Miso Soup

Miso soup is the most essential part of the Japanese meal and traditional served as an accompanying dish ‘slash’ drink. Not a traditional soup as we would typically know it as part of 3 course meal, but sipped and eaten during the meal, nor a hot beverage served along the meal. Miso is served in miso cups made of lacquer and sometime with a wooden lining on the outside, but small bowls will suffice perfectly well too. It is served with chopsticks and drunk from the side of the bowl with chopsticks to scoop up the garnish. Miso is not served with a spoon, it is fact a little of a faux pass to do so and not seen as Japanese eating etiquette.

Classic miso with be based on dashe made from katsuobushi and konbu. Katsuobushi is made from the shavings of dried fermented bonito fish and konbu a kelp seaweed. This miso is a vegan version, so using konbu. shiitake and a banana shallot onion to flavor the miso soup. Miso soups last for a day in the fridge, gently re-heat and serve with a fresh round of garnish. Miso can be eaten any time of day, I sometimes add a few tablespoons of brown rice for healthy snack or breakfast.

Miso soup is made with standard miso typically fermented fro 6-9 months giving its fantastic savory flavor. Whereas sweet miso is typically used for desserts and confectionery and the darker red miso for slow cooking and/or meat dishes typically.

Makes 4 miso soups

40 grams of standard miso paste

1 small shallot onions

1 x 10 cm konbu

800 ml. boiled water

5 grams dried wakame

1/2 pack silken tofu

2 pieces of spring onions

Peel onions and cut in quarters, then add to the sauce pan with boiling water, shiitake and konbu. Bring to the boil and leave to simmer for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile open up silken tofu, leave the pack upside down to drain on a plate lines with kitchen towel. Peel, trim and wash the spring onions, then shop in paper thin slices and leave to rest on your board. Now let the tofu slide out its box, cut of half a block and cut into cubes of about 0.8 centimetre x 0.8 centimetre and then add to 4 miso bowls.

Return to the sauce pan add miso paste and leave to simmer for a further 5 minutes until miso has dissolved fully. Remove shiitake, konbu and onion, then add wakame seaweed which will slowly bloom in the liquid, give it a further 5 minutes. Now ladle miso soup into 4 miso bowls ensuring an equal share of wakame in each. Garnish with spring onions and miso is ready to serve.