Miso Soup

Who doesn't love a nice warm bowl of soup? On a chilly day, a hearty stew or soup will warm you to your core. I will take all of the chunky soups. And while often served as an appetizer, soup can make a fulfilling meal as well.

I prefer chunky soups to creamy ones for the most part, with clam chowder being about as creamy as I'd like a soup to go. I will enjoy all the blended soups until I am in a nursing home and then I will broth for days. And cold soups? My interest level is roughly 0%. Rough estimate, but likely pretty close.

So after a recent trip to a sushi restaurant and a pleasant bowl of miso soup, I made a stop by the local Asian grocery and grabbed the basics: miso and dashi flakes.

Miso is a fermented mixture of soy beans, grains, and some other varying ingredients. Used in many Japanese dishes, miso adds a unique, umami flavor to a dish. Dashi is fish stock; when boiled in water, you've got a soup base.

Something I never knew is that there is active bacteria in miso, and that is what many believe makes miso soup so healthy. So when you add it to a soup is important; boiling after it's added will lessen the flavor and eliminate said good bacteria. This is a great link to learn more about miso (including about some different varieties).

The dashi itself comes in a little jar. There were larger size options, but for initial experimentation in cooking, I find that buying the value-size containers isn't always the wisest. Besides, I have a horrendous habit of buying and making more than is needed, apparently including my 5 invisible roommates in the equation when I go shopping.

There were a couple of different containers of miso, some containing the dashi already. Since I wanted to make this from scratch, I opted for the kind without dashi included, and given that the ingredients go in at different times it made sense to do it this way.

There are many types of miso, as noted before, but I got a white variety, which is presumably the most common. The market I go to is fairly small and did not have other choices, so tracking down the other kinds may require a little more legwork.

In a larger pot, I boiled the dashi in water, then added mushrooms and onions and let them cook for about 5-7 minutes. Though you can add many different vegetables to miso, I opted to go with what I was familiar with for my first time.

Once the veggies had softened, I lowered the heat and stirred in the miso. After 2-3 minutes of simmering, I removed it from the heat and it was ready.

I still can't believe how easy this one was to make. I get so used to thinking a recipe will take an hour from start to finish and wind up eating dinner at 10 o'clock at night that I cherish these simple dishes.

The result was a flavorful and filling soup with a slight saltiness and meaty flavor to it (thank you, miso!). Some hibachi restaurants give you the choice between miso and clear soup when you eat there, and it's always a struggle to decide. Knowing how simple this one is puts it higher up on my list of quick dinner recipes. If I can throw together a filling soup in less than 15 minutes, that will make the life of a busy lady easier on the hectic nights. It's like living in a Japanese Steakhouse! Who says soup is just a starter?

Miso Soup Recipe

Ingredients:

4 cups water
2 teaspoons dashi
1/2 cup mushrooms
1/2 cup green onions
2 tablespoons miso

Instructions:

Boil water and dashi in a pot. Add mushrooms and onions and cook for about 7 minutes. Lower heat, then stir in miso.

adapted from homemade miso soup