{"id":170144,"title":"T\u014dny\u016b Nabe \u2013 Japanese Hot Pot with Soy Milk","modified":"2026-09-13T16:38:41+02:00","plain":"A comforting Japanese nabe in a creamy shiro-dashi and soy milk broth, with chicken, tofu, vegetables, and mushrooms for a complete yet delicate meal.\n\n\n\nIt’s grey outside, and on the table a donabe sends up gentle wisps of steam over its milky-white broth. Unsweetened soy milk, white miso, and dashi lend it a light, rounded mellowness without any heaviness.\n\n\n\nChicken, tofu, aburaage, and vegetables simmer gently under the lid while everyone helps themselves straight from the pot. There is just one golden rule: never let the broth boil.\n\n\n\nCraving another shareable hot pot? Try the sumo wrestlers’ chanko nabe.\n\n\n\nWhat is t\u014dny\u016b nabe?\n\n\n\n\u201cT\u014dny\u016b\u201d means soy milk, and \u201cnabe\u201d means pot. The dish belongs to the nabemono family \u2014 those Japanese hot pots shared at the center of the table.\n\n\n\nUnlike a classic clear, salty broth, its base is pale and creamy, built on kombu and bonito dashi, white miso and unsweetened soy milk. Thin slices of pork or chicken, tsukune, tofu, aburaage, napa cabbage, and mushrooms are simmered right in it.\n\n\n\nTexture is everything. The soy milk goes in late and is warmed gently, to around 63 \u00b0C, so it stays silky-smooth instead of curdling. Once the main ingredients are gone, finish with udon or rice, which soak up a broth enriched with mushrooms, miso, and savory meat juices.\n\n\n\nIn the same convivial hot-pot spirit, sukiyaki also cooks right at the table.\n\n\n\nA Tokyo invention from 1991\n\n\n\nDespite its traditional look, t\u014dny\u016b nabe is a recent creation. Its best-documented origin dates to 1991 at Zantei Irori, a kapp\u014d restaurant in Nishi-Shinbashi, Tokyo. There, Chef Matsuda created a soy milk hot pot at a time when soy milk was still seen as beany and astringent.\n\n\n\nHis formula: equal parts dashi and fresh, house-pressed raw soy milk, seasoned with white miso and served with delicate garnishes. Some accounts mention kamoniku \u2014 duck \u2014 added to deepen the dashi without overpowering the broth.\n\n\n\nThe dish gained recognition after several features in the lifestyle press, including Hanako magazine, gradually evolving from restaurant curiosity to seasonal favorite. Other sources trace its origins to Terakoya in Kyoto \u2014 a city with a long tofu tradition of yud\u014dfu and yuba \u2014 though without as clear a date or original recipe as Zantei Irori.\n\n\n\nThe idea of a mild, milky hot pot is older, though. Asuka nabe, from the Nara region between 592 and 710, already simmered chicken and vegetables in a milk-and-dashi broth; Yamato nabe revives the idea by swapping cow’s milk for soy. From the 2000s onward, soy’s healthy image brought t\u014dny\u016b nabe into home kitchens: soy milk production reached 303,000 kilolitres in 2015, and ready-made broths like Mizkan’s (2005) popularized the sesame version.\n\n\n\nThe main ingredients in t\u014dny\u016b nabe\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThe broth starts with a kombu and katsuobushi dashi, which lends umami depth and keeps the soy milk from tasting flat. Shiro miso adds sweetness, pale color, and body \u2014 rounder and milder than red miso. A touch of sake, mirin and usukuchi sh\u014dyu seasons everything while keeping the base pale. At the heart of the dish is unsweetened soy milk (mu-ch\u014dsei t\u014dny\u016b), made from just soybeans and water: avoid sweetened or flavored versions.\n\n\n\nFor protein, thin slices of pork or pieces of chicken cook quickly while enriching the broth, often joined by tsukune \u2014 juicy meatballs that soak up flavor. Medium-firm tofu and aburaage drink in the broth and release it with every bite, while a white fish like cod can slip in without taking over. Ground sesame or sesame paste optionally adds the nutty richness of goma-t\u014dny\u016b.\n\n\n\nYou’ll also find aburaage in kitsune udon.\n\n\n\nVegetables provide the contrast: napa cabbage stays crisp at the ribs and meltingly tender in the leaves, while negi, shungiku, carrot, and daikon cut through the broth’s gentle sweetness. Shiitake, shimeji, and enoki add earthy notes and varied textures. To finish, udon or a little rice transform the remaining broth into a soft, comforting z\u014dsui.\n\n\n\nThe secret to a silky-smooth broth\n\n\n\nThe real challenge is curdling. Soy milk is an emulsion of water, fat, and protein; too much heat or an acidic ingredient will make it split \u2014 just as in tofu-making \u2014 leaving the broth grainy.\n\n\n\nThe fix comes down to three simple steps: add the soy milk after the meat and firm vegetables are cooked, keep the heat very low once it goes in (below about 63 \u00b0C \u2014 just a faint tremble), and avoid stirring too vigorously.\n\n\n\nFor miso comfort in a hurry, try miso soup.\n\n\n\nUse unsweetened, unflavored soy milk for the purest flavor; sweetened or vanilla versions will throw it off balance. Skip tomatoes and other acidic ingredients, as well as beef, which is too assertive for this delicate base. Variations that stay true to the spirit of the dish include a kombu-shiitake dashi for a vegan version, or sesame for the rich goma-t\u014dny\u016b style.\n\n\n\n\n\n\tT\u014dny\u016b Nabe - Japanese Hot Pot with Soy Milk\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\n\t\tHot Pot Ingredients1 chicken thigh (cut into bite-sized pieces)0.5 block tofu (cut into bite-sized pieces)2 sheets aburaage (fried tofu) (cut into bite-sized pieces)3 cm carrot (cut into thin strips)1 pack maitake mushrooms (separated into small clusters (optional))1 pack shimeji mushrooms (separated into small clusters)3 leaves Chinese cabbage (roughly chopped)0.25 bunch mizuna (roughly chopped (optional))1 Japanese leek (thinly sliced diagonally)2 tablespoons sesame seeds (ground)Broth400 ml water3 tablespoons white dashi (shirodashi, concentrated)Soy Milk400 ml unsweetened soy milk1 tablespoon white miso (heaped)\t\n\t\n\t\tPreparationBring the water and white dashi to a boil.Add the chicken, tofu, aburaage, carrot, and mushrooms.Return to a boil.Reduce the heat to medium and simmer for 3 to 5 minutes.Once the chicken is cooked through, whisk the white miso into the unsweetened soy milk, then stir the mixture into the pot.As soon as it begins to simmer, add the Chinese cabbage, mizuna, Japanese leek, and ground sesame.Maintain a gentle simmer; do not let it boil.Enjoy straight from the pot as it cooks.\t\n\t\n\t\t\nAdd the soy milk at the end of cooking and never let it boil: past a gentle simmer, it will curdle and the broth will split.\nKeep the heat low once the soy milk has been added.\nUse unsweetened soy milk (\u7121\u8abf\u6574\u8c46\u4e73), not a sweetened or flavored soy drink.\nWhite dashi (shirodashi) is highly concentrated: adjust the amount to suit your brand.\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\tPlat principalJaponaise","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170144\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/170056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}