Hot pot & soups
Nuppei Jiru
Nuppei jiru — a thickened tofu and mushroom soup for Buddhist observances
Tofu, dried shiitake and scallion are simmered in a soy broth thickened with grated mountain yam — a close relative of "hachihai-jiru," which uses potato starch instead, made statewide as a Buddhist meat-free dish for rites and ceremonies.
- Origin: Iwate
- About 460 km north of Tokyo
What it's made of
A soup eaten across Iwate, made with tofu, dried shiitake and scallion in a soy broth thickened with grated mountain yam. A similar soup thickened with potato starch instead is called hachihai-jiru, also known in central Iwate as hachihai-doufu, it is said. With tofu essentially the star, this simple dish has long been served as a vegetarian preparation for ceremonial and memorial occasions.
How it's made
Tofu and dried shiitake are cut into thin strips. The shiitake goes into a soy-seasoned broth first, then the tofu is added and brought to a boil. Using grated mountain yam instead of potato starch to thicken it turns it into nuppei-jiru, it is said. Chopped scallion finishes the dish, and similar soups called hachihai-jiru are said to exist in other prefectures too, including Miyazaki and Fukushima.
Why it took this shape
The name is said to come either from the idea that a single block of tofu makes eight servings, or from being so delicious that people go back for eight bowls. Eaten year-round as a vegetarian dish for ceremonial and memorial occasions, and equally at home as an everyday clear soup built around tofu, it is thought to reflect a resourceful approach to satisfying a meal with simple ingredients.
Before you go
- Foods to look for in winterA guide to foods often seen in Japan around winter — nabe hot pot, fugu, oysters, crab, year-end soba, and osechi — with rough pointers for finding them.
- Osechi and zoni for the New YearA guide to the meaning behind osechi's tiered boxes, the regional differences in zoni (square vs. round mochi, clear vs. miso broth), and the nanakusa-gayu custom.
- Setsubun: ehomaki and lucky beansA guide to ehomaki, the uncut sushi roll said to be eaten facing a lucky direction on Setsubun, and to mamemaki, the bean-throwing custom with roasted lucky beans.
Dishes in the same style
- Aichi Miso OdenA pot of sweet red miso sits in the center of the simmering pot, and daikon, tofu, and other ingredients simmered in dashi are dipped into it before eating. While soy-based Kanto-style oden spread in Edo, Aichi is said to have settled on dipping in soybean miso instead.
- Aichi ZoniSquare mochi and mochina, a traditional Owari green, are served in a plain clear broth for New Year — a notably simple zoni. It's speculated that using miso so often in daily cooking is exactly why a clear broth is chosen for this festive occasion, deliberately leaving miso out.
Ingredients and dishes from this land
Also from Iwate
- Azuki BattoRested wheat dough cut into wide noodle strips is served in a sugar-sweetened red-bean broth — made along the Sanriku coast for building-raising and harvest celebrations, with a custom of eating it seven times on the seventh day of Obon for good health.
- Hecchoko DangoDumplings of millet and sorghum flour, each dimpled in the center, are simmered in a sweet red-bean soup — also called "ukiuki dango," a harvest-close treat from rice-poor northern Iwate where they float to the surface as they cook.
- Hina ManjuRice-flour dough tinted with food coloring is wrapped around red-bean paste and shaped into flowers, peaches or rabbits using wooden molds — tied to a doll-viewing custom in Hanamaki's Ohasama area, offered alongside kirisensho at the Girls' Festival.
- Hizu NamasuThin slices of cartilage from a salmon's head — "hizu" — are salted, cured in vinegar and tossed with daikon and carrot namasu — a rare delicacy from just one small part of the fish, a New Year dish where salmon run up Miyako Bay.
- Dento Mochi RyoriAn umbrella term for some 300 ways of dressing mochi — sweet red bean, edamame paste, walnut, natto, zoni and more. A domain-era custom of pounding mochi twice a month left Ichinoseki with a "mochi calendar" of 60-plus occasions a year and a formal ceremonial mochi course still observed today.
- Imo no Ko JiruAutumn taro is simmered with chicken, tofu, daikon and carrot in a soy broth — a fall favorite of the taro-growing Kitakami river valley, still enjoyed at riverside "imoni-kai" gatherings around Kitakami's Futako district.