Since miso has a lot of health benefits and it is one of the secrets to Japanese longevity, I will share with you how to make miso soup today. While miso soup has a high reputation of being a superfood, you need to be careful about two factors which most people in Japan fail to address; make it GMO-free and vegan.
As you might know, a lot of soybeans produced today are genetically modified, you need to check whether the miso you want to use is made from GM soybeans or not. Check the ingredients carefully when you buy miso. Again, the best thing is to make your own miso: In this way not only you get to choose GM-free soybeans, but you also get to select organic soybeans and other natural ingredients including Koji.
Another thing many people don’t tell you is that a lot of miso soup contains fish, as a form of dashi, broth. Bonito flakes are the most commonly used dashi in miso soup. Therefore you need to be careful if you are a vegan. As an alternative, you can use konbu, kelp to make the flavor. Or you can make it without using any stock, you can put a lot of vegetables in the soup, and they will fortify the taste.
Today, let me tell you how to make miso soup with konbu broth.
Ingredients
konbu
daikon radish
Jerusalem artichoke
cabbage
broccoli
thin fried tofu
wakame seaweed
miso
water
First you soak konbu over night.
The next morning or whenever you want to make the soup, you start boiling the konbu.
Meantime, you soak wakame.
And cut some vegetables. You can use any vegetables in miso soup. I am just using the vegetables I have today; daikon, Jerusalem artichoke, cabbage, and broccoli.
When the konbu is boiled, you can start adding vegetables to the soup.
First the daikon and Jerusalem artichoke.
Meanwhile, you take the konbu out and cut it into small pieces.
You also want to cut thin fried tofu.
Then you add the cabbage to the soup. You can put the cut konbu, as well.
Next you add the broccoli.
Toward the end, you add the thin fried tofu.
Finally, you put the soaked wakame. Make sure you cut it into several pieces if it is too big.
You need to cook wakame only 10 seconds or so, and you turn the gas off.
Then you put miso in a ladle and put it in the saucepan. Make sure that the gas is turned off because you don’t want to cook miso. You stir the miso slowly with chopsticks in the ladle, mixing it with the soup. After stirring it a little bit, you sink the ladle a little to let more hot water come in for miso to melt. Then you lift the ladle and mix the miso and water. You repeat this process a few times until the miso melts into the soup completely.
Just like that.
After that, you put the lid on and wait for 1 minute.
Finally, you serve the soup in a bowl.
That’s it. Miso soup is ready.
By the way, if you read Japanese you might enjoy reading a novel I have written called Miso Soup Romance.