Ingredients
Ingredients for about 4 cups
- 2 Tsp granulated Hon-Dashi
- 3 Tbsp Shiro Miso (or any other flavor you like)
- 1 Tbsp Dried Wakame (more or less to taste – I like more)
- 4 Oz Firm tofu cut into 1/2 inch cubes
- 4 Cups Water
Directions
- Bring the water to a slow simmer.
- Add the miso paste and dashi
- Whisk lightly to incorporate the miso paste
- Turn off flame.
- Add wakame and tofu.
- Some people like to sprinkle chopped chives on top
- Serve and enjoy!
Notes
I love miso! Miso comes in hundreds of varieties and miso soups in hundreds more. To learn a bit about miso you can click here to see a quick write up. In addition to the traditional miso pastes there are several others including (but not limited to) chic pea, millet, barley, etc. I like to buy these from a fantastic company called South River Miso right here in the US. There product is top notch and customer service is next to none, they even shipped me Miso Paste when I was in Iraq and Afghanistan! Please check out there miso, it is outstanding!
So onto our basic miso soup. To begin with we need a soup base called a dashi. The typical miso dashi is a bonito dashi (made from the flakes of a fermented, dried bonito fish). The base is not fishy at all and has a very warm and comforting taste. There are entire books on making dashi and it is truly wonderful when homemade but, like many Japanese households, I tend to mainly use a powdered version. The best I have found (and the most well known) is Hon Dashi (see picture below) which can be found at almost any Asian market and is even showing up in some big box places like Meijer and Kroger.
After that, it is a matter of adding the miso paste, usually some diced firm tofu, chives, and wakame, a type of sea vegetable or seaweed (see below). On the left is the dried version you can find in any Asian store and on the right is what it looks like after it has been rehydrated.
Making Miso soup is not too much different than making a vegetable soup, you simply put into it what you like. e.g. mushrooms (several varieties), chicken, boiled egg, shrimp, fish, etc.