Unohana / soybean pulp with vegetables

A common dish made of leftovers from making tofu.

<Ingredients>

Handful (100 g) okara soybean/garbanzo bean pulp
5 cm gobo burdock root
5 cm carrot
1 cm konnyaku yam cake
1/4 large or 1/2 usuage thin deep-fried tofu
1 dried shiitake
Several stalks chives or 1 green onion
A few snap peas
50 cc dashi
2 tsp sake
1 tsp mirin
1/2 tsp brown sugar
1 tbsp usukuchi soy sauce
1 tsp oil (not in photo)

<Directions>
1.

Rehydrate dried shiitake (microwave in water for 30-60 seconds). Keep liquid for later use.

Prep boil usuage. Prep boil konnyaku,

Cut all vegetables, shiitake, usuage and konnyaku into small, matching-size pieces.

2.

Add 30 cc liquid from rehydrating dried shiitake to dashi (to obtain 80cc dashi mixture).

3.

In a pot, put dashi mixture and all seasonings and vegetables, except for snap peas and chives/green onion, and bring to simmer on medium high heat.

When simmering, reduce heat to medium to medium low and cook for several minutes.

4.

In another pot, heat oil, add okara, and saute on low heat for several minutes until okara becomes somewhat dry.

Add liquid from vegetable pot, and mix well.
If it becomes soggy, raise heat somewhat and reduce extra water.

Add vegetable goodies, mix, reduce heat to low, and cook for another few minutes while stirring occasionally.

5.

Add snap peas and chives/green onion, and cook for another minute or two.

It's ready to serve.

<Notes>

• If soybean pulp is not available, garbanzo bean pulp works fine.
• Regular soy sauce works fine. Usukuchi soy sauce is used here because it is paler in color than regular soy sauce.
• This is another add-anything dish. Goodies can be julienned instead of cut into small squares. As long as they are shaped the same in similar size, the dish looks pretty and tastes (texture-wise) very nice.