Tonjiru is the ultimate miso soup packed with tender pork belly and a tonne of extra veggies to make it more filling and delicious! You've gotta try this warming home style dish!
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Tonjiru
Tonjiru (豚汁) or butajiru is a type of miso soup made with pork and vegetables. It's very very common within Japanese home cooking, my mum probably made a lot more tonjiru than regular miso soup when I was growing up.
It's warming, comforting and extremely tasty. This dish is great to make in a big batch and feed your family something delicious and nutritious.
The simple reason why this is such a popular home cooking dish is because it's more filling than your basic miso soup.
The meaning of "tonjiru"
In Japanese, "ton" (豚) means pork and shiru (汁) means soup. These words come together to make "tonjiru" which literally means 'pork soup', so pork is kind of a must item to have for this dish.
豚 can also be read as "buta" which is why some people call this dish as "butajiru".
The elements of Tonjiru
The key elements in tonjiru are dashi broth, miso paste, pork and vegetables. Let's look at each element in detail.
Broth
Tonjiru is made with a dashi base. Dashi is a kind of Japanese stock, there are a few different base ingredients.
- Kombu dashi (dried kelp)
- Katsuobushi dashi (bonito flakes from skipjack tuna)
- Shiitake Dashi (dried shiitake mushrooms)
- Niboshi (dried sardines)
In today's recipe I will make the tonjiru with a homemade dashi made with a mixture of kombu and katsuobushi, this is called "awase dashi" and we have a recipe on how to make it here.
(Note: Our dashi recipe makes 1 litre (4 ¼ cups) but this tonjiru recipe requires 1.5 litres (6 ½ cups) so you will need to increase the ingredients by x1.5. )
If you don't have dashi or the ingredients to make it, you can just use water but the flavour won't have so much depth.
You can buy dashi powder or dashi packs (like teabags) on Amazon if you're looking for a shortcut.
Miso Paste
There are 3 types of miso paste in Japan;
- Shiro miso (White miso)
- Aka Miso (Red miso)
- Awase Miso (A mix of white and red, also known as "yellow miso")
Although white miso is probably most commonly used for this dish, you can use your preferred miso paste for this recipe.
Different areas of Japan tend to use different ingredients, it's interesting how much a dish of the same name can differ from region to region.
For example, I was born and grew up in Aichi prefecture which is known for its famous red miso (Hatcho miso) and here it's not uncommon to use red miso for tonjiru. (It's pretty rich!)
In my recipe I used Hikari "awase miso" (yellow) this time, you can purchase it on Amazon here.
Other ingredients
While ordinary miso soup only contains a few select ingredients, tonjiru uses a wider variety. Common ingredients include:
- Carrot
- Spring Onion
- Potato (usually "satoimo" also known as taro)
- Mushroom (Japanese types such as shiitake, enoki, eryngii, shimeji)
- Daikon radish
- Root vegetables ("gobo" burdock root is common)
- Tofu
- Konjac (konnyaku)
It's up to you which ingredients you decide to add, but I recommend to choose at least 3 from this list in addition to the pork. The ingredients in my recipe are what I personally like to use in tonjiru and you can omit the ones you can't access or don't like.
Tips and tricks to making amazing Tonjiru at home
It is safe to say tonjiru is one of the biggest staple dishes in Japan, meaning there are so many tips and tricks available!
In this section, I will explain my favourite tips to make an amazing tonjiru at home as well as how to avoid common mistakes.
The more, the merrier
There are so many kinds of vegetables you can use in tonjiru, but I have to say, when it comes to tonjiru, the more, the merrier.
And I mean variety of vegetables as well as quantity of vegetables.
By adding more vegetables, the delicious and complex essence from them will come out and make the dish have more depth of flavour.
Use pork belly block
The most important ingredients in tonjiru is the pork and each household probably uses different type of pork. I personally recommend pork belly block specifically.
While extremely thinly sliced pork belly is most commonly used, I personally think it doesn't have enough texture. When the pork belly is cut too thin, it almost dissolves into the soup and while it tastes good, I really enjoy the thick and tender pieces of pork in the soup.
So in this recipe, I use pork belly block and cut it into about 2mm slices, this way, you can keep the sweet umami from pork fat as well as some meaty texture!
Cut the root vegetables thick
Root vegetables such as:
- Carrots
- Daikon
- Gobo...etc
Slicing thinly or finely would speed up the cooking process and shorten the simmering time, however, if you want to bring out the flavor of the ingredients, it is important to cut it slightly thicker.
Simmering slowly allows the umami from the meat to soak into the root vegetables, giving them a delicious flavour and a nice texture. It also brings out the flavour of the root vegetables.
Secret ingredient: butter
There is no doubt that miso and butter pairs very well. I wouldn't use butter for normal miso soup, but for a meaty dish like tonjiru, it's a different story.
The tip is it's a "secret ingredient" so don't use too much.
By saying that, when you fry vegetables and meat, use butter instead of cooking oil!
Adding miso at two different times
The general rule of thumb when using miso paste is not to let it boil or cook on a high heat, otherwise the miso flavour will be lost. To avoid losing the flavour, most recipes advise adding the miso paste right at the end after the heat has been turned off.
However in this case, I want my ingredients to be flavoured by the miso paste, not only the broth. To achieve this, I add half of the miso early on to let the miso flavor soak into the vegetables and other ingredients. Then I add the other half at the very end for the finish and maximum flavour!
Check out our video for How to make homemade tonjiru
Step by step recipe
Tonjiru (豚汁) Pork and Vegetable Miso Soup
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: 6-8 portions 1x
Description
How to make classic Japanese homemade Tonjiru (豚汁) Pork and Vegetable Miso Soup. Tender pork belly cooked in a dashi broth with a variety of vegetables and then flavoured with a rich miso paste. Serves 6-8.
Ingredients
- 200g (½lb) Pork belly block
- ½ Small daikon radish (or ¼ large)
- 1 Carrot
- ½ Gobo (burdock root)
- 4 Shiitake mushrooms
- 50g (½ cup) Spring onion
- 1 sheet konjac
- 2 sheets aburaage (fried tofu)
- ½ tbsp unsalted butter
- 1500ml (6 ½ cups) dashi
- 3 + 3-4 tbsp Miso paste (I used Hikari Awase Miso Paste)
- 1 tsp Soy sauce
- 1 tsp Mirin
- 1 drizzle Sesame oil
- Chopped spring onion to garnish (optional)
- Shichimi Togarashi (optional)
Instructions
Prep
- Cut the pork belly into 2mm thick slices.
- Peel the daikon radish and carrot. Cut the daikon into thick slices (about 1-2cm) and then cut each slice into quarters.
- Cut the carrot into rough chunks.
- Remove the skin of the gobo by scraping it with the back of a knife. Cut it into diagonal slices up to 1cm thick and then place in cold water to soak.
- Cut off the stem of the shiitake mushrooms and cut into slices.
- Slice the spring onion diagonally, approx 1cm thick.
- Take the sheet of konjac and use a spoon to make bite-size balls.
- Thinly slice the aburaage.
Cooking
- Heat a large pot on medium and add ½ tbsp unsalted butter.
- Once the butter is melted, add the pork and fry until the surface is sealed.
- Add the gobo to the pot and stir fry for 1 minute.
- Next, add the carrot, daikon radish, mushroom, konjac and aburaage. Mix everything together.
- Pour the 1500ml (6½ cups) of dashi into the pot and stir.
- Introduce 3 tbsp of miso paste to the soup using a mesh spoon or ladel. (Whisking the miso with the hot dashi helps incorporate it into the soup and prevents lumps.)
- Mix and simmer for 15 mins.
- Scoop off any foam that develops on the surface of the soup. (This will prevent the broth from becoming cloudy.)
- Add spring onion and simmer for a further 10 minutes.
- Add 1 tsp soy sauce and 1 tsp of mirin, then turn off the heat.
- Add up to 4 more tbsp of miso paste using the mesh spoon/ladle technique. Add it 1 tbsp at a time and taste test before adding more. (You might need more or less depending on the brand/type of miso.)
- Drizzle with sesame oil and serve.
- Top each serving with chopped spring onion and a sprinkle of Japanese shichimi togarashi (optional).
- Enjoy!
Notes
Other than pork and miso paste, the other ingredients can be swapped or omitted. See in post for more ideas. I recommend using at least 3 different vegetables.
To make dashi stock, you can either buy stock powder or cubes from your local asian super market OR you can try making your own, check out my recipe on how to make homemade awase dashi here.
If you can't find or make dashi, you can just use plain boiling water but won't have as much depth of flavour.
If you have leftovers you can store in the fridge and eat within 2-3 days.
When reheating, heat on the stove and turn off the heat just before it starts to boil. (Overcooking will diminish the flavour of the miso paste.)
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 30 mins
- Category: Soup
- Method: Boiling
- Cuisine: Japanese
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