Tonjiru facts for kids

Tonjiru is a warm and tasty Japanese soup. It's made by cooking vegetables and pork in a special broth with miso paste. Miso is a savory paste made from fermented soybeans. What makes Tonjiru special is that it uses pork, which isn't very common in many other Japanese soups. Because it stays hot for a long time, it's a very popular dish to eat during the cold winter months.

How to Make Tonjiru

Making Tonjiru is quite simple! Here are the basic steps:

• First, you need to cut your ingredients into bite-sized pieces. This includes vegetables like potatoes, carrots, and burdock root, along with the pork.
• Next, put all the cut ingredients into a pot with soup stock. Soup stock is a flavorful liquid, often made from fish or vegetables. Bring it to a boil over high heat.
• Once everything is cooked, add miso paste to the soup. You can add more or less miso depending on how strong you want the flavor to be.
• Finally, just before serving, stir in some freshly cut green onions.

History of Tonjiru

Tonjiru likely started to become popular around the Meiji era in Japan. This was a time of big changes in Japan, starting in 1868. Long before that, during the Asuka period (around 538 to 710 AD), the Japanese Imperial court made a rule that people couldn't eat most kinds of meat. However, eating wild boar meat was still allowed! People would cook wild boar in a dish called Botannnabe. Many people believe that Tonjiru, with its pork, was inspired by this older boar meat stew.

Local Flavors of Tonjiru

Different parts of Japan add their own special ingredients to Tonjiru, making unique versions!

• In Hokkaido, people often add potatoes, onions, and even butter to their soup.
• In Aomori and the Tohoku region, you might find sweet potatoes, Japanese parsley, Chinese yams, thin strings of konnyaku (a jelly-like food), and Chinese cabbage.
• Down in Kagoshima, they sometimes use taros or sweet potatoes.
• In Kochi, ginger and Japanese ginger are popular additions.
• Shimane often includes sake lees, which are leftover bits from making sake (Japanese rice wine).
• In Miyazaki, you might taste yuzu pepper, a spicy and citrusy seasoning.
• Nagano is known for its mushrooms, so they often add various kinds to their Tonjiru.
• The Chugoku region frequently uses Chinese cabbage.
• In the Kinki region, bean sprouts are a common ingredient.
• And in the Kyushu region, you might find a block of deep-fried bean curd in your soup.

See also

In Spanish: Butajiru para niños

References

• Soup Dictionary
• Hanamaru Market