Recipes with konnyaku

29 recipes. Page 1 of 2

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Bishu Nabe (Sake-Cooked Meat and Vegetable Hot Pot)

No water or dashi goes into this pot: chicken, gizzards, pork and vegetables cook in sake and whatever moisture the vegetables release. The dish comes from Saijo in Higashihiroshima, Hiroshima Prefecture, where sake brewery workers ate it during breaks in brewing. With so little liquid, each ingredient keeps its own flavor, and diners season their portion with salt and pepper. Cooking it in two rounds, half the ingredients at a time, keeps the napa cabbage and garlic chives from going limp.

Prep 30min Cook 35min 4 servings

Rice Medium

Tokushima Sobagome Zosui

From the mountainous Iya area of Tokushima, this zosui uses buckwheat neither as flour nor as noodles but as hulled whole groats, called sobagome. Local tradition ties it to the Heike, who are said to have planted fast-growing buckwheat on land where rice would not grow well. Chicken, chikuwa, konjac and carrot share the broth with the grains.

Prep 480min Cook 35min 4 servings

Stir-fry Medium

Koobuirichii (Stir-Simmered Kelp and Pork)

Thin strips of kombu are the main ingredient, and the pork belly is only 60 g, though its cooking water becomes the stock. Konnyaku, kamaboko and fried tofu go in too, giving each mouthful a few different textures. The liquid is cooked down until only a glossy coating is left on everything, which puts it closer to a side dish than to anything brothy.

🏠 Everyday

Prep 30min Cook 55min 4 servings

Grilled Hard

Iya Dekomawashi Miso Skewers

Taro, small potatoes, tofu, konjac and buckwheat dumplings share one skewer, so each bite changes texture. In this dish from Iya in Tokushima, every piece is steamed or boiled on its own first, then the skewers are browned, brushed with a sweet miso glaze and grilled until it bubbles and spots dark. Each skewer is finished with a sansho leaf.

Prep 35min Cook 40min 4 servings

Soups Medium

Takasaki Zakuni

Takasaki zakuni looks like kenchin-jiru, but the vegetables are never fried; soaked dried squid and its soaking liquid supply the savory depth instead. In Gunma it appears at New Year, Setsubun, Ebisu-ko, and household festivals, and one story says oil was left out of wedding versions so the couple would not separate like oil and water.

🏠 Everyday

Prep 40min Cook 45min 10 servings

Pancakes Hard

Nikuten (Layered Beef Tendon and Potato Pancake)

In Takasago, Hyogo, nikuten gets built in layers instead of mixed like okonomiyaki: potato, konjac, cabbage, scallion, beef tendon, and tempura crumbs stack on a thin round of batter, which folds in half after saucing. Because nothing is stirred together, the floury potato, soft tendon, and crisp crumbs each keep their own texture. The potato and konjac simmer with the tendon in soy sauce, sugar, and mirin, so all three share the same sweet-salty seasoning.

Prep 30min Cook 135min 4 servings

Steamed Easy

Korean Soy Braised Konjac

The konjac is blanched for two minutes first to get rid of its faint limey smell. Shallow crosshatching on both sides lets the soy glaze settle into the grooves, and once it is done it cools completely before serving, which evens out the seasoning.

🍱 Lunchbox

Prep 10min Cook 20min 4 servings

Salads Medium

Kishizu (Kuzukiri and Vegetables with Sesame Miso)

Kuzukiri starch noodles, wakame, sudare-fu, konjac, carrot, udo and cucumber are cut long and thin and arranged by color around a bowl of thick sesame and white miso sauce for dipping. Around Kaga in Ishikawa it was served at funerals and memorial services in place of sashimi, and the konjac is still sliced thin like raw fish. Each component is prepared its own way, so slippery noodles, springy konjac and crisp vegetables stay distinct on the plate.

🥗 Lighter Meals

Prep 40min Cook 20min 2 servings

Asian Medium

Doteyaki (Beef Tendon Simmered in Miso)

Dote means riverbank. Miso is spread around the inside rim of the pot like an embankment and worked into the liquid in the middle a little at a time, and that is where this Osaka dish gets its name. Beef tendon and konjac cook slowly in sweet country-style miso; by the time the tendon turns soft and gelatinous, the sauce coats a spatula thickly.

Prep 25min Cook 100min 4 servings

Rice Medium

Funa-Meshi (Okayama Minced Crucian Carp Rice Bowl)

Minced crucian carp and root vegetables simmer in a sweet-salty dashi with two kinds of soy sauce, and the hot soup is ladled generously over rice, then topped with sliced green onion and torn nori. The dish grew up around the reclaimed land of Kojima Bay in southern Okayama, where rice paddies, canals, rivers, and Kojima Lake held plenty of winter carp. Its other names, tontoko-jiru and tontoko-meshi, echo the rhythmic chopping of fish on a board.

Prep 25min Cook 30min 4 servings

Stir-fry Easy

Imogara Stir-fry and Simmer

Dried taro stems (imogara) are soaked for 30 minutes, fried in oil with lotus root, carrot, fried tofu and konjac, then simmered uncovered in a sweet soy liquid. By the end almost nothing is left in the pot; the stems are soft to chew while the lotus root still has its crunch.

🏠 Everyday

Prep 40min Cook 25min 4 servings

Soups Medium

Inamudouchi Okinawan Pork Miso Soup

Sweet white miso, used generously, gives this Okinawan celebration soup a soft body and mild sweetness without any starch. Ina means wild boar and mudouchi means an imitation: the name dates from when pork replaced increasingly scarce boar. Castella kamaboko, a fish cake rich in surimi that is steamed and then fried, links the soup to Ryukyu court hospitality, and it still appears at New Year, graduations, school entrance and coming-of-age celebrations.

🏠 Everyday

Prep 35min Cook 60min 4 servings

Steamed Easy

Korean Braised Burdock and Konjac

With no meat at all, this braise relies on texture: thin slices of burdock stay crisp and chewy while konjac, a firm jelly made from konjac yam, stays bouncy. The konjac is blanched and then dry-toasted in an unoiled pan for 1 minute, which takes away its distinctive smell. Burdock absorbs the seasoning faster the thinner it is sliced, and after its vinegar-water soak it is drained well so the braising liquid is not watered down. Holding back the syrup until the soy liquid has reduced by about half lets it add gloss at the end instead of scorching. Sesame oil and seeds stirred in off the heat finish it.

Prep 15min Cook 25min 2 servings

Salads Easy

Shiraae Vegetables in Tofu Sesame Dressing

Tofu mashed until smooth, with ground sesame and a little sugar, coats the carrot and konjac in a white dressing that is more gently sweet than salty. Any warmth or liquid left in the vegetables thins it out, so after their simmer in dashi they are drained and cooled completely.

🥗 Lighter Meals

Prep 45min Cook 15min 4 servings

Asian Medium

Heso Daikon Nishime (Miyagi Dried Daikon Simmer)

Heso daikon starts as thick rounds of blanched radish threaded on skewers and left to freeze at night and thaw by day for about a month. The hole left by the skewer looks like a navel (heso), which gives it its name, and the dried radish keeps until the following summer. In southern Miyagi Prefecture it is simmered with taro, carrot, shiitake, freeze-dried tofu, knotted kombu and kamaboko fish cake until almost no liquid remains.

Prep 60min Cook 60min 4 servings

Rice Medium

Oae Dango

From Shiga Prefecture, oae dango combines flat boiled rice dumplings with konnyaku, shiitake, carrot and komatsuna, all coated in a shiraae dressing of tofu and ground sesame. Everything is cooled completely before mixing, and the dish is served at room temperature rather than hot.

Prep 35min Cook 20min 4 servings

Stir-fry Medium

Urakami Soboro (Pork and Burdock Stir-Fry)

Despite the name, this soboro has no minced meat: pork belly, fried fish cake, konnyaku and carrot are all cut into sturdy 5 cm strips. The burdock is shaved thin and the bean sprouts go in last for just 90 seconds, giving each ingredient a different bite. Light soy sauce, sugar and sake with filtered shiitake soaking liquid make a short simmer, and the dish is served while a little liquid is still in the pan.

🏠 Everyday

Prep 25min Cook 18min 2 servings

Soups Medium

Kuurijishi (Okinawan Pork, Winter Melon, and Egg Soup)

Kuuri means ice and jishi means meat, but the ice here has nothing to do with temperature: it is the egg that spreads across the clear broth in soft white drifts, like snow. Before the war, when eggs were scarce in Okinawa, families made it at Obon to welcome the spirits of their ancestors.

🏠 Everyday

Prep 20min Cook 30min 4 servings

Salads Medium

Tsushima (Crumbled Tofu and Vegetable Salad)

Tofu is dry-fried with no oil until the water cooks off and it breaks into fluffy crumbs, then scattered through shiitake, carrot, burdock and konjac simmered in dashi, and everything is dressed with rice vinegar. The tofu does not coat the vegetables; it stays in little grains tucked between them.

🥗 Lighter Meals

Prep 20min Cook 25min 4 servings

Asian Hard

Funankogui (Kombu-Wrapped Crucian Carp in Miso)

Whole crucian carp are wrapped tightly in kombu, tied with dried gourd strips, and cooked for about 10 hours in red-miso broth until the bones are soft enough to eat, in this dish from Kashima in Saga. River and creek carp supplied winter protein when Ariake Sea fishing slowed, and in Kashima the dish is offered to Ebisu on January 20.

Prep 75min Cook 600min 12 servings

Soups Medium

Natto Jiru Ground Natto Miso Soup

Natto is ground in a mortar until no whole beans are left, then stirred into miso soup, and the broth turns softly thick with the fermented aroma spread evenly through it. It is a Yamagata winter home dish from a season when fresh food was scarce, made with stored foods like dried taro stems (imogara) and salted mountain vegetables. In some areas it was also served at New Year, for Nanakusa, or at Daikoku-sama observances.

🏠 Everyday

Prep 35min Cook 30min 5 servings

Asian Medium

Jabu (Simmered Chicken, Tofu, and Vegetables)

Despite a name linked to the liquid that tofu and vegetables release, this simmer from central and eastern Tottori ends with only a shallow layer of broth in the pot. Chicken thigh, firm tofu, burdock, carrot, shiitake, fried tofu pouch, konjac, and Japanese leek cook together in a small amount of soy-seasoned dashi, and the pieces are plated whole rather than ladled like soup.

Prep 25min Cook 30min 4 servings

Soups Medium

Sanpei Jiru (Hokkaido Salted Salmon Soup)

A salted salmon head and backbone with some flesh still attached give the kombu stock its fish oil and savor. Sanpei jiru is a Hokkaido winter soup, and unlike Ishikari nabe, which is seasoned with miso and uses fresh salmon, it relies on the salt already cured into the fish.

🏠 Everyday

Prep 25min Cook 30min 4 servings

Asian Hard

Kagoshima Tonkotsu (Pork Ribs Simmered with Barley Miso)

In Kagoshima, tonkotsu means bone-in pork ribs braised with sweet-potato shochu, brown sugar and barley miso until the meat comes away from the bone. Daikon, burdock and konnyaku cook in the same pot and soak up the sweet, salty liquid.

Prep 30min Cook 150min 4 servings