# Yamato no zoni ｜ Our Regional Cuisines

**Cuisine Name**: Yamato no zoni

**Region**: Our Regional Cuisines

## Main Lore Areas
All over the prefecture

## Main Ingredients Used
round rice cake, celebratory radish, carrot, taro, cotton (momen) tofu, white miso paste, soybean flour

## History, Origin, and Related Events
In Nara, it is a white miso soup with tofu, festive radish, carrot, taro, and round rice cake, etc. In many areas, the rice cake is taken out of the soup and dipped in soybean flour with sugar. Each ingredient has its own story. Tofu is a symbol of a storehouse with white walls, and is believed to wish for the building of a storehouse. Round rice cakes are used and vegetables are sliced into rounds to ensure that the family can live happily throughout the year. In Nara Prefecture, thin daikon radishes about 3 cm in diameter are sold at the end of the year as "celebratory daikon" to be added to zoni. Also, taro is added as a symbol of prosperity of offspring. In the eastern mountainous areas of Nara Prefecture, taro head (yatsutogashira) is added. The head taro contains the wish "to be able to stand on top of others. The yellow color of the soybean flour is also said to wish for a good harvest of rice.

## Opportunities and Times of Eating Habits
It is said that in the old days, people cooked zoni by burning straw and bean husks to pray for a year of laughter and bliss.

## How to Eat
In Nara Prefecture, many people take out the rice cake from the zoni and dip it in soybean flour with sugar.

## Efforts for Preservation and Succession
Even today, it is made at New Year's in every household and passed down from parents to children. It is also enjoyed by the younger generation, as schools have opportunities to make it for school lunch menus and in home economics classes.

## Ingredients
- round cake of rice cake with red bean jam filling: 4 pieces
- Celebration radish: 1／2 piece of radish
- Sugar flavored carrot: 1／2 carrot
- taro: 4 pieces
- tofu: half a knife
- soup stock: 5 cups
- White miso: 80g
- soybean flour with sugar: a little to taste

## Recipe
1. 1. Peel and cut taro into 1cm pieces.
2. 2. Add vegetables to the broth and when softened, add tofu and bring to a boil.
3. 3. Dissolve white miso in a small amount of broth and bring to a boil.
4. 4. Just before serving, bake the round rice cake and put it in the soup.
5. 5. Take out the rice cake and eat with soybean flour.

## Provider Information
provider : Nara Prefecture Rural Lifestyle Research Group Association

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