice (here’s my Kinpira Renkon recipe).
What is Gobo – A Delicious Root Vegetable
Gobo or burdock root is an edible root vegetable that is very popular in Japan. It has known to be a powerhouse of antioxidants and for its many health-promoting properties. The stalk is long, roughly 20-28 inches (50-70 cm) and weighs about 5 oz (150 gram) and sometimes more.
It stays crunchy even after cooking for a long time, giving a good mouth/facial exercise while you enjoy the unique earthy flavor.
How to Cook Kinpira Gobo
Ingredients You’ll Need
- Gobo (burdock root)
- Carrot
- Sesame oil
- Sugar
- Mirin
- Sake
- Soy sauce
- Dried red chili (optional, often includes small amount)
- Sesame seeds
Cooking with Sesame Oil
Kinpira is always cooked with sesame oil to give an extra nutty, deep flavor. If you’re not a fan of sesame oil, you can use regular cooking oil.
Spicing Up with Dried Red Chili
Dried red chili pepper (赤唐辛子) is often added to the dish, but it’s optional as the spicy ingredient is still new to the Japanese palate. The chili seeds are almost always discarded.
3 Easy Cooking Steps
- Cut gobo and carrot into julienned strips. It’s a bit tedious but I always think it’s a good practice to cut vegetables. The more you practice, the faster and more precise your cutting technique will be.
- Stir-fry gobo first, until the texture is close to raw carrot texture. Add carrot and cook until both are equally tender.
- Add seasonings and simmer until the liquid dries out.
Helpful Cooking Tips
- Cut gobo and carrot in similar shapes – Both gobo and carrot should be julienned into thin strips, roughly 2 inches (5 cm) in length.
- Soak gobo in water – It’s important to get rid of the astringency of the root vegetable and prevent it from discoloration. Change water at least once.
- Use a larger pan to stir fry – It’s easier to stir/toss gobo.
- Let cool completely– If you are making the dish ahead of time (meal prepping), let it cool completely before storing it in the refrigerator or the freezer.
What to Serve with Kinpira Gobo
Along with steamed rice and miso soup, you can serve this simple vegetable side together with another protein as part of the ‘Ichiju Sansai’ Japanese meal. Here are my suggestions:
- Grilled Mackerel
- Simmered Beef with Ginger
- Garlic Miso Chicken Wings
- Simmered Kiriboshi Daikon
- Green Bean Gomaae
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Kinpira Gobo (Braised Burdock Root)
Video
Ingredients
- 1 gobo (burdock root) (9.5 oz, 270 g)
- ⅓ carrot (2.5 oz, 70 g)
- 1½ Tbsp toasted sesame oil
For the Seasonings
For the Garnish
Instructions
- Gather all the ingredients. I recommend measuring the seasonings ahead of time, combining the sake, mirin, and soy sauce in one bowl.
To Prepare the Vegetables
- Try to select a burdock root without dark rings, which is the sign of an old gobo. Unfortunately, I don‘t always find the freshest gobo from local grocery stores (see the image below). Use the back of a knife to scrape off the skin of 1 gobo (burdock root). The gobo‘s flavor is right under the skin and you don‘t want to remove that with a vegetable peeler.
- Next, thinly slice the gobo diagonally, about 2 inches (5 cm) long per slice. Then, stack a few slices at a time and cut them into thin julienne strips. Tip: Thinner strips will cook faster.
- Soak the gobo strips in water for 10 minutes, changing the water halfway. After 10 minutes, rinse them under cold water and drain well.
- Meanwhile, peel and cut ⅓ carrot into thin 2-inch (5-cm) slabs. Then, cut them into thin julienne strips.
- Cut off the stem end of 1 dried red chili pepper and shake it to remove the seeds. Then, cut into thin rounds. If you want to make it spicy, add the seeds. In Japanese cooking, we usually discard the seeds.
To Cook the Ingredients
- Heat a large frying pan over medium heat. When it‘s hot, 1½ Tbsp toasted sesame oil. Then, add the gobo.
- Stir-fry until almost tender, roughly 2–3 minutes. If your gobo pieces are thicker, stir-fry for longer or optionally add ¾ cup Dashi or Vegan Dashi and simmer the gobo. When the gobo is 50–60% cooked through, add the carrot.
- Continue to stir-fry until both vegetables are tender.
- To the pan, add 1 Tbsp sugar, 1 Tbsp sake, 1 Tbsp mirin, and 1½ Tbsp soy sauce.
- When the vegetables are coated well with the seasoning, add the chili pepper (optional). Cook until the liquid evaporates.
- Sprinkle 2 tsp toasted white sesame seeds and quickly toss all together. Serve the dish into individual bowls or a large bowl/plate.
To Store
- You can keep the leftovers in an airtight container and store in the refrigerator for 3–4 days or in the freezer for a month.
Nutrition
Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on January 5, 2012. The recipe has been updated in April 2021 and new images and the video are added in May 2021.
Nami,
Kinpira gobo is our favorite dish for oshogatsu. I wondered—the way our family has always made it is cut similarly to yours, and we fry it so that it is still crisp, and ends up looking much like your photos. But most restaurants and bento boxes make it very soft, not crisp. I’m guessing they use frozen shreds, which I never do. Is that a preference of style, or just an inferior version? I’m truly perplexed since I’ve had it that way at “good” restaurants. I dislike it when the gobo is soft!
Susan
Hi Susan! Thank you very much for reading Nami’s post!
It depends on the region and family’s preference, and they are different ways to make Kinpira. Your family’s Kinpira is also one of them.
We hope this helps!
Hey Namiko!
Been using your website for a few months, and I’ve got to say it is AMAZING. Thanks for all the great recipes, photos, and background.
Hi Tim! Thank you very much for reading Nami’s post and for your kind feedback!
Namiko and JOC team are so happy to hear that you enjoy the JOC website!
Hey Naomi! Awesome, will order some now! Thanks for getting back to me 🙂
You are welcome, Tim! Happy Cooking!🍱🍜🍛🍣
Dear Nami~ I’m so grateful for your site! We moved to JP a few months before the pandemic hit and have been mostly staying near our apt. Your site has been super helpful as I try to figure out how to make the most of local produce! My 4 year old daughter LOVES this particular recipe… and is always excited when I tell her we’re having kinpira gobo!
(My husband also tells me the hamburger recipe from your site is better than many of the ones he’s had in restaurants here in Tokyo!)
Thank you so much!
Hi Jenny! Nami and JOC team are glad to hear the JOC site helped your transition to live in Japan during a difficult time.
Thank you very much for trying this recipe and many others and for your kind feedback. We are happy to hear your family enjoyed the dishes! Happy Cooking!
Dear Nami,
I want to cook my favorite Udon, Nikujiru Udon, as prepared by Kaba Udon in Yokohama Motomachi (https://kaba-oudon.com/menu/). Unfortunately, I cannot get gobo where I live unless I grow it myself. Drove 2 hours one way to a Japanese supermarket (didn’t have it) and asked the ten-in there, he said just use whatever. But I’d like to have something close to the taste of gobo, if possible also close to the root-y texture. Do you have any recommendations for me? And do you plan to upload a nikujiru recipe? I’d totally be indebted to you forever, haha.
Bests!!
Hi Katie, Thank you very much for reading Nami’s post.
The best substitute will be Lotus root or Chicory root. Gobo has a unique earthy flavor, and it’s hard to find a replacement for it, but we hope this helps! Good Luck!
Hi Nami, thank you so much for a healthy delicious dish, this is my first time trying gobo and I absolutely love the texture.
On a side note, since the market near me always sell in a bundle of 4-5 roots, so what I did was I cleaned all of them and cut them thinly then I wrap them in parchment paper in smaller portion, and freeze them to prevent air exposure.
So when I cook, I just get one portion at a time.
Definitely save lot of time.
Hi Ta, We are so happy to hear you enjoyed gobo texture. Thank you very much for trying this recipe and sharing your cooking experience with us!
Happy holidays to all of you at Just One Cookbook! Checked in to retrieve this recipe for kinpira gobo and I noticed that there was mention of cutting the gobo into matchsticks. I hadn’t seen it mentioned in any of the reviews but I have used a julienne peeler which is like a regular peeler but with teeth. You can make the match sticks as long or short as you need and this eliminates the “scare” of the mandolin. It is quite easy and fast.
Thank you for this delicious recipe. No need for storage instructions though; there’s never enough left over to store.
Hi Koby,
Happy Holidays!
Thank you very much for your kind input and feedback!♥️
Hi Nami. Thank you for all your delicious recipes. My mother grew up in Japan before moving to Canada. She is now going through the early stages of Alzheimer’s. She was refusing to eat until we discovered your recipes. Everything I have prepared from your website she has devoured and she always says they are “Oishii” or “Natsukashii”. Her favourites include gobo kinpira, namasu and saba misoyaki. Thank you for providing such a wonderful resource for our family. I show my mom your clips of Miso and they bring her such joy! Thanks again!
Hi Chiyo,
Aww. Thank you for sharing a story with us. We couldn’t be happier to hear how much joy and excitement Nami’s recipe has brought to you and your family! Thank you very much for trying many recipes and for your kind feedback. Please tell your mother, “Arigato!” from us.💞
My wife hails from Saga Prefecture. She taught me this dish. I never peel the gobo (or carrots), I scrub, then slice coins on the bias to make them as oblong as possible. I don’t soak or rinse gobo either, as I scrub it with a stiff brush before slicing. I prefer the flavor of it this way, but the beauty of cookery;) is the ability to prepare any dish according to taste. I only add a splash each of the liquid ingredients and then a Tblsp or two of H2O with a lid on for just a couple of minutes at most. Anyway you make it, Kinpira Gobo is a great dish and wish more folks ate like this. Lots of veggies, be they small salads or pickles, etc. Do you really think ancient mankind had tons of meat laying around all the time? Of course not. Eat your vegetables and lots of ’em:)
P.S. I used to make my wife laugh, because I would always mispronounce Kinpira, and say “Pinkira” for the longest time.
Hi Andrew!
Thank you very much for writing to us and for sharing your cooking experience and story with us.
Yes. We agreed with you. They are so many ways to enjoy veggies, and they are so good and healthy. We hope people find a recipe like this and enjoyed the veggies more! Thank you for introducing your “Pinkira” to us.😉💞
Just spoke with my wife and she informed me that her grandmother always prepared her salad the same as your recipe. Food is fun!
Hi Andrew, Super! Yes! The food and cooking is fun! Thank you for your kind feedback.😊
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