Jump to Recipe
Who doesn’t love Hawaii! The air, beaches, people, and the food of course! I thoroughly enjoy all the traditional spots like Rainbows, Side Street Inn, Zippy’s…but one of my favorite spots has become a small Japanese rice ball shop located a little off Waikiki. We just happened to walk in there a couple years back and I randomly ordered the pork miso soup (tonjiru) not expecting anything. Now, I have had pork miso soup before, but this one just blew me away. It was like an explosion of creamy buttery goodness that I knew I had to replicate when I got back home. So I scoured to the ends of the world and translated ancient Japanese scrolls to find the perfect pork miso soup recipe that I will now share!
This dish as pictured would be more low carb then keto. If you are looking to ketofy this dish, just don’t eat the carrots or burdock roots. That would take down the carb/serving below 5g carb, which is the arbitrary threshold I use to determine keto vs low carb. The way I would describe this soup is savory-sweet goodness with hints of burdock roots rounding off with a balanced miso finish.
For this dish, the ingredients shouldn’t be too hard to attain. You probably need to go to an Asian supermarket for the burdock roots, which is necessary to get the correct flavors of the soup. The yam noodles can only be picked up at an Asian store as well, but you probably could substitute these with shirataki noodles. On a note, it does seem like there are a lot of steps, but half of them are just cutting vegetables.
Now, let’s get started!
Prepping Time 10M
Cook Time 20M
Total Time 30M
Net Carb/Serv 6.5-8g
Servings 4-5
Ingredients
- 6 Cups Water
- 1 Cup Bonito Flakes
- 1 1/2 lb Slice of Pork Belly (the Costco one is about 10″ in length)
- 1 1/2 tbsp Sesame Oil
- 1 Inch of Ginger
- 1/4 Section of Burdock Root
- 1 Carrot
- 1/2 Onion
- 1 Stick of Green Onion
- Small Japanese Radish (Daikon)
- 1/4 Box of Tofu (about 3.5oz)
- 1 Bag of Yam Noodles (or Shirataki Noodles)
- 5 1/2 tbsp Miso
Directions
1) Gather all the ingredients (I forgot to include tofu).
2) In large stove top pot, add 6 cups of water.
3) Add strainer inside stove top pot and place bonito flakes inside. Bring to boil. Once boiling, turn heat down to simmer.
4) In the meantime, peel Japanese radish, cut into small cubes and place in a bowl of water. Set aside.
5) Cut pork belly into slices that are about 1/2 inch thick. Set aside.
6) Grate ginger and set aside.
7) In a fry pan, add 1/2 tbsp of sesame oil and heat on high. Place cut pork and ginger into the fry pan. Cook until pork is browned on all sides. Set aside.
8) Cut onions into diced pieces. Set aside.
9) Peel the carrot and cut into 1/4 inch slices. Set aside.
10) Cut burdock root into 1/4 inch slices. Set aside.
12) Strain yam noodles and wash with water. Set aside.
13) Cut tofu into small 1/2 x 1/2 inch cubes. Set aside.
14) Cut green onions into thin slices. Set aside.
15) In a large stove top pot, add 1 tbsp sesame oil and heat pot on high. After 1 minute, add carrots, burdock root and onions. Continue to mix for 30 seconds.
16) After 30 seconds, add pork belly from step 7). Strain water from Japanese radish on 4) and add into stove top pot. Remove the strainer from ‘dashi’ in step 3) and pour. Bring to boil. Once boiling, lower heat to low/simmer and cover 7/8 way to allow for venting. Cook for 20 minutes. You can discard bonito flakes.
17) After 20 minutes, add tofu and yam noodles. Cover again 7/8 of the way and cook for another 3 minutes.
18) After 3 minutes, place miso paste in a strainer and use a chopstick to dissolve miso into soup. FYI – do not boil the miso. It will lose the ‘umami’ taste and get condensed.
19) Add green onions and serve.
Hope that was easy for you and you think of Hawaii while enjoying this soup!
If you are interested in other soup ideas, be sure to check out our Recipe Index with over 150+ Asian inspired low-carb/keto recipes!
Join us on Facebook to be part of our interactive ketolife discussion & recipe requests and follow us on Instagram to be the first to know when we post a new recipe!
Low Carb Tonjiru Pork Miso Soup
Ingredients
- 6 Cups Water
- 1 Cup Bonito Flakes
- 1 1/2 lb Pork Belly (the Costco one is about 10" in length)
- 1 1/2 tbsp Sesame Oil
- 1 Inch Ginger
- 12 Inch Burdock Root
- 1 Whole Carrot
- 1/2 Whole Onion
- 1 Stalk Green Onion
- 4 Inch Japanese Radish
- 3.5 oz Tofu
- 3.5 oz Yam Noodles
- 5 1/2 tbsp Miso
Instructions
- Gather all the ingredients.
- In large stove top pot, add 6 cups of water.
- Add strainer inside stove top pot and place bonito flakes inside. Bring to boil. Once boiling, turn heat down to simmer.
- In the meantime, peel Japanese radish, cut into small cubes and place in a bowl of water. Set aside.
- Cut pork belly into slices that are about 1/2 inch thick. Set aside.
- Grate ginger and set aside.
- In a fry pan, add 1/2 tbsp of sesame oil and heat on high. Place cut pork and ginger into the fry pan. Cook until pork is browned on all sides. Set aside.
- Cut onions into diced pieces. Set aside.
- Peel the carrot and cut into 1/4 inch slices. Set aside.
- Cut burdock root into 1/4 inch slices. Set aside.
- Strain yam noodles and wash with water. Set aside.
- Cut tofu into small 1/2 x 1/2 inch cubes. Set aside.
- Cut green onions into thin slices. Set aside.
- In a large stove top pot, add 1 tbsp sesame oil and heat pot on high. After 1 minute, add carrots, burdock root and onions. Continue to mix for 30 seconds.
- After 30 seconds, add pork belly from step 7). Strain water from Japanese radish on 4) and add into stove top pot. Remove the strainer from 'dashi' in step 3) and pour. Bring to boil. Once boiling, lower heat to low/simmer and cover 7/8 way to allow for venting. Cook for 20 minutes. You can discard bonito flakes.
- After 20 minutes, add tofu and yam noodles. Cover again 7/8 of the way and cook for another 3 minutes.
- After 3 minutes, place miso paste in a strainer and use a chopstick to dissolve miso into soup. FYI - do not boil the miso. It will lose the 'umami' taste and get condensed.
- Add green onions and serve.
*This page contains affiliate marketing links*
