MISO SOUP

Miso Soup is one of my favorite soups. It is a traditional Japanese soup consisting of a stock called “dashi”, which softened miso paste is mixed. Many ingredients are added depending on regional and seasonal recipes, and personal preference. Last weekend was our 5 years anniversary and my husband had this idea that we should stay home and make some California Rolls, and Miso Soup to go with it. I try to keep the authenticity of Miso Soup as much as I can but I’m totally open for any suggestions, especially from the Miso Soup lovers and all my Japanese friends out there. You know who you are. 🙂

I always order Miso Soup at my favorite local Japanese restaurant called “Blue”, which is more like fusion Japanese and when you hear that they have things like Hawaiian rolls, Blue Balls and Tuna Tower, the die hard Japanese fans out there may shake their heads.  But really, it’s not a big deal to me, if the food tastes good, I’m all for it. Some day though, I would love to visit Japan and do an eating tour so I can try all of the authentic food. To me, Japan has amazing food, culture, history and most of all, the people. It’s a shame that I’ve been to Japan more than a dozen times but never got out of the Narita Tokyo airport, just passing by to other countries. Maybe next time we will.

Back to Miso Soup, it usually has seaweed, mushrooms, tofu and green onions in it, but you can put anything in it like daikon, clams or even spinach and you can even make it vegetarian.

There are three parts that make Miso Soup.

1. The stock or broth called “dashi” in Japanese. It usually has water, dried kelp (kombu) and dried fish flakes (bonito). You can skip the bonito if you want to make it vegetarian. One may ask, is it necessary to use these ingredients and can we just use the one from the package? It’s like asking me if you can skip fish sauce in Thai dishes. The answer is, if you want to make a good miso soup, these are things that add the “umami” flavor to it. Most of all, it’s so easy and you can find all of the ingredients from the Asian aisle or for sure from your local Asian grocery store. Here’s what kombu and bonito flakes look like.

2. Miso paste. It is fermented soybean. A miso paste that has been fermented for a longer period of time, such as a red miso, gives the miso soup a stronger, deeper flavor. A miso paste that has been fermented for a shorter period of time, such as a white miso, provides a lighter, sweeter flavor. I like to use white miso in my miso soup, but I think you can use whatever you like. Here’s what white miso looks like.

3. Solid ingredients. Like I mentioned earlier, you can put anything you like. My favorite are tofu (firm tofu), dried seaweed (wakame), shitake mushrooms and green onions or chives.

Now, Let’s cook some food!

Add water and dried kelp (kombu) to a pot and let it sit at room temperature until soft, about 30 minutes. I used two kombu and 6 cups of water.

Bring it to a boil, medium heat.

Remove kombu right before water reaches full boil.

Add 2 cups of dried fish flakes (bonito flakes) into a pot.

Let it simmer for 2-3 minutes.

Strain it to remove the bonito flakes.

At this point you can store the broth (dashi) in the fridge, if you want to make the broth ahead of time. Then, when you’re ready to make the soup, you get to start at the next step.

Cut firm tofu into 1/2″ cubes.

Add the tofu to the broth (dashi).

Then, add dried seaweed (wakame).

Also, add mushrooms.

And some light soy sauce.

Reduce heat to simmer and dissolve miso paste into the dashi.

Remove from heat, garnish with green onions or chives before serving.

It’s so good. Really!

I really hope you give this Miso Soup a try. It’s so simple and I think anyone can make it. The recipe card is below. I also would love to hear some ideas of different kinds of Miso Soup, please share your comment in the comment box below.