Miso Soup

Miso soup was one of the first things I learned to make on my own. It remains one of my favorite things to have for breakfast or part of a dinner. I have even stretched it into a one-pot meal all on its own. I'm going to include both of these in this post. Pictured at left is my one-pot meal version of miso soup.

When I first started making this, miso paste was not easy to find. It pretty much meant a trip to the local Asian import store. Thankfully, though, it is getting easier to find. Generally, it can be find in the cold food section of organic grocery stores. If that isn't an option where you are located, you can always get it through Amazon.com.

This would normally be made with dashi or instant dashi, but this is my vegetarian version. To make with instant dashi, replace the vegetable broth and water with 3 cups of water and 1 1/2 teaspoons of instant dashi.

It's a very simple but very enjoyable dish, and there are plenty of variations to the dish that you can try. Just about anything that is used in Japanese cooking can be added. Shitake mushrooms are one popular addition, though not one I enjoy due to a lifelong detesting of any member of the mushroom family. Pork can be added as well, but then it is tonjiru or pork soup. Adding rice to miso soup makes a kind of nekomeshi, but this is not really done in polite society; it best translates along the line of "cat food" or basically the leftovers you would give your cat from the morning's breakfast.

Basic Miso Soup
A recipe from Kat

Ingredients 

• 2 cups of vegetable broth (or 2 cups of water and 2 cubes of vegetable bouillon)
• 1 cup of water
• 1 long section of wakame seaweed, cut into tiny bites, or spinach, cut into tiny bites
• 1 12-oz block of firm or extra-firm tofu, cut into bite-size cubes
• 1 to 2 Tablespoons of white miso or to taste
• 1 green onion, chopped

Directions

1. Reserve miso in a bowl or large cup. Miso must NOT be boiled.
2. Mix water and vegetable broth in large stock pot. 
3. As it approaches boil, add tofu cubes.
4. Once the soup reaches a boil, scoop some of the hot liquid out into the miso and mix into a fine paste. While mixing, add wakame seaweed.
5. Remove the pot from heat and add miso, stirring well to mix. 
6. Top with green onions and serve hot.

One-Pot Meal Miso Soup
A recipe from Kat 

Ingredients

• All ingredients as above for Basic Miso Soup.
• 1 carrot, washed and skinned, shaved or cut into matchsticks
• 3 oz of somen noodles

Directions

1. Cook as above for Basic Miso soup. 
2. Add the carrots and somen noodles with the wakame. They will not need to cook long. Somen noodles ideally need to be cooked no longer than 3 minutes.