Zōni

Zōni - www.healthnote25.com

Zōni (雑 煮?) (Honorific form: o-zōni) is a Japanese dish of mochi-filled soup and complementary ingredients boiled together. This soup is primarily served at Japanese New Year celebrations.

The shape of the mochi, complementary ingredients, and the way of cooking may vary by region and family tradition. Other ingredients included in this soup include: tofu, tubers, chunks or chicken balls, green leaves (komatsuna, horenso), interesting colored ingredients (carrots, kamaboko, prawns), and spices such as yuzu or mitsuba leaves.

Mochi for zōni in the Kanto area is square, while in the Kansai region is round. In the Kansai region, zōni is cooked just like miso soup (wearing white miso). In the Kanto area, the soup is clear and uses a little salty soy sauce for flavoring. In addition, in the Kanto region, the mochi is roasted before it is put into soup, while the mochi in the Kansai region is not roasted and is boiled only in the soup until it is cooked.