Ozouni is a Japanese New Year traditional soup. Each family or prefecture have their own style of ozouni, suited to their particular tastes. We eat white miso soup for ozouni in Kyoto. It has a sweet milky taste. The traditional Kyoto style is to use round mochi and cut vegetables in circular shapes (however this time I had to use the square mochi that I had in my freezer).

Yield: 2 people
Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients

2 mochi
2 satoimo (cut into small pieces)
4 carrots (cut into small flower shapes)
4 sliced kamaboko
1/4 cup chopped konnyaku 3-5 tbsp white miso

Spices

2 cups dashi soup (or 1 tsp hondashi with 2 cup of water)

Preparation

Boil the konnyaku for 2 minutes, strain, and set it aside.
Put the mochi in water and microwave for 1 minute to soften
Boil satoimo and carrot for 5 minutes and set it aside
Add dashi soup, satoimo, carrot, and konnyaku in a saucepan and bring to a boil.
After the soup boils, add white miso and mix, then add mochi then boil for 2 minutes. (Sample the soup then add more miso if you want to sweeten)
Serve in a soup bowl

...