Welcome back, fans of Beastars! If you’re new, this isn’t my first foray into the world of anthropomorphic animals, systemic racism, and teenage angst. You can check out my recipe for Legoshi’s Late-Night Yakisoba here. With season 2 of Beastars out, though, it’s time to feature another vegetarian dish for carnivores: Riz’s Tomato & Soybean Curry.
Click here to skip to the recipe for Riz’s Tomato & Soybean Curry.
Riz’s Unbearable Hunger
Riz the Grizzly Bear, on the surface, is a gentle giant who helps the Drama Club and cooks for his friends. In Season 2 of Beastars, though, we learn that his teddy bear disposition hides a soul tormented by guilt and delusion. Carnivores over two meters tall in this society are government-mandated to take growth suppressants. This medication, taken mainly by bears, reduces muscle growth and predatory instincts. It also causes side effects such as headaches and depression. Honey only lessens the physical pain. It’s barbaric, but it’s also necessary to protect others.
We learn Riz craves a connection with his peers, whether cooking for his dormmates or building sets for the drama club. As Riz develops his friendship with the alpaca Tem, he stops taking his medication. He claims he does not feel like he genuinely connects with his new friend because the pills lessen who he is. Thus he believes his relationship is proof that he doesn’t need them. When tragedy strikes, though, his guilt warps into delusions — justifying predation as connection and a lack of flavor from instinctual hunger rather than from depression.
Red, Ripe, and Juicy
In both the Beastars anime and manga, we see Riz cooking a tomato and soybean curry for his dormmates. The sequence shows him steaming fresh tomatoes, peeling back their skin delicately with his claws, and serving it to his teeth-baring friends. I feel, visually, this is supposed to be a gentle, dignified presentation of an otherwise violent act — much as Riz’s rewritten memory of devouring Tem. Beastars relies strongly on color symbolism — which is probably why exclusively in the anime, Riz garnishes his bowl of curry with a freshly peeled tomato so that squelch of juice feels like bloodshed.
Riz talks about the super-sweet taste of summer tomatoes. But if you want that flavor, we cannot rely on the produce section of a standard grocery store. The best-tasting tomatoes of the season are canned. If you want the look, though, steaming tomatoes is super quick and easy. It doesn’t contribute much to the dish’s flavor except as something cool to cleanse the palate between bites of spicy curry.
As for my flavor profile, I adapted the creamy sauce of Indian butter chicken and blended in ingredients that grizzly bears crave. Grizzlies are omnivores and love honey, but they will also go to town on wild berries, mushrooms, and nuts. Favorites include buffaloberries (tastes of clove and pear), juniper berries, and pine nuts. So with that knowledge, I ground up pine nuts and juniper berries before blending them with a lot of ground clove and curry powder.
I did take some liberties, though. The soybeans we see in the manga are likely yellow soybeans — the mature and dried form of the plant. Edamame is infinitely easier to find in American grocery stores, though. I chose red onion to contribute to the color and spice of the dish. And finally, shiitake mushrooms are entirely my addition because their flavor has a meat-like taste that would do well against those carnivorous cravings.
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The printable recipe card and playlist for Riz’s Tomato & Soybean Curry will be available as a $2 donor reward on my Ko-Fi page until the next post goes up.
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A Celebration of Life
Riz's Tomato & Soybean Curry
Equipment: Stovetop, large saucepan with lid, medium saucepan with lid, steamer basket, kitchen knife, kitchen shears, coffee grinder or mortar and pestle, tongs, and a bowl of ice water.
Ingredients:
- 1 and 1/2 cup frozen edamame
- 28 oz. can whole peeled tomatoes
- 1 red onion, 1-inch diced
- 1/4 cup pine nuts
- 1 tsp juniper berries
- 2 tsp ground clove
- 1 and 1/2 Tb mild curry powder
- 6 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/4 lb shiitake mushrooms, diced
- 4 vine tomatoes
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 3 Tb unsalted butter
- 1 cup basmati rice
- 2 Tb honey
- 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1 tsp cornstarch
- kosher salt
Instructions:
Steam the tomatoes:
- Pour an inch of water into the large saucepan and add the steamer basket. Cover and bring to a boil.
- Pull the green tops off the vine tomatoes and discard them. Make a shallow “X’ with the knife on the underside of each one. Then place the tomatoes x-side up in the steamer basket.
- Cover the pot and steam for three minutes, then immediately transfer the tomatoes to the bowl of ice water. Let cool while prepping your other ingredients, then drain the bowl and gently peel off the skins.
Make the rice and curry:
- Prep and measure your ingredients. Use the coffee grinder or mortar and pestle to crush the pine nuts and juniper berries to powder. Combine the powder with the other spices in a separate bowl. Use the kitchen shears to cut up the tomatoes inside the can and set the can and bowl next to the stovetop.
- Pour the rice into the medium saucepan and cover with two inches of water. Swish with your fingers, then carefully drain the water. Repeat until the water runs mostly clear.
- Pour 1 and 3/4 cup of water into the rice pan and add a tablespoon of butter and 2-3 pinches of kosher salt. Bring to a boil on the stovetop while draining and preheating the large saucepan on the stovetop.
- After 2 minutes of preheating, add the remaining butter to the large saucepan. Once melted, stir in the onion and half of the spice blend. Saute for 2 minutes, then add the mushrooms to cook another 2 minutes.
- Once boiling, cover the pot of rice and reduce the heat to low. Let cook 10-15 minutes until most of the moisture cooks off. Remove from heat to let steam while finishing your curry.
- Stir the garlic into the pan of vegetables for 30 seconds until fragrant, then dump in the whole can of tomatoes. Blend in the soybeans and remaining spice blend. Bring to a low boil, then cover the pot.
- Reduce the heat to low and let simmer for 15-20 minutes.
- Blend the cream, cornstarch, and honey in a separate bowl, then stir into the curry. Simmer for another 3-5 minutes while stirring in kosher salt to taste. Remove from heat.
- Serve the curry in bowls or on plates with basmati rice garnished with skinned tomatoes.
