What’s the difference between tonjiru and miso soup?

Japanese recipe 豚汁 (tonjiru) means “pork soup.” It’s home cooking with a loose definition, so probably every household has a slightly different way to make tonjiuru. Basic recipe is really simple: stew sliced pork and lots of vegetables, then add miso for flavor. 

Japanese soup is all about dashi (broth). For tonjiru, the combination of pork and vegetables provide great broth. 

If you want to try tonjiru without having to cook it,
freeze-dry products are recommended. 
This one is tonjiru with taro potato.

Tonjiru is similar to miso soup because both are miso-based. So what are the difference? 

Cooking time 
Tonjiru: vegetables are cut larger and looked longer. Miso may be added while stewing.
Miso soup: popular ingredients don’t take much time to cook, such as spinach, tofu, abura-age (deep-fried tofu) or wakame seaweed. Naturally, cooking time is short and miso is added at the very end.

Broth
Tonjiru: pork and vegetables
Miso soup: usually fish-based (iriko (dried anchovy) and/or katsuo bushi (dried bonito) 

Ingredients
Tonjiru: sliced pork and a lot of vegetables, notably root vegetables such as daikon radish, carrots, gobo (burdock) or sato imo (taro potato)
Tofu: one of two kinds of light, fast-cooking ingredients such as green onions, spinach, tofu, aburaage (deep-fried tofu), wakame seaweed, mushrooms etc. 

Additional flavors: 
Tonjiru: people often add ginger, yuzu or chili pepper for accents. 
Miso soup: miso soup usually don’t have additional flavors. It’s probably because it’s mostly eaten as breakfast, and people don’t like food with strong flavors for breakfast. 

With freeze-dry product, all you have to do is pour hot water.
You can see that there are noticeably more ingredients
in tonjiru compared to miso soup.

Probably the biggest difference between tonjiru and miso soup is that tonjiru can be the main dish whereas miso soup is a side dish. Also, Japanese often make a large pot of tonjiru for traditional-style group gatherings or when you need to feed a lot of people at a reasonable cost. 

Tonjiru recipe

Prep time:  10 min

Cook time: 15-45 min

Ingredients: 

  • Sliced pork (I hope you will find sliced pork shoulder or “buta koma (pork slice bits)” at Asian or Japanese grocery stores. Fat is okay, as it dissolves and provides good broth.)  
  • Lots of vegetables, notably root vegetables such as daikon radish, carrots, gobo (burdock) or sato imo (taro potato)
  • Miso 
  • Optional: ginger, yuzu or chili 

Preparation 

  • Cut vegetables and pork in bite sizes. Stew root vegetables first. Once the are done, add other ingredients and miso. I personally like tonjiru that was stewed long time, but you can eat it as soon as all the ingredients are cooked.