How To Make A Real Japanese Miso Soup - Cooking Guide
Miso soup is a staple in most everyday meals in Japan and is considered as a traditional Japanese soup. Aside from its nice taste, it consists of various healthy ingredients which give great nutrients to the body. Despite its exotic sound, it’s actually very easy to prepare. It’s mainly comprised of very simple ingredients which are very easy to find in Asian markets and even in grocery stores. Let’s see how to cook a miso soup:
Ingredients
Preparation Time: 10 minutes
Cooking Time: 10 minutes
Yields: 4 servings
- Spring onions – 2 pieces, medium
- Miso paste – 1 ½ tbsp
- Dashi – 400 ml; or powdered dashi ½ tsp and water 400 ml
- Soft tofu (fresh) or silken tofu (long life) – 120 grams
- Wakame (dried seaweed) – 5 grams materials
Equipment
- Chopping board
- Sharp knife
- Teaspoon
- Tablespoon
- Measuring cup
- Small bowl
- Medium-sized saucepan
- Measuring jug
Procedure – 7 Steps to Cook a Miso Soup
- Heating the dashi. Pour dashi into a medium-sized saucepan. Put the pan on the hob and turn the heat on to high-level.
- Soaking the wakame. Get the small bowl and put the dried wakame. Pour enough water until it’s well-covered. The water will be soaked up by the seaweed causing for it to expand.
- Melting the miso. Using a measuring cup, put 1 ½ tbsp of miso paste. Add spoonfuls of dashi taken from the pan, just enough quantity to melt the paste. Stir thoroughly until it’s completely dissolved. Pour the mixture into the pan and stir well.
- The tofu. Cut tofu into cubes about 1cm size, or 1/2-inch per square. 4 oz or 120 grams of tofu is already sufficient for this recipe but more can always be added, or less depending on how you like it. Add tofu in the saucepan. Lower the heat down.
- Adding the wakame. Add your soaked wakame into the miso soup mixture. Let the soup simmer for about 2 minutes. Do not let the soup boil though because this will just ruin the flavours.
- Serving the soup. Completely turn the heat off. Ladle soup into individual serving bowls. Chop the spring onions and sprinkle on the bowls of soup for garnish.
- Serve and enjoy!
Note: Traditionally, Japanese miso soup is taken during the end of the meal or during breakfast. For the authentic way of eating, chopsticks can be used to get the solid ingredients. The soup can be sipped directly from the bowl.
Real Japanese Ingredients
Usually, the Japanese miso soup’s most commonly used dashi soup stocks are comprised of katsuobushi (thin shavings of smoked and dried bonito or most commonly known as skipjack tuna), hoshi-shiitake (dried shiitake mushrooms), kombu (dried kelp) or niboshi (baby sardines which are dried). The kombu can be prepared in various combinations with hoshi-shiitake or katsuobushi. The kelp or shiitake dashi can also be used as a stock for vegetarian soup.
International Variations
Outside Japan, European or American style of miso soup is sometimes done by using Western vegetable stock where miso is dissolved. The stock could include ingredients like daikon radish, potato, carrot and negi. In various versions of the miso soup, fish stock (Western-style), chicken stock and other various bases which are non-dashi can even be used as substitute. Still, there are quite some debates as to whether or not miso soups which are prepared using these bases which are considered non-traditional could be counted as true misoshiru.
Miso Soup with Tamarind – Sour Flavor
Christian-Japanese refugees who arrived in the Philippines brought along the Japanese miso soup recipe. On the other hand, the Filipinos made a special twist and making their own version by adding a special ingredient, the tamarind. This specific ingredient gives a more sour taste to the miso soup compared to the original version of Japanese miso soup.
