Simple Home-Made Miso Soup with Vegetable Stock
Miso is rich in essential minerals and a good source of various vitamins and as a fermented food provides the gut with beneficial bacteria that help us to stay healthy. However, it is important not to boil miso paste if you want to enjoy the full flavours and nutritional qualities of miso.
Miso soup recipes vary region to region but traditionally it is very simple and made up of two components (miso paste and dashi) and finished with garnishes such as tofu, wagame and spring onions.
Dashi is essentially the Japanese equivalent to stock or broth in the west and is used as the backbone to many Japanese dishes.
We appreciate it might not always be easy to find all the ingredients so we have come up with an alternative and simple miso soup recipe for you to make at home.
For more detail on traditional Japanese dashi and a miso soup recipe using Japanese dashi, click through to our Best Home-made Vegetarian Miso Soup with Dashi From Scratch recipe.
Here we will be making a simple home-made miso soup using our miso pastes and a stock made from either a stock cube or vegetable ingredients you might find in your cupboard.
Simple Home-Made Miso Soup with Vegetable Stock
Ingredients
Instructions
- To make the vegetable stock, peel and chop all the vegetables (apart from the spring onions) and put them in a large pot of 1.5 litres of boiling water and add the sea salt bay leaves and ground black pepper.
- Boil for 10 mins then cover and let simmer for at least 30 mins. The longer you leave it to simmer, the more flavour you will achieve in the broth.
- Strain, discarding the vegetable and bay leaves and return to the heat. If you are using a stock cube, then simply make according to packet instructions.
- Chop the tofu into small cubes and gently add it to the broth along with the dried wakame.
- Simmer for a couple of minutes more then turn the heat off and let it stand for a couple more minutes.
- Ladle a cup of the stock into a small bowl and stir in the miso paste. Once fully dissolved, pour it back into the pot and stir again.
- Serve immediately with the chopped spring onions and sesame seeds.
Notes
Ingredients to make basic vegetable stock (or swap with a vegetable stock cube)
Any seasonal vegetables can be used to make this stock.
Refrigerate or freeze (for a few months) your stock. Simply bring back to boil and follow steps 4 – 7. Use 1 tbsp. of miso paste per person.
If you are pressed for time, vegetable stock cubes can be used. Simply dissolve the required amount of vegetable stock into 1.5 litres of water and follow steps 4 – 7. If you choose to use stock cubes, we recommend using one with lower or no salt content.
Both White Miso Paste and Red Miso Paste can be used in this recipe either mixed together or individually. Red Miso Paste is stronger in flavour.
Dashi is the foundation for Japanese cooking and essential for any miso soup, noodle soup, congee or gravy recipes. This dashi recipe is super simple using just 3 ingredients; kombu, bonito flakes and water.