Tonjiru recipe: Unforgettably delicious & ready in 30 minutes!

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When the days get cooler and I need something to warm me from the inside, I love to make myself a bowl of tonjiru. This Japanese Miso soup is more than just a simple broth: It’s packed with robust flavours, featuring tender pork, crisp vegetables and a hearty base of Miso paste. It’s precisely this combination that makes it so special: hearty, warming and yet surprisingly light.

The best part is: Tonjiru is ready to serve in just 30 minutes. For me, that makes it true comfort food, perfect for the cold season. Perhaps you’ve only ever known Miso soup as a small starter at a Japanese restaurant, but tonjiru is its heartier sister, which fills you up and lets you experience a little piece of Japan with every spoonful.

Tonjiru is a delicious, hearty soup from Japan that has traditionally been served for centuries as part of Setsubun, an important Japanese festival. During the festival, the soup is eaten to bring good luck and prosperity and to ward off evil spirits.

The name Ton-jiru is derived from ton for pork and jiru for soup. However, the soup also contains plenty of vegetables such as carrots, daikon radish and Shiitake mushrooms, which give it a savoury and rich flavour.

The ingredients for tonjiru can vary depending on the region or personal taste – for example, you can add other root vegetables or even Wakame seaweed to the soup.

Tonjiru is not only delicious but also very nutritious. It contains plenty of protein and essential vitamins and minerals from the vegetables.

Tonjiru is a great soup for cold days or when you simply fancy something warming and hearty. It is often served with rice and can also be eaten as a hearty stew.

Another special feature of tonjiru is that it is very easy to prepare. With just a few ingredients and a little time, you can quickly make this delicious soup at home.

It is quite likely that tonjiru has its origins in simple Japanese peasant cuisine, as it is a truly filling soup that can be prepared with seasonal vegetables and any type of pork.

The soup has a rich Umami flavour due to the savoury Miso paste used and the fatty pork belly.

It is very, very popular as part of everyday Japanese meals. Alongside Miso soup, it is one of the most common soups served in Japan and is often offered as part of set meals or combination dishes in restaurants and izakayas.

All in all, tonjiru is a delicious, nutritious and simple soup that is becoming increasingly popular both in Japan and around the world. Whether as part of an elaborate multi-course meal or as a hearty meal on cold days – tonjiru is a soup you should definitely try!

I wish you every success and hope you enjoy cooking – if you have any questions or suggestions, please feel free to use the comments section below the recipe 😊. Let’s get started:

Tonjiru

serves 4 | 30 minutes | 366 kcal

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Discover the hearty flavour of Tonjiru, a Japanese pork soup. Enhanced with crisp vegetables and spicy Miso paste, it’s the perfect comfort food for cold days. And best of all: it’s ready to serve in just 30 minutes! Let my Tonjiru recipe enchant you and enjoy your very own moment of pure bliss!

Ingredients (serves 4)

1 l brodo Dashi (im Shop ansehen)* (to the recipe)
100 g pork belly (other cuts of meat are also possible)
1 konnyaku (konjac)
2 slices of aburaage (deep-fried Tofu)
1 onion
3 carrots
1/2 daikon radish
3 Satoimo taro (alternatively potatoes)
3 Shiitake mushrooms (im Shop ansehen)*
1 bunch chopped garlic (alternatively spring onions)

1 tbsp sesame oil (im Shop ansehen)*
4 tbsp miso paste (im Shop ansehen)*
a little Shichimi Togarashi (im Shop ansehen)*

* Add ingredients to basket 🪄

Useful tools:
Japanese Santoku knife (im Shop ansehen)
Fine-mesh sieve (im Shop ansehen)
Authentic soup bowl (im Shop ansehen)

Preparation (30 minutes)

Step 1

Ingredients for tonjiru. The Dashi broth made with Kombu and Shiitake should now be ready (click here for the recipe).

Step 2

Bring 500 ml of water to the boil in a saucepan. Roughly cut the konnyaku into bite-sized pieces using a small bowl or a drinking glass. Then cook these pieces in the boiling water for 1 minute (this reduces the strong smell and prevents it from getting into the soup later).
Then drain through a sieve and leave to drain in it – please pour the water away.

Tonjiru passaggio 3: Chopping the vegetables

Step 3

Next, we’ll prepare the vegetables. To do this, wash the carrots and slice them diagonally into slices about 1 cm wide. Peel the daikon radish and the taro , then cut both into 1 cm wide half-moons.

Step 4

Next, peel the onion , then halve it and cut each half into wedges. Remove the stems and roots from the Shiitake mushrooms and brush off any dirt. Cut the mushrooms into quarters with a knife.

Step 5

Garlic Wash under running water, drain and cut into thin rings (best done with a large knife cut in half, place together and slice into fine rings from the top down, removing the root end).
Now cut the Aburaage into thin strips.

Step 6

Finally, trim the rind from the pork belly and cut the meat into bite-sized pieces.

Step 7

Now heat the sesame oil in a large saucepan. First, fry the pork belly and then the prepared vegetables together with the mushrooms for 2 minutes.
Then add the brodo Dashi.

Step 8

Finally, add konnyaku and aburaage . Put the lid on the pot and simmer until the vegetables are tender. This will take about 10 minutes.
Tip: It’s best to skim off the rising foam from time to time using a fine-mesh sieve so that the soup remains nice and clear.
After 5 minutes, use the fine-mesh sieve to stir in half of the Miso paste . To do this, place the sieve on the rim of the pan, add the Miso paste and stir it into the liquid (using a spoon or chopsticks, for example).
Leave to cook until done.

9. Passaggio

Shortly before the end of the cooking time, turn up the heat and add the chopped garlic . As soon as the soup has stopped boiling vigorously, add the remaining Miso paste to the soup (in the same way as above).
The soup is now ready. Ladle into bowls and serve. Ready – Itadakimasu!