I love eating some miso soup! It is just so simple yet so savory and satisfying. If you are asking yourself, “I wonder what miso soup is?”, then you should hit up your local sushi or Japanese restaurant and try some! It might take a little getting used to since it does contain ingredients that aren’t typically in the American pantry.
New ingredients in my pantry:
- Miso is something that I have never had in my pantry. Miso is fermented soybean paste. There are several varieties, and it can be used in many dishes (mostly soups and dressing is what I have seen so far). The original recipe called for awase/mixed miso, but I just grabbed the smallest & cheapest packet of miso I could find because I didn’t know if I would use it to make anything else.
- Dashi is a fish/sea vegetable type of stock. It definitely gives off a fishy smell when cooking, but you don’t notice the smell or the taste when the soup is complete. Also, I was able to buy it in package that is similar to a tea bag and just steeped it in boiling water for a few minutes to create the stock.
- Wakame is dried seaweed. Don’t be fooled by its size when its dry. After it has soaked in water, it turns into pretty big pieces.
- Tofu is a bean curd made from soy milk. Tofu is more common than the other ingredients listed, but this was the first time that I actually purchased any or handled it myself. Its a little messy with all the water in the package, but after that, it wasn’t too hard to handle.
Soup has been one of my major food groups lately just because I can make a lot at a time and once it is cooked; however, miso soup is not one of those kinds of soup. The green onion and tofu should not be added unless you are going to serve it. Since this soup has so few ingredients, it is pretty easy to put together. I highly recommend making some if you can get your hands on the ingredients.
Lessons Learned:
- Careful when opening a package of tofu. Have a rag near by to clean up your mess.
- After the wakame have soaked, cut up into smaller bite-sized peices.
- If you are making dashi for the first time at home, I highly recommend using the “tea bag” kind of dashi instead of making it from scratch. It helped quicken the process sooooo much and made the learning experience better. Maybe next time I will try making dashi from scratch.
- Don’t add too much miso paste. That is what makes the soup have a salty taste. I would add a little more hot water to the soup if it became too salty.
- 3 cups water
- 1 dashi packet
- 3 Tbsp miso paste (awase/mixed miso)
- 6 oz soft tofu, cut into about ½" cubes
- 2 tsp dried wakame
- 1 green onion, sliced
- Put the water into a medium sauce pan over medium heat. Bring it to a boil. Add the dashi packet to the water and let boil for about 10 min (or if you can read the instructions on the dashi packet box, follow those directions to make the dashi).
- While dashi is cooking, put the dried wakame in a about ¼ cup of water to re-hydrate for about 5 minutes. When re-hydrated, drain and squeeze out any excess liquid. If the wakame pieces are pretty big, cut up into bite-sized pieces.
- Split up green onion and wakame evenly between 3-4 bowls.
- When dashi is finish, discard the dashi packet. Turn down the heat so dashi stock is at a simmer. Place miso paste into a strainer, and dip the strainer into the dashi stock to dissolve the miso into the dashi. Use a spoon to press the miso through the strainer. The dashi will get cloudy and there will be tiny white bits left in the strainer. Discard the little white bits.
- Add the tofu cubes to the dashi/miso mixture. Gently stir and cook for about a minute, or enough to heat the tofu up. Keep mixture warm, but not boiling so you don't break up the tofu. When ready to eat, pour hot dashi mixture with the tofu into each of the bowls you had prepared with green onions and wakame. Serve hot and enjoy!
(adapted from Just One Cookbook)
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Thank you so much for trying this recipe! I just shared it on my Facebook fan page. I like your “Lesson Learned” section of the post. 🙂
Thank you so much for sharing my link. Your recipes have been great to try. Looking forward to trying more in the future. I hope my blog can be as successful as yours one day.
Thank you so much for trying this recipe! I just shared it on my Facebook fan page. I like your “Lesson Learned” section of the post. 🙂
Thank you so much for sharing my link. Your recipes have been great to try. Looking forward to trying more in the future. I hope my blog can be as successful as yours one day.