Does anyone know how to make gobo (burdock) soup?

[visciole]

I recently ate a delicious potato-gobo soup at a Japanese restaurant. I would love to make something like this at home, but I haven't been able to find any recipe. Does anyone have any idea how such a soup is made? I would be eternally grateful!

[clamscasino]

Well, since I have the cookbook Washoku out from the library for the COTM that wasn't, I looked up your request. This book has two recipes for soups with burdock in them: A miso-thickened pork and vegetable soup (Ton-Jiru) and one for Burdock Root and Fried Tofu chowder. Neither one has potatoes though.

Also, since the first soup was called Ton-Jiru, I google a recipe for that. Google corrected me and asked "did you mean "tonjiru"? Okay google.....Anyway, something along the lines of what you are looking for may be found by googling "recipe for tonjiru" and selecting the link for blue_moon.typepad.com

Best of luck!

[visciole]

Thank you, that soup does look good, but it's not at all like the soup I had, which was a thick purée, like vichyssoise in appearance and texture. I don't think it had any meat in it, except possibly stock.

[BigSal]

Do you happen to know the Japanese name for the soup or could you ask the restaurant for it? It does not ring familiar and I'm curious about the soup because I love gobo. The way you describe makes me think it is a fusion recipe or yoshoku (Japanese version of a Western recipe).

[visciole]

They just call it gobo-potato soup, and the restaurant bills itself as home-style Japanese. It's funny that you mentioned yoshoku, because the picture on the cover of a book I saw entitled yoshoku looks just like the soup that I ate.

I'm probably just going to try to wing it, since I'm getting the feeling it might be the chef's personal recipe. When I ordered it it came in this little bowl,and I felt that I could have eaten five of them it was so good.

[BigSal]

I just came back from vacation and received a new Japanese cookbook (A Cook's Journey to Japan) and browsing through it I noticed a recipe called gobo jiru (burdock soup). Needless to say I thought of your posting, but have not tried the recipe yet. Here is a paraphrased version of the recipe . Add 1T each of butter and oil to a pot on med, add a cup of onions,diced, until transparent. Add two cups diced gobo and one cup diced Yukon gold potatoes with 1 t salt and sauté until just starting to brown. Add 2.5 c chicken stock, bring to boil and simmer uncovered until potatoes are fork tender. If flavor is a little weak, add chicken bouillon cube to dissolve. Purée to smooth and add 1.5 c milk to heat through. Garnish with toasted blk and white sesame seeds.