by Maki Watson
‘Konsai no nimono’ is the first of the ‘okazu’, or side dishes, in this recipe series. Actually, I call it vegie stew!, but it is very different from western style stew. It uses base flavourings that are common to Japanese cuisine: sugar, soy source, mirin and dashi stock. Usually it is cooked with meat, but here I’ve made a vegan version. I could say it is a Japanese style Irish stew.
It is one of the staple Japanese weekly dinner dishes that mothers pass down from generation to generation. They said when a girl can make Konsai no nimono, she is ready to get marry (in olden days)!
So, there are a variety of recipes. I sometime make it with plenty of ginger and don’t use dashi stock, which is also good. Turnip and Chinese radish (daikon) are also yummy root vegie additions to this dish!
Please enjoy this recipe series which was developed as part of our ‘Itadakimaaasu! Japanese Cooking Workshop’ that was held at the Co-op in July when winter (and not COVID) was in fuller flight!
Ingredients with an ‘*’ are available for purchase at The Food Co-op (when in season)! Order them online here.
Recipes quantities are for serving 2 people.
Ingredients:
*Potato – 200 g
*Carrot – 100 g
*Onion – 80 g
*Beans – 80 g
*Sugar – 1 tsp
*Shouyu (soy sauce)/Tamari (wheat-free ‘strong’ soy sauce) – 2 Tbls
*Mirin – ½ Tbls
Dashi-shiru – 2 cups (see previous post about making your own dashi)
Method:
- Cut veggies into roughly equal chunks and size.
- Pour boiling water over beans and let sit for 5 mins. Drain and set aside.
- Heat the oil in a saucepan and fry onions. Once the onions have turned transparent, add potatoes and carrots and fry them.
- Add Dashi-shiru and bring to simmer.
- When the veggies are cooked, add sugar and simmer for 5 minutes.
- Add shouyu/tamari and mirin.
- Simmer until soup will be gone.
- Turn off the heat, and stir in beans.
- Gently reheat to serve.