Super Simple Miso Soup

Red Miso Soup - Ready in Minutes

Sometimes the simple things in life are the best.  This is no secret to the Japanese, whose food is more often than not stupid simple, with an incredible depth of flavor.

These deep flavors mostly come from the use of umami, or savory flavors*.  Things like miso, soy sauce, mushrooms, and dashi-- staples in the Japanese pantry-- are all high in amino acids such as L-glutamate and 5'-ribonucleotides, which constitute the umami sensation.  Other foods high in umami include ripe tomatoes, beef, chicken, and fermented products such as fish sauce and certain cheeses.

Today, I'll be showing you how simple it is to create great flavor in only a matter of minutes with a favorite of mine: red miso soup.

In case you didn't know, miso is a fermented seasoning paste commonly made from soybeans.  While it comes in a variety of colors and flavors, a good rule of thumb is the darker the miso, the saltier and more strongly flavored it will be.  Despite its assertiveness, I like to pair the red miso used in this recipe with a very mild dashi (Japanese stock) so all the nuances of the miso paste can be detected.

As a pretty wide-open recipe, one can enjoy this soup with a myriad of variations.  Some mushrooms (like enokitake or sliced shiitake), julliened carrots, or mochi are all great additions.  For now, however, I'll leave you with the bare necessities for a very simple, yet incredibly flavorful, miso soup.

Perfect for a meal starter on a cold night or alongside a traditional Japanese breakfast, you can't go wrong with this highly nutritious and positively umai soup from the Land of the Rising Sun.

*  Umami is a term derived from the Japanese word for delicious: umai



Follow me on:

Twitter @douevencookbro

Instagram

Pinterest

Google + 

Ingredients (serves 3):

16 oz water
2 packs of instant sardine dashi (2, 5 gram packages)
4 t red miso paste (.7 oz/ 20 g)
4 oz firm tofu, cubed (or as much as you want)
thinly sliced green onion/scallion

Need metric?

3, 6 fl oz servings	Calories	Protein (g)	Carbs (g)	Fat (g)	Sodium (mg)	Sugar (g)
Total:	120	11	11	5	996	1
Per Serving:	40	4	4	2	332	0

1.  Bring water to a full boil and then reduce to a simmer.
2.  While waiting for water to boil, assemble ingredients and cut tofu into even, bite-sized cubes.  Enoki mushrooms (or enokitake) or thinly sliced fresh shiitake are also very nice in this soup.
3.  Stir in instant dashi to simmering water.  Make sure you maintain a simmer the entire cooking process.
4.  Stir in red miso into lightly simmering dashi until it is dissolved.*
5.  Add tofu and mushrooms (if using).  Lightly simmer for about 2 minutes so tofu can soak up some miso flavor.
6.  Add thinly sliced scallions before serving.

*Miso should never be brought above a simmer for soup.  In fact, some of my people tell me it should not be raised past 185°F/85°C.  The gentle simmer shown in my video is around 175-180°F/79.4-82.2°C, so be mindful of your water temp. 

This work bydoyouevencookbro.blogspot.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.