
Time to prepare and cook: 15 minutes
Ingredients
- 2 teaspoons dashi (Japanese fish flakes to make fish stock)
- 4 cups water
- 3 tablespoons miso paste
- 8 oz silken tofu, diced
- 2 spring onions, chopped into 1/2 inch pieces
Optional extras
Konbu and Wakame, which are two types of seaweed, are essential ingredients in Japanese miso soup. They are available at asian food stores and health food stores. They add more depth and flavour, as well as more healthy minerals.
- Pork, thinly sliced and cut into small pieces. Miso and pork are great together.
- Carrots – chopped into small pieces
- Corn kernels
- Mushrooms
- Japanese radish
Substitutions
For a vegetarian version, or if you have no dashi, add vegetable stock instead. It's still delicious.
No tofu? No problem! A simple miso soup without tofu is often served as a side dish in restaurants.
Directions
Soak 2 tablespoons of Wakame in water for at least 5 minutes to soften them up. In a saucepan over medium-high heat, combine water and dashi (add a 5cm piece of konbu if you have it). Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium and let it simmer for 5 minutes. Remove dashi and konbu. This is the stock. Add onion (carrots, other vegetables and pork too if you like) and simmer until the carrots are tender. If you only added onions, a couple of minutes of simmering will do. Add the miso paste. The miso will soften and dissolve as it is heated. Whisking helps speed up the process. Stir in tofu and wakame. That's it! Ready to serve with rice. Pickles are a great condiment too.