Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_O9kWD8nuRU

The shopping crew might have bought a different kind of tofu so please look carefully before you declare that there's none!

Or, if you have no time to watch:
1. Cut the carrots, potatoes, bamboo shoots, shiitake mushrooms and onions into bite-sized pieces
2. Once you’ve prepped the vegetables, the cooking is pretty easy.
3. Heat up your pan with the teaspoon of oil. Sesame oil will add a bit more flavor, but any vegetable oil is fine here. (Olive oil is great too.) Put the onions in first and stir around for 2-3 minutes until the edges start turning a bit translucent.
4. Add the potatoes, lotus roots, kombu kelp and carrots [not the snap peas!] and continue stirring for a minute. This short sautéing step helps to bring out the sweetness of the vegetables.
5. Add the mushrooms and stir a bit more.
6. Add the dashi stock (or combined dashi + mushroom soaking liquid). There should be enough to just about come to the top level of all the vegetables in the pot - if there’s not enough, add the a bit more dashi or even plain water, but do not overfill with liquid or the end results will be rather blah.
7. Bring it up to a boil and lower the heat to a simmer. Some scum will rise to the top, which should be removed so that the final dish will have a clean taste and appearance. Try to take off just the scum and leave the liquid.
8. Add the flavoring ingredients in this order: sugar, mirin, sake. Cover and simmer.
9. Finally add the soy sauce and atsuage. You can even reserve the soy sauce until the very end to retain its maximum fragrance if you prefer.
9. Let simmer, and add snap peas for garnishing.