Two dried ingredients, cold water, and a night in the refrigerator. That is how this soup begins. By the next evening the broth is ready to become kenchin-jiru — a warming soup of root vegetables and tofu, with the gentle aroma of sesame oil.
Kombu carries glutamate; dried shiitake carries guanylate. Put them in the same water and the savory depth is not added together but multiplied — which is why a broth made entirely from plants tastes like something that took all day. The overnight soak starts the work; the cooking brings it together. Nothing is simmered to make the broth. The water does it.
Kenchin-jiru has its roots in Buddhist temple cooking — the name is usually traced to Kenchō-ji, the Zen temple in Kamakura — where vegetables, tofu and meat-free broths turn plain ingredients into a nourishing meal. At home it is also a good way to use the last piece of daikon, or the carrot that has been waiting in the fridge.
Serves 4 as part of a meal · 5 minutes the night before + about 30 minutes
One broth, two dishes: make 1 liter of broth, then set aside 300 ml for chawanmushi. The remaining 700 ml goes into this soup.
Ingredients
For the overnight broth
- 1 liter cold water, plus a little extra after soaking
- 10g dried kombu
- 4–6 small dried shiitake mushrooms
For the soup
- 700 ml of the prepared broth
- The soaked shiitake from the broth
- 300g firm tofu, drained
- About 200g daikon — roughly a 5cm section — or a similar weight of turnip
- ½ medium carrot, about 75g
- About 50g burdock root
- About 100g konnyaku
- 1 Tbsp sesame oil
- 2 Tbsp soy sauce, added gradually to taste
- 1 Tbsp mirin
- Up to ½ tsp salt, if needed
To finish
- Sliced scallion
- Shichimi togarashi, optional
We measure with a 15 ml tablespoon and a 5 ml teaspoon.
How to make it
- Soak the broth ingredients overnight. Put the kombu and the dried shiitake into a large container. Pour over 1 liter of cold water, keeping everything submerged. Cover and refrigerate overnight — about 8 to 12 hours, or until the mushrooms are soft all the way through.
- Measure and divide the broth. Lift out the kombu and the shiitake. Squeeze the mushrooms gently over the container and trim off any tough stems. Small caps go into the soup whole; halve or slice larger ones. Top up with fresh water to make 1 liter, set aside 300 ml for chawanmushi and keep it refrigerated, and use the remaining 700 ml here.
- Prepare the vegetables, konnyaku and tofu. Peel the daikon and cut it into bite-sized wedges about 1.5cm thick — chunky enough that they still have some body at the end. Cut the carrot the same way, a little smaller. Wash the burdock well, then scrape the skin lightly with the back of a knife; there is no need to remove every bit. Slice it thinly on the diagonal, and if you soak the slices in water while you prepare everything else, drain them before cooking. Tear the konnyaku into bite-sized pieces by hand — the torn edges hold the broth better than cut ones — and parboil and drain it if the packet says so. Pat the tofu dry and break or cut it into bite-sized pieces.
- Cook gently in sesame oil. Warm the sesame oil in a medium pot over medium heat. Add the daikon, carrot, burdock, konnyaku and the soaked shiitake, and cook for 2–3 minutes, stirring, until everything is coated in the fragrant oil. Add the tofu and stir gently for another minute. This is the step that makes it kenchin-jiru — the sesame oil is what separates this soup from every other pot of simmered vegetables.
- Add the broth and simmer. Pour in the 700 ml of broth and add the mirin. The vegetables will sit proud of the liquid at first and settle as they soften. Bring to a gentle simmer, then partially cover and cook for 12–15 minutes, until the daikon is tender all the way through — a little longer if you cut it thick. If too much liquid evaporates, add a small splash of water.
- Season and serve. Stir in 1½ Tbsp of the soy sauce, then taste. This broth is simpler than a fish dashi, so add the rest a little at a time — and up to ½ tsp salt if it needs it — and stop when it tastes right to you. Simmer for another minute, then ladle into bowls and finish with scallion, and a little shichimi togarashi if you like.
A few useful notes
Use whatever vegetables you have. Daikon, carrot, burdock and konnyaku are what we used, but turnip, potato, cabbage or mushrooms all make a good pot. Only the tofu and the sesame oil really make it kenchin-jiru; everything else is up to your fridge.
If you can't find dried shiitake or kombu, use a dashi powder or packet instead — 700 ml of prepared kombu or vegetable dashi will do. You can also do both: soak the dried shiitake in water overnight, and stir the kombu in as a powder when you start cooking. That combination is how our own dashi set is meant to be used.
On the night we made this, the 300 ml we set aside became chawanmushi, and the two came to the table together.
The kombu you lift out of the broth is not spent, either: cut into thin ribbons and cooked down with soy sauce, it becomes kombu tsukudani, a relish for warm rice.
