Kinpira Gobo Recipe

Kinpira gobo is a traditional japanese dish often enjoyed at home, typically served in a bento box. Its perfect for lunch and busy weekday dinners when you want one more thing for the menu. Kinpira means a cooking style that you stir fry and simmer with sugar and soy sauce. The most common ingredients used for kinpira is gobo (burdock root) and carrot, but lotus root is another common ingredient for this cooking style. The name kinpira comes from legendary muscleman, and that shows how nutritious the dish really is. Burdock has been an important botanical in western folk herbalism and traditional chinese medicine for thousands of years, primarily valued for its cleansing and skin smoothing properties. The entire plant is edible and is a popular vegetable in asia, particularly in japan. Gobo is hard and looks like a tree root, but it gets quite soft when cooked and then it has a mild but distinct flavor. Though gobo doesnt contain very many vitamins, it has a lot of fiber and minerals. There may be a detox effect on you if you eat it regularly. Gobo can be used in nimono (boiled and seasoned vegetables), miso soup, salads, and many many more dishes. While gobo and carrot are the main ingredients in this recipe, you could add things like konnyaku, lotus root, and even meat like beef or chicken. You can also spice up the dish with thinly sliced dried red chili pepper.