Recipe: Tasty Tonjiru (Pork miso soup)

Tonjiru (Pork miso soup). Tonjiru is a savory miso soup with pork and root vegetables. Packed with an excellent source of vitamins, it's absolutely nourishing and soul-fulfilling! If you ask me what is my favorite miso soup, I would immediately say Tonjiru (豚汁).

This is quite different from the usual miso soup as miso soups are normally just vegetables with no oil in them. Because of the fat content in this soup, people in Japan serve tonjiru in winter time, just like the Western style hearty. Tonjiru (or Butajiru) is a kind of Miso Soup with pork and a lot of root vegetables such as Gobo (burdock root) and carrot. You can have Tonjiru (Pork miso soup) using 11 ingredients and 14 steps. Here is how you achieve that.

Ingredients of Tonjiru (Pork miso soup)

1. It's 200 g of thinly sliced pork belly.
2. It's 200 g of daikon radish.
3. You need 100 g of carrot.
4. Prepare 150 g of burdock root.
5. It's 150 g of konnyaku.
6. It's 1 of spring onion.
7. You need 120 ml of dashi stock.
8. It's 100 g of miso.
9. You need 2 teaspoon of soy sauce.
10. You need of Thinly sliced green onion (garnish).
11. Prepare 7 of spice chili power (optional).

Even though it is a Miso soup, Tonjiru tastes very different from ordinary Miso Soup. Tonjiru has a distinct pork flavor and strong taste from Gobo. This tonjiru recipe combines miso soup with sliced pork and root vegetables for a hearty and filling soup meal that is quick and easy to prepare. Warm yourself up during the winter with this easy tonjiru pork soup recipe.

Tonjiru (Pork miso soup) step by step

1. Peel the dikon radish and carrot..
2. Cut the dikon radish and carrot into quarters lengthwise and then cut into thin slices..
3. Wash the burdock root well, then scrape the skin with the back of a knife. Don’t peel the burdock too much as the part just under the skin contains a lot of nutrients and flavor..
4. Make several long shallow cuts lengthwise all the way around the burdock root..
5. Shave the burdock root into small strips over cold water and soak them for about 5 minutes to remove bitterness, then drain..
6. Cut spring onion into 2 cm long pieces..
7. Cut the konnyaku into thin short strips..
8. Cut the pork belly into 3 cm thick slices..
9. Heat the pan over medium-high heat, place vegetable oil and then add the pork and sauté well..
10. Add the dikon, carrot, burdock root, spring onion and konnyaku and stir-fry..
11. Once the fat from the pork is evenly coating the vegetables, add the dashi stock and simmer, skimming occasionally..
12. Once the vegetables become tender, add the miso by dissolving it in a miso strainer or a ladle with some of the soup until no lumps remain..
13. Add a 1 teaspoon of soy sauce..
14. Serve the miso soup in a bowl, and then sprinkle thinly sliced green onion and seven spice chili powder (shichimi tougarashi) according to your preference..

Tonjiru is a classic winter dish of slowly stewed slices of pork mixed with. Tonjiru or Butajiru (豚汁,とん汁,とんじる) — both literally mean pig/pork soup — is a Japanese soup made with pork and vegetables, flavoured with miso. Compared to normal miso soup, tonjiru tend to be more substantial, with a larger quantity and variety of ingredients added to the soup. Combining flavorful ingredients like pork belly and shiitake mushrooms with classic Japanese seasonings like mirin and dashi, this hearty tonjiru soup will delight friends and family when you whip it up in your home kitchen. Miso soup is great anytime of the year, but in colder seasons, I like to make something heavier and heartier, like adding more vegetables and sliced of pork and transfom it into a tonjiru.