COPPERTonjiru recipe
Miso soup made into a meal with pork belly and root vegetables, the miso stirred in only at the end.
Ingredients
- 250 g thin-sliced pork belly
- 300 g daikon
- 1 carrot
- 1 burdock root
- 1200 ml dashi stock
- 4 tbsp miso paste
- 2 spring onions
- 1 tbsp toasted sesame oil
How to make Tonjiru
- Cut the 250 g of pork into bite-size pieces. Peel the 300 g of daikon and the carrot and cut them into thin quarter-moons.
- Scrub the burdock, shave it into thin slivers and soak them in cold water for 5 minutes, then drain.
- Heat the 1 tbsp of sesame oil in a large pot and fry the pork until it colours, then add the daikon, carrot and burdock and stir for 2 minutes.
- Pour in the 1200 ml of dashi, bring to a boil, skim, and simmer until the roots are tender, about 20 minutes.
- Turn the heat low. Loosen the 4 tbsp of miso with a ladle of broth, then stir it back in; do not let it boil after this.
- Slice the 2 spring onions, scatter them over the bowls and serve with rice on the side.
What is Tonjiru?
Tonjiru is a traditional dish from Japan, simmered in one pot, and takes about 40 minutes from start to finish. It is built around dashi stock, daikon and thin-sliced pork belly. The recipe below uses 8 ingredients and is written out step by step.
How long does Tonjiru take?
At 40 minutes it is quicker than 89% of the 586 dishes in Copper's atlas. Copper's atlas has 3 dishes built on dashi stock. The method runs to 6 steps, the longest being 20 minutes.
Any tips for making Tonjiru?
Dissolve the miso in a ladle of broth and add it off the boil: boiling miso dulls its aroma.
How Tonjiru compares
Hard to find elsewhere: daikon (1), burdock root (1) and miso paste (1).
Cooked with the same thing elsewhere
Other traditional dishes built on spring onion, from other countries.
- Byrek 🇦🇱 Albania
- Flying fish and cou-cou 🇧🇧 Barbados
- Moqueca 🇧🇷 Brazil
- Ema datshi 🇧🇹 Bhutan
- Kokoda 🇫🇯 Fiji
- Nasi goreng 🇮🇩 Indonesia
Copper documents Japan alongside 197 other countries. Every recipe is free to read, with the full ingredient list and every step.