Quick and easy miso soup recipe
When you order a bento box lunch at a Japanese restaurant, you typically start the meal with a bowl of miso soup. A fermented soybean or rice or barley paste, miso sounds weird, but isn't. With a few twists of the whisk, miso transforms plain water into a lightly salty soup stock. Where you take it from there is up to you; add little bits of tofu, greens, mushrooms, asparagus, soba or udon noodles. The lighter the color of the miso, the milder the flavor. I like mild miso for this soup.
Quick and easy miso soup
Inspired by many recipes online, especially from 101 Cookbooks, this recipe serves 4.
Ingredients
4 cups of water
2-1/2 Tbsp mild miso paste
1/2 cup diced firm or extra-firm tofu
2 large button mushrooms, stems trimmed, sliced
24 baby spinach leaves
Tiny pinch of red pepper flakes
Directions
In a 3 quart saucepan, bring 4 cups of water to a boil, then turn the heat off. Place the miso paste in a small bowl or glass measuring cup, and add 2-3 Tbsp of the hot water to the miso. Whisk thoroughly, to a smooth paste. Then whisk the miso mixture back into the saucepan, until the miso is evenly distributed. Turn heat to simmer, and add tofu, mushrooms, spinach and red pepper flakes. Stir gently for 1 minute, then serve.
I bought of tub of miso paste ages ago. I've got to find it in the back of my fridge and check the date! This would be wonderful quick soup for school.
Nice for a lunch soup....will try it today. many thanks
I always enjoy this soup in restaurants but never make it at home b/c I always forget to buy miso paste. Thanks for the delicious reminder, Lydia.
no tofu but the rest as listed.....delicious. thanks again. This is a bit of a benchmark soup for me....so tasty yet so so easy to make and also so few ingredients. Maybe its time to say goodbye to those classic french vegetable soups??? haha
Thank you. I was lookking for something light after the big Easter dinner last night. This was perfect!
Pam, time to dig out that miso! I've got a lovely little miso salad dressing on The Perfect Pantry, too.
Milton, I'm so glad you enjoyed this. I love that it's quick and easy, and not a heavy soup.
Susan, this soup makes such a great lunch or snack. It's worth having a tub of miso in the fridge.
Libby, this is perfect after a weekend of lots of eating.
This is one of those things that I never think of making and I have no idea why that is. I love miso soup and this looks so easy. Thanks for the inspiration.
I always order miso soup. Thanks you for the recipe and your blog is just what I've been looking for. I make a large pot of soup every Sunday for lunches and I always tend to do the same things. It will be great to find some ideas to change it up!
Now this is where I've enjoyed Miso---in soup! If I buy a tub of Miso, I'll have to use it all up. Do you think this Miso soup & the Miso dressing featured you on The Perfect Pantry would be too much together for 1 meal?
Julie, this is one of the easiest soups I've ever made!
Dawn, I always order the soup at Japanese restaurants, and when lunch comes with soup and salad both, I get a double dose of miso. So glad to meet another weekend soup maker!
Sandie, my favorite bento lunches are the ones when I start with soup and then find a bit of salad in my bento box. The soup is quite salty, as it should be for a starter, but the salad dressing is a bit sweet from the maple syrup and really doesn't taste strongly of miso So yes go ahead and serve them together, as the Japanese do.
I always feel that I have cleansed my body and palate after slurping up a bowl of miso soup. This looks so simple and nourishing.
The whole process of making miso soup takes ten minutes or less. It's already quick and easy. But the most basic and important part here has been skipped. Making miso soup without dashi is like making chicken noodle soup without chicken stock.
Simplest Method for one serving of dashi(adjust accordingly for more servings):
Cut a few small strips off some kombu kelp, and take a small pinch of bonito flakes and but them in a heat-safe glass container. Boil one and a half to two cups of water and pour it over the dry ingredients. Let sit five minutes. Then you just strain the stock out and mix with the miso and continue with the recipe. It's so simple, and the flavor is so much more yummy and authentic with dashi.
The picture sure makes this a tempting bowl, but I'll have to think of something else to add to this besides tofu... can't do tofu.