A few things that everyone agrees on about nanakusa, the 7 herbs of spring: You eat them on January 7th; you cook them up with okayu, soft-cooked rice porridge; and there are seven of them. Or at least there should be...
Exactly which 7 herbs should be used is a different matter. Traditions vary from area to area. Today we bought a mixed bunch of nanakusa in our local farmers' market, and when we got them home we found there were just 5 different plants, including common-and-garden komatsuna greens, a vegetable similar in size to spinach. (It also included a baby kabu turnip, but that is officially one of the 7 herbs, even though the rest of the year it's an ordinary vegetable.)
We also bought a package of nanakusa at our local Kinokuniya supermarket: the plastic carton was printed with a design of 7 herbs (including names). This contained 6 plants, including a couple of babykabu turnips and a fistful of chickweed we could have uprooted ourselves for free.
Nonetheless, we chopped them up and mixed them into our genmai-gayu (we make our porridge from lightly polished brown rice), the flecks of jade green adding a gentle bitterness. This is simple and wholesome fare — exactly just what is needed after all the holiday feasting.
According to Elizabeth Andoh, these are the 7 herbs of spring:
- 芹 seri (water dropwort)
- 薺 nazuna (shepherd's purse)
- 御形 gogyou
- ハコベ hakobe (chickweed)
- 仏の座 hotoke no za
- 菘suzuna (kabu turnip)
- 蘿蔔suzushiro (daikon radish)
Others substitute hahakogusa (cudweed) or konitabirako (nipple wort)
