10 Minute Miso Soup
When I was little, my mom used to make me gumbo, freeze it in ice cube trays, and then defrost and feed it to my brother and I – now you see where I get my love for food from… I was never a Gerber baby :). She would puree so many other foods, and always make sure what we ate was really fresh, nothing really with preservatives. I see now though, things like this are so hard for so many women, and I have come to really appreciate what I had.
I have this friend who reminds me of what my mom used to do for us, because she has homemade every meal for her baby ever since she was old enough to start with food. She purees rice, fish, veggies, you name it, she makes it. It has always really impressed me, because she is getting her little girl to start out eating such wholesome foods, and has introduced her to things like salmon (which I never even ate till a few years ago)! One of these foods she makes that her daughter loves is miso soup (what 2 year old loves and craves miso soup!!!!), so I had her come over and help me make some of my own. Oh my gosh it was sooooo good, and I was really surprised how easy it actually was. The part that cracked me up was that her daughter just kept asking her for more of the soup… seriously, I hope my child craves miso soup and not McDonald’s one day. Knowing my child, they will be begging me for burgers and hot dogs… (*prayers for the future*).
This recipe couldn’t be easier, and it’s so healthy. I will start keeping it in my fridge for weekdays, since I’m trying to make a healthier eating regimen right now (byebye donuts and corndogs, I will miss you). The other really nice thing about it is, you can really add any vegetables that you want – zuchinni, cabbage, mushrooms, whatever! We made our base from scratch (which is still super easy), because for the life of me I couldn’t find dashi powder at any of the stores here. If you do want to make it with dashi powder, you can find it here on amazon. Either way, it is going to be so good I promise!
We stuffed the bonito flakes into the spice bags to begin, and placed in a pot of water with about 5 kelp leaves. We brought it to a boil for about 5 minutes, then removed the bag and kelp. Then we placed in the enoki mushrooms, I love these little babies they are so cute I almost don’t want to eat them… :). I let them simmer for about 5 minutes, then added in the sliced tofu and the miso. To make it easier to add in the miso, you can spoon out 1/2 cup of the liquid and whisk it well before you add it back to the soup.
When choosing which miso to buy just remember – red miso is more restaurant style, white miso is a touch sweeter and more mild, and yellow has more of an earthy flavor. (I prefer red).
Do not let the soup boil, just make sure it simmers for a few more moments, and then top with green onion and serve!
Ingredients
- 5-6 cups of water
- 5 pieces of dried Kelp
- 1 spice bag, or cheese cloth
- handful of bonito flakes
- 3 tbsp. dried seaweed
- 3 tbsp. red miso paste (for restaurant style use red miso, white miso is milder & sweet, and yellow miso is more earthy-flavored)
- 2 green onions, chopped
- 1 block silken tofu, chopped into small cubes
- 2 cups enoki mushrooms, stems cut off
Instructions
- Begin by making the dashi: Stuff bonito flakes into a cheesecloth or a spice bag. Place the flakes and 5 kelp leaves into a pot of water and bring to a boil. Boil the ingredients together for about 5 minutes, and then remove the kelp and flakes.
- Bring the broth back to a simmer. Add in the mushrooms. Spoon out about 1/2 cup of the liquid and whisk the miso paste in well. Then, pour back into the pot with the water and stir. Make sure the liquid stays simmering, and doesn't come to a boil, and add in the tofu and seaweed. Simmer for about 3 minutes, just enough to warm the tofu and expand the seaweed, and then turn off the heat.
- Top with scallions just before serving. Enjoy!
LOVE me some soup. You could say MISO Soupy! Even a kitchen hack like me could brew this up and the scallions on top! YUM!
Soooooo enoki mushrooms are awesome. Ok, that’s out of the way. How’d they hold up in a light soup? I feel like the only times I’ve had them in a soup is when there is a butt load of sliced beef in a spicy broth (and looked like they had been stir fried first).
Also, Kim Son started selling a ramen soup I’ve got a couple times. I’m sure this will make me sound like a noob, but the pickled ginger they put in it was a shocker the first time I had it. Any recipe ideas you can think of with putting pickled ginger in an unexpected place? I feel like those killer stuffed eggplants you made would work somehow. Maybe with the stuffing recipe you used with an egg yoke broken on top (to up the richness and mellow the flavor) and then mixed with the ginger for hidden flavor bombs?
That pickled ginger is suchhhhhhhhhh a good idea!!!! I will def. look into that! Enoki mushrooms are amazing, they were so good in this, very lightly cooked in the broth, so packed with flavor. I would love to do this soup again packed with some other awesome ingredients!