As we roll along in our soybean cooking adventures this week, we are highlighting a traditional Japanese dish that makes great use of the okara that is left after making soymilk. Unohana is a classic appetizer or side dish in Japan and packs a ton of flavor. I like to think of this recipe as like a sweet-n-sour stir fry. It’s not uncommon in our house to just dish up a delicious bowl of unohana for lunch or dinner and let that fuel the rest of our day.
The base recipe that we used comes from chopstickchronicles.com. Virginia and I are lucky enough to have a nice selection of international condiments and groceries near our home so we were able to find most ingredients without a problem. However, if you aren’t so lucky, I’ve listed a few potential substitutes that you might try, or don’t be afraid to put your own twist to this recipe.
Ingredients
- 1-1.5 C okara
- ½ of a large red onion
- 4-5 mushrooms
- 6 baby carrots
- ¼ C konnyaku yam cake (Substitute: shirataki noodles are available at most stores)
- 3 Tbsp sugar
- 3 Tbsp soy sauce
- 1 Tbsp mirin (Substitute: ½ tsp sugar + 1 Tbsp white wine)
- 1 Tbsp dashi miso soup stock (Substitute: fish or vegetable stock)
- 1.25 C water
- 1 Tbsp olive oil
- 1 small bunch green onions
– Prep/Cook Time –
20 min
– Cook Type –
Skillet
– Featured Product –
Organic Soybeans (okara)
– Contributor –
Instructions
- Chop the red and green onion, mushrooms, carrots, and koonyaku. Reserve the chopped green onion in a small bowl of to the side.
- Combine the sugar, soy sauce, mirin, dashi soup stock, and water in a small bowl and set aside.
- Sauté the red onion, carrots, mushrooms, and konnyaku in a large skillet on medium-high heat for about 5 minutes
- Turn the heat to low-medium and stir in the okara. Continue cooking for another couple minutes. The mixture should crumble easily in the skillet.
- Add you sauce mixture and continue cooking over low-medium heat until most of the liquid evaporates.
- Add in your green onions for the final 2-3 minutes and you’re done!
Unohana is delicious, high-fiber, low-calorie and is like a little trip to Japan in a bowl! We love trying new international foods and cooking with different ingredients and this dish is a winner, especially for all you stir-fry lovers out there. Next week the soybean-train rolls on as we dive into making our own tofu!
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