Chef Takumi
Azuki-gayu (小豆粥, red bean porridge)
Azuki-gayu is deep-winter porridge, rice bloomed in the beans' rosy cooking liquid until soft and quiet. Salt it lightly, or sweeten each bowl, but keep the azuki intact.
Culinary Explorer
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Seven-Herb Rice Porridge (七草粥, Nanakusa-gayu)
Created by
On January 7, nanakusa-gayu asks very little: rice cooked softly in water, seven young greens added at the end, and enough salt to let the new-year herbs speak clearly.
Breakfast & Brunch
Japanese
New Years
Holiday
Comfort Food
20 min
Active Time
35 min cook•55 min total
Yield4 servings
On the morning of January 7, the table is asked to become quiet again. After osechi, sweets, and the cheerful business of visiting, nanakusa-gayu is only rice, water, salt, and seven young herbs. It isn't a punishment for celebration. It's the bowl that puts the body back in order.
Nanakusa sounds like a list you must memorize before breakfast, which is a little unfair to anyone still waking up. The seven are seri, nazuna, gogyō, hakobera, hotokenoza, suzuna, and suzushiro. In plain kitchen terms, you have tender spring greens, a little turnip, and a little daikon. I tell students to think first about timing, not ceremony: the rice must soften slowly until each grain blooms, the roots need a few minutes to turn tender, and the leaf herbs need almost no cooking at all.
That is the detail that decides it. Add the greens too early and they turn dull, losing the clean scent that makes the dish feel like shun, the first freshness of the year. Add them at the end and the porridge stays pale, gentle, and flecked with green. No dashi today. No soy. The point is restraint, honmono made almost bare: rice to soothe, herbs to mark the season, salt only enough to wake them.
Nanakusa-gayu belongs to Jinjitsu (人日), the seventh day of the first month and one of the gosekku, the five seasonal festivals observed at court and later formalized under the Tokugawa shogunate. Older Japanese practice connected the new year with eating young greens, while the now-familiar list of spring seven herbs was fixed through medieval verse and Edo-period almanacs. The traditional hotokenoza in that list is kooni tabirako, not the purple dead-nettle now commonly called hotokenoza, which is why a purchased nanakusa set is safer than foraging by name.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
Japanese short-grain rice
Quantity
3/4 cup (about 150g)
cold water
Quantity
5 cups
fresh nanakusa set
Quantity
1 set (about 80 to 100g)
seri, nazuna, gogyō, hakobera, hotokenoza, suzuna, and suzushiro
fine sea salt
Quantity
1/2 teaspoon, plus a pinch for blanching
extra water
Quantity
as needed
for blanching the greens
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| Japanese short-grain rice | 3/4 cup (about 150g) |
| cold water | 5 cups |
| fresh nanakusa setseri, nazuna, gogyō, hakobera, hotokenoza, suzuna, and suzushiro | 1 set (about 80 to 100g) |
| fine sea salt | 1/2 teaspoon, plus a pinch for blanching |
| extra waterfor blanching the greens | as needed |
Equipment Needed
- •Donabe (earthenware pot), or a heavy-bottomed saucepan
- •Fine-mesh sieve
- •Small pot for blanching greens
- •Rice paddle (shamoji), or a wooden spoon
Instructions
- 1
Rinse the rice
Put the rice in a bowl, cover it with cool water, and stir with your fingers. Pour off the cloudy water and repeat until the water is only lightly cloudy, three or four changes. This removes loose surface starch, so the porridge turns soft and clean instead of gluey before the grains have time to bloom. Drain well and let the rice rest in the sieve for 10 minutes.
- 2
Sort the herbs
Separate the tiny suzuna turnip and suzushiro daikon roots from the leaf herbs. Scrub the roots clean and slice them thinly, about the thickness of a coin, so they soften in the same time as the rice finishes. Rinse the greens in a bowl of water, lifting them out rather than pouring the water through them, because grit settles at the bottom and should stay there.
Keep roots and leaves apart. They are both part of the seven, but they do not cook at the same speed. - 3
Cook the porridge
Put the drained rice and 5 cups cold water in a donabe or heavy pot. Bring it to a gentle boil over medium heat, stir once to free any grains from the bottom, then lower the heat until only small bubbles rise. Set the lid slightly ajar and cook 25 minutes. Stir only once or twice, because too much stirring breaks the grains and turns a quiet porridge into paste.
- 4
Blanch the greens
While the rice cooks, bring a small pot of water to a boil and add a pinch of salt. Drop in the leaf herbs for 10 to 15 seconds, just until their color brightens, then lift them into cold water. Squeeze gently and chop finely. The quick blanch takes away the raw edge and fixes the green color, so the herbs can finish in the porridge without being cooked to tiredness.
- 5
Add the roots
When the rice grains are swollen and the water has turned milky, add the sliced suzuna and suzushiro roots. Simmer 5 to 7 minutes more, until the roots are tender but still distinct. Add the salt and taste. It should be mild, not flat, with the rice still leading.
- 6
Finish with herbs
Turn off the heat and fold in the chopped greens. Cover the pot and let it stand 2 minutes. This last rest is enough to perfume the porridge without dulling the herbs. If the porridge has thickened more than you like, loosen it with a splash of hot water and stir gently.
- 7
Serve quietly
Ladle the nanakusa-gayu into warm bowls, filling them only about two-thirds full. The surface should be pale and soft, with small green flecks and a few tender root slices showing. Serve at once, before the greens lose their brightness. Leave it room. This is January 7, not another feast.
Chef Tips
- •If you can buy a fresh nanakusa set around January 7, do. The names of wild greens can be confusing, especially hotokenoza, and guessing from a field guide is a poor way to begin the year.
- •No dashi here. For many dishes I guard the stock like a first secret, but this bowl is meant to be plain. Water, rice, herbs, and salt are enough because the dish is there to rest the stomach, not entertain it.
- •If the full seven are out of reach, make okayu with known tender greens such as turnip greens, daikon greens, and watercress. It can be a good January porridge, but say honestly that it is not the formal seven-herb bowl.
- •Do not cook the chopped greens from the beginning. Their scent is the season speaking. Long cooking makes them dull, and then you have worked hard only to hide the very thing you came for.
Advance Preparation
- •The rice can be rinsed and soaked in cold water overnight in the refrigerator. Drain it before cooking, then begin with the measured 5 cups of fresh water.
- •The herbs can be rinsed a few hours ahead and wrapped in a barely damp towel in the refrigerator. Blanch and chop them close to serving, because cut greens lose their scent quickly.
- •Leftover porridge keeps one day refrigerated, but the herbs will darken. Reheat gently with a little water and add a few fresh chopped greens if you want the bowl to feel alive again.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 330g)
Calories
140 calories
Total Fat
0 g
Saturated Fat
0 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
0 g
Cholesterol
0 mg
Sodium
310 mg
Total Carbohydrates
31 g
Dietary Fiber
2 g
Sugars
1 g
Protein
3 g
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