Nanakusa-Gayu ( seven herb soup)

On the 7th of January (Jinjitsu) this is the day that in Japan it is tradition to eat (Nanakusa-gayu) 七草粥
Seven herb rice porridge soup. To help the stomach after Osechi Ryori / Christmas and new year and bring health to the coming year.
I do not have all the traditional herbs from Japan so I used a mix of daikon and turnip leaf, ( which I had been growing in preparation) parsley,Basil, mizuna and rocket leaf and watercress.

The tradition herbs are nipplewort,chickweed,cud weed,shepherds purse and water drop wort.

I made a kombu and shiitake stock to give it flavour and rich minerals and cooked up the already cooked rice in it with some sautéed daikon radish . Add your greens into the rice when cooking or cook separately and top onto the rice when your porridge is done .

It can take a while for your rice to cook down and you may need to keep adding stock until you get the correct consistency

You can top your rice porridge with maybe a grilled mochi rice cake or sliced shiitake that you used to make your stock with.