{"id":356,"date":"2024-10-08T19:44:25","date_gmt":"2024-10-08T10:44:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/yasai-yakuzen.com\/?p=356"},"modified":"2026-09-07T18:16:23","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T09:16:23","slug":"taro","status":"publish","type":"vegtable","link":"https:\/\/yasai-yakuzen.com\/en\/vegtable\/taro\/","title":{"rendered":"The benefits of taro"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Taro is sweet and pungent and neutral, a root vegetable held to be kind to the gut and to clear excess fluid and damp from the body. Its waxy texture and gentle sweetness are what it is loved for, and it suits daily care when the gut tires easily, or when you want a warm dish in the cold months. From simmered dishes and soups to kinukatsugi and croquettes, it is the tuber that home cooking in autumn and winter cannot do without.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" src=\"https:\/\/yasai-yakuzen.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/08A1165-1024x682.jpg\" alt=\"Taro\" class=\"wp-image-357\" srcset=\"https:\/\/yasai-yakuzen.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/08A1165-1024x682.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/yasai-yakuzen.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/08A1165-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/yasai-yakuzen.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/08A1165-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/yasai-yakuzen.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/08A1165-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/yasai-yakuzen.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/08A1165.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">When taro is in season, its types, and how to choose it<\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you want to enjoy what taro does, it helps to know its season, its types and how to choose it. It is a root vegetable of the arum family, in season from autumn into winter, loved for its waxy texture and its particular sliminess.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">In season from autumn to winter, with parent, child and grandchild corms<\/h3>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Taro grows underground in a chain, the child corms around the parent corm and the grandchild corms around those. It is in season from autumn into winter, around September to December, and as the cold comes on the waxy texture and the sweetness come up. Grown in Japan for centuries, it was for a time so familiar that the word for tuber meant taro. What we usually eat are the soft, waxy child and grandchild corms; the large parent corm is eaten in some varieties and kept as seed in others. Simmered, it gives you that particular waxiness and a gentle sweetness.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Dodare, Ishikawa Wase, ebi-imo and yatsugashira<\/h3>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Taro changes in texture and shape according to the variety.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\">\n<table>\n<thead>\n<tr>\n<th>kinds<\/th>\n<th>What stands out<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>Dodare<\/td>\n<td>The most common. Waxy and soft, and suited to simmering<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Ishikawa Wase<\/td>\n<td>Small child corms. Suited to kinukatsugi, steamed in their skins<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Ebi-imo and yatsugashira<\/td>\n<td>Ebi-imo, a Kyoto vegetable, and yatsugashira, an auspicious one. For simmered dishes and osechi<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For everyday simmered dishes, soft, waxy dodare is handy. Small Ishikawa Wase is made for kinukatsugi, steamed in the skin and eaten with salt. Fine-grained ebi-imo holds its shape and suits a refined simmered dish, and yatsugashira, whose name suggests a widening fortune, goes into osechi as an auspicious food. There are regional varieties too, such as red-shooted Celebes. Choose by the dish and taro shows its best.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How to choose it and how to prepare it<\/h3>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When picking out good taro, these are the things to look for.<\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Still soil-covered, moist rather than dried out<\/li>\n<li>Plump and rounded, hard and tightly closed<\/li>\n<li>No red spots or soft patches on the cut face or the skin<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The slime on taro can make your hands itch as you peel it, so wash it well in the skin, dry it, and peel it with dry hands to keep the itching down. If it bothers you, wash your hands with water and vinegar. Once peeled, rub it with salt and rinse it to take the slime off, and it takes the seasoning better. When you want the slime, use it as it is. Blanched before simmering, it keeps the cooking liquid clear and finishes neatly. Kinukatsugi, steamed in the skin and slipped out, needs hardly any preparation at all.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How to eat taro<\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The waxy texture and gentle sweetness of taro carry it from simmered dishes and soups to steaming and frying. Here are the usual ways.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">In simmered dishes and soups<\/h3>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Taro is at its best simmered. Nikkorogashi, simmered through in stock, soy sauce and mirin, is the standard, and gives you that waxy texture and gentle sweetness. Simmered with squid or chicken it takes up the savour and is better still. In a soup, in imoni, tonjiru, kenchinjiru or noppejiru, it gives a thick mouthfeel and makes a dish that warms the body. Imoni, from the Tohoku region, is a local dish with taro in the lead. Blanched before simmering, it takes the seasoning and the liquid stays clear.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">As kinukatsugi, croquettes and fried<\/h3>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Taro is good steamed and fried as well. Kinukatsugi, small taro steamed in the skin, slipped out and eaten with salt or miso, is an easy autumn dish that gives you the taste of taro itself. Boiled and crushed, playing to the waxiness in croquettes, a gratin or oyaki, it gives you something different from the usual. Deep-fried without batter and tossed in salt or a sweet-savoury sauce, the floury, waxy texture comes forward. Fried and served in stock it is refined as well.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How to keep taro<\/h3>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Taro does badly in dry air and in cold, so keep soil-covered taro unwashed, wrapped in newspaper, out of the fridge and somewhere cool and dark with air moving. Too cold and it spoils, so avoid anywhere that freezes, even in winter. Washed or peeled taro spoils easily, so use it up soon. If you have a lot, peel it, blanch it, drain it and freeze it in small portions, ready to go straight into simmered dishes and soups. For kinukatsugi, boiling it in the skin and then freezing it is fine too.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Alongside this, a tuber likewise held to be kind to the gut, <a href=\"https:\/\/yasai-yakuzen.com\/en\/journal\/potato\/\">The benefits of potato<\/a> and one likewise sticky, <a href=\"https:\/\/yasai-yakuzen.com\/en\/journal\/yam\/\">The benefits of Japanese yam<\/a> as a guide when building a table for autumn and winter.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In season from autumn into winter, taro is a root vegetable whose waxy texture and gentle sweetness carry it through simmered dishes, soups, kinukatsugi, croquettes and fried dishes. Dodare for simmering, Ishikawa Wase for kinukatsugi and refined ebi-imo: use each for the dish and it shows its best. When you want to be kind to the gut, and for daily care in the cold months, bring taro to the table.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Taro is a neutral ingredient with sweet and pungent flavours, and can be looked to for easing excess fluid and swelling in the body. When you notice swelling or a lumpy, knotted feeling under the skin, pick up some taro at the supermarket.<\/p>","protected":false},"featured_media":357,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"swell_btn_cv_data":"","ssp_meta_description":"\u91cc\u828b\u306f\u5e73\u6027\u3067\u3001\u80c3\u8178\u3092\u3044\u305f\u308f\u308a\u3001\u4f53\u306b\u3053\u3082\u3063\u305f\u4f59\u5206\u306a\u6c34\u5206\u3084\u6e7f\u3092\u3055\u3070\u304f\u3068\u3055\u308c\u308b\u6839\u83dc\u3067\u3059\u3002\u571f\u5782\u30fb\u77f3\u5ddd\u65e9\u751f\u30fb\u6d77\u8001\u828b\u306a\u3069\u91cc\u828b\u306e\u7a2e\u985e\u3084\u9078\u3073\u65b9\u3001\u306c\u3081\u308a\u306e\u4e0b\u3054\u3057\u3089\u3048\u3001\u716e\u7269\u3084\u6c41\u7269\u3001\u304d\u306c\u304b\u3064\u304e\u3078\u306e\u4f7f\u3044\u65b9\u3001\u4fdd\u5b58\u306e\u30b3\u30c4\u3092\u7d39\u4ecb\u3057\u307e\u3059\u3002"},"categories":[39,9],"tags":[23,22,12],"veg_class":[312],"veg_property":[249,240,255],"veg_meridian":[243,324],"veg_season":[251,245],"veg_origin":[326,380],"class_list":["post-356","vegtable","type-vegtable","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-efficacy","category-journal","tag-anti-phlegm","tag-taro","tag-efficacy","veg_class-phlegm-cough","veg_property-neutral","veg_property-sweet","veg_property-pungent","veg_meridian-stomach","veg_meridian-intestine","veg_season-winter","veg_season-autumn","veg_origin-kyushu","veg_origin-kanto"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yasai-yakuzen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vegtable\/356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yasai-yakuzen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vegtable"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yasai-yakuzen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/vegtable"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/yasai-yakuzen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vegtable\/356\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8092,"href":"https:\/\/yasai-yakuzen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vegtable\/356\/revisions\/8092"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yasai-yakuzen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yasai-yakuzen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yasai-yakuzen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yasai-yakuzen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=356"},{"taxonomy":"veg_class","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yasai-yakuzen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/veg_class?post=356"},{"taxonomy":"veg_property","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yasai-yakuzen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/veg_property?post=356"},{"taxonomy":"veg_meridian","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yasai-yakuzen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/veg_meridian?post=356"},{"taxonomy":"veg_season","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yasai-yakuzen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/veg_season?post=356"},{"taxonomy":"veg_origin","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yasai-yakuzen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/veg_origin?post=356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}