i am a food blog

Have you ever wondered why your miso soup doesn’t taste like the kind you get at your favorite Japanese restaurant? If you’ve been stirring miso paste into water hoping that it’ll taste like the stuff you get with your sushi, then you’ve been doing it wrong.

This miso soup recipe is here to help! The secret ingredient that you’re probably missing is dashi. Dashi is a Japanese stock made from kombu seaweed and katsuobushi/bonito flakes. It’s super flavorful and full of umami – really, it’s the backbone of many Japanese dishes. There are several kinds of dashi and many people make it from scratch (it’s kind of like making a tea: bring water up to a near boil, then soak the kombu and kastuobushi, and strain) but you can also buy instant dashi as well. They even sell ready to steep teabags that are full of kombu and katsuobushi.

I prefer using the dashi packs, but sometimes I use instant dashi too. It’s just whatever works!

Three steps to making delicious, authentic miso soup:

1. Bring your dashi up to a simmer. Put your water in the pot and bring it up to a gentle simmer over medium high heat with the dashi pack or instant dashi.
2. Remove the pot from the heat. Get a bowl and ladle out a small amount of dashi into it and and stir the miso into the hot dashi, making a miso slurry. When it’s smooth, add the miso slurry back into the pot.
3. Add seaweed, tofu, and green onions and gently heat over very low heat being sure not to bring it up to a simmer or boil – you don’t want the miso to be too hot because you’ll kill all of the amazing probiotics.

All in all, authentic miso soup is really easy! It’s practically instant, so tasty, and super comforting. Most Japanese people can’t imagine eating a meal with rice without miso soup – it’s incredibly healthy and delicious.

Miso Soup Recipe
serves 2
prep time: 3 minutes
cook time: 8 minutes
total time: 10 minutes

• 2 cups dashi
  
• 2-3 tablespoons miso
  
• wakame seaweed, as desired
  
• 1/2 package soft tofu
  
• sliced green onions to finish

Note: You can use red miso, white miso, yellow miso, or a mix.

Make 2 cups of dashi according to the package instructions. Bring to a simmer over medium high heat.

Remove the pot from the heat. Get a bowl and ladle out a small amount of dashi into it and and stir the miso into the bowl of hot dashi, making a miso slurry. When it’s smooth, add the miso slurry back into the pot.

Add seaweed, tofu, and green onions and gently heat over very low heat being sure not to bring it up to a simmer or boil – you don’t want the miso to be too hot because you’ll kill all of the amazing probiotics. Enjoy immediately!

dashimisotofuwakame