Kenchin Udon

Kenchin is a type of miso soup that has a lot of root vegetables in it.  It is a great thick miso soup for winter.  I decided to add udon noodles to it and make a one pot meal.  You can eat it sans noodles with rice but I love udon noodles in soups.

one serving of precooked udon per person
500mL of dashi (fish stock) per person
1/4 carrot per person
3cm burdock root per person
5cm daikon per person
5cm Devil’s tongue jelly (konyaku)
30g shaved pork per person (I used ground pork this time)
1/2 taro root (satoimo) per person
5cm negi (like a leek) per person
white miso to taste (I used red miso because that’s all I had)

Peel, quarter and slice the carrots, daikon and taro root.  Slice the devil’s tongue jelly, burdock root and negi thinly.  Put the soup stock, all vegetables except negi and pork in the pot and bring to a boil.  If you use ground pork like I did, brown it first.  Turn down the heat and simmer until the vegetables start to get tender.  Add the miso, negi, udon and devil’s tongue jelly.  Simmer for a couple of minutes and add the precooked udon.  The udon basically just needs to be reheated so you only need to cook if for a couple minutes. Serve.  Tastes good topped with shichimi (a Japanese pepper blend).

A tip on adding miso:

Put the miso into a ladle and partially immerse it in the soup.  Take cooking chopsticks and mix it with the soup in the ladle.  Replace the soup in the ladle frequently.  This prevents lumps.