1. Slice the vegetables and place in sections on a large platter. Pour 1-2 inches of water into the nabe pot with a strip of kombu, and with soaked and chopped shiitake mushrooms.

2. Bring to a rapid boil on a high flame and cook until the kombu and mushrooms soften. Not other seasonings are added to this dish.

3. Then begin to add the sliced vegetables to the rapidly boiling broth. Add them in separate sections, starting with the harder vegetables, which require the longest cooking time. Slowly add all the vegetables; most should require only 1-2 minutes of boiling. Add tofu. It may be necessary to add more water during cooking as the bubbling broth evaporates.

4. When finished, this dish should yield a large sectioned pot of bright green, fresh and light vegetables. It should be served immediately. If cooked at the table, vegetables may be eaten continuously and new ones added to the pot.

Sauce preparation: 

1. Heat up a small amount of the broth and add shoyu sauce to taste. 

2. Simmer for about three minutes. 

3. Grate a small amount of ginger and squeeze in a few drops of the juice. 

4. Add freshly chopped scallions.

Cook only enough that can be eaten at one meal. It should be the main dish of the particular meal, 2/3 or more of the total meal volume and grains 1/3 or less of the total volume.

A variety of vegetables can be used for this dish:

• sliced green and upward-growing vegetables: kale, collard greens, cabbage, Chinese cabbage, red cabbage, leeks, mustard greens, carrot tops, daikon tops, radish tops, turnip tops, scallions, dandelion greens, broccoli, broccoli rabe, fresh or dried shiitake and

• other mushrooms, string beans, celery, chives, snap peas, snowpeas, sprouts, Brussel sprouts, bamboo shoots, fresh green shiso leaves, onions, etc.

• daikon, carrots, lotus root, and other roots in smaller amounts

• fresh or dried tofu, pre-cooked udon noodles, fu, mochi, or white meat fish, etc.

For broth variations:

• toasted nori

• miso or soy sauce

• umeboshi paste

• chopped scallions