It’s the perfect rainy day to experiment with making miso soup. Now, making homemade miso soup just never seems to have that special “som’n som’n” that miso soup at Japanese restaurants do. But I felt like giving it another whirl, creating my own version. Here’s how it turned out…
A few key ingredients:
Shiitake Mushrooms
Kombu Seaweed
Miso
Firm Tofu
Miso Soup
2 cups chopped shiitake mushrooms
1 garlic clove, diced
1 tbsp grated ginger
2 scallions, chopped (green tops reserved for garnish)
2 cups baby spinach
2 cups chicken stock
2 cups seaweed liquid
3 tbsp miso
1 cup firm tofu, diced
Place a few sheets of kombu in 3 cups boiling water and simmer for 15 minutes to tenderize. Remove and chop roughly. Reserve 2 cups of the seaweed liquid for later. In a saucepan, sauté the garlic, ginger, mushrooms, spinach and scallion bottoms for 3-5 minutes, until spinach begins to wilt. Add the stock and seaweed liquid and simmer 15 minutes. Remove about ¼ cup of the soup liquid and mix with the miso, then mix it in with the soup and remove from heat. Add in the tofu to warm, and garnish with scallion tops.
Surprisingly, it turned out rather well. A heartier version of what you’ll get with your sushi or sashimi, this could stand on its own as a light lunch or sit alongside a sandwich.
Miso is fermented soybean paste made by mixing cooked soybeans with salt and a few other key ingredients, packing it into an earthenware container and letting it all hang together for a few months. The result is a creamy paste that helps prevent radiation sickness by binding to radioactive elements in the body and helping eliminate them. Miso is a source of protein that is easily assimilated by our bodies, and is rich in vitamins and minerals. It helps alkalinize the body which promotes resistance to disease. Miso also aids in digestion as it is a rich source of the beneficial enzymes and bacteria (the same little critters found in yogurt). Chinese tradition holds that miso promotes a long and healthy life.
If making your own just isn’t an option, but you want to slurp up the delciousness of this soup at home whenever you want, try out this brand or “instant” miso soup mix, typically found in your local grocer.
