Apr 13, 2011 70 Comments

Tonjiru Recipe 豚汁

Name: Tonjiru
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 50 min
Yield: 4
Ingredients: 5 cups dashi; ½ Tbsp sesame oil; ½ lb sliced pork belly ((cut into small pieces)); 1 tsp ginger ((ground or minced)); 1 Tbsp neutral flavor oil (vegetable, canola, etc); 1 onion; 2 inch daikon; ½ gobo (burdock root); 2 Satoimo (Japanese Taro); ½- 1 carrot; ⅓ block konnyaku (konjac); 5 Tbsp miso ((I use awase miso)); ½ pkg medium firm tofu ((cut into ½" cubicles)); 1 green onion/scallion ((thinly sliced))

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I’ve previously shared my Basic Tofu Miso Soup recipe and today I’d like to share my favorite miso soup recipe called Tonjiru (豚汁), literally meaning “pork (ton) soup (jiru)”.

Tonjiru is not as common as simple miso soup with tofu and seaweed, but some Japanese restaurants around San Francisco bay area do serve them and it’s one of popular miso soup in Japan. Tonjiru usually have gobo (burdock root) and other root vegetables such as daikon and carrots, in a pork based soup stock. The sauteed pork belly gives the soup nice umami flavor and the soup texture is different since it has so many ingredients. Since it’s very flavorful, you can replace Dashi Stock with water if you like. Personally I prefer dashi stock to add more flavor.

The weather in the Bay Area today is cold and cloudy/rainy so I hope a bowl of Tonjiru will warm you up a bit. Enjoy!

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Tonjiru

Prep Time

20 mins

Cook Time

30 mins

Total Time

50 mins

Course: Main Course, Soup

Servings: 4

Ingredients

5 cups dashi
½ Tbsp sesame oil
½ lb sliced pork belly (cut into small pieces)
1 tsp ginger (ground or minced)
1 Tbsp neutral flavor oil (vegetable, canola, etc)
1 onion
2 inch daikon
½ gobo (burdock root)
2 Satoimo (Japanese Taro)
½- 1 carrot
⅓ block konnyaku (konjac)
5 Tbsp miso (I use awase miso)
½ pkg medium firm tofu (cut into ½" cubicles)
1 green onion/scallion (thinly sliced)

Instructions

Make 5 cups of dashi stock. When dashi stock is ready, keep it aside.
Meanwhile, cut all the ingredients into small pieces. If you are interested in Japanese way of cutting these veggies, you can follow Cutting Techniques page. Carrot and Gobo: Hangetsugiri (Semi-Circle) technique, Daikon and baby taro: Ichogiri (Quarter-Rounds) technique, Konnyaku: Tanzakugiri (Rectangles) technique, Onion: thinly sliced.
In a frying pan, heat sesame oil on medium high heat and add the meat and ginger. Cook until nicely browned and set aside.
In a Dutch oven or large pot, heat oil on medium high and sauté onion until it is well coated with oil.
Add gobo, daikon, baby taro, carrot, and other hard ingredients (like lotus root if you add any). Mix all together and then add konnyaku and soft ingredients (such as shimeji mushrooms if you add any). Stir until everything is well mixed.
Pour dashi stock into the large pot.
Add the meat and bring the soup to a boil.
Right before it starts boiling, skim off the scum and fat from the soup. Simmer until the vegetables are soft, about 15-20 minutes depending on ingredients you put.
Add miso using a strainer. If you don’t have one, use a ladle so you can make sure all miso is completely dissolved. Taste the soup before you add more miso. If you add tofu, it will dilute the soup a little bit, so you might want to add ½ Tbsp. more miso.
Add Tofu and stir gently without breaking up the tofu.
When you are ready to eat, reheat the miso soup on medium high heat. And please remember: NEVER LET THE SOUP BOIL because miso will lose flavor. Add green onion and serve immediately.

Recipe Notes

Recipe by Namiko Chen of Just One Cookbook. All images and content on this site are copyright protected. Please do not use my images without my permission. If you’d like to share this recipe on your site, please re-write the recipe in your own words and link to this post as the original source. Thank you.

Editor’s Note: Pictures updated in June 2013.

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Filed Under: Recipes Tagged With: carrot, daikon, dashi, ginger, gobo, green onion, japan, konnyaku, lotus root, miso, onion, pork, pork belly, seaweed, sesame oil, sliced pork, sliced pork belly, taro, tofuRecipe type: Autumn, Breakfast, Dinner, Easy, Lunch, Make Ahead, Party Food, Pork, Soup, Soups & Stews, Stovetop, Tofu, Vegetables, Winter

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