Making Miso Soup
A good bowl relies on the clarity of your dashi and the quality of the miso. It takes only minutes to pull together, providing a warm, steady start to the day.
Temperature control is your only real challenge.
Keep the dashi at a gentle simmer and pull the pot entirely off the flame before the miso goes in. Using a strainer to dissolve the paste ensures you don't end up with salty clumps in your bowl.
- small saucepan
- fine-mesh strainer
- ladle
- whisk or chopsticks
What goes in.
- 2 cupsdashi stock
- 2 tbspmiso paste (light or red)
- 1/4 cupsilken tofu, cubed into small dice
- 1 tbspwakame (dried seaweed), rehydrated
- 1 tbspscallions, sliced thinly on a bias
Don't boil the miso
Place your miso in a fine-mesh strainer partially submerged in the hot dashi. Use a whisk or chopsticks to push the paste through the mesh until only the larger grains remain.
The method.
Heat the dashi
Bring your dashi to a bare simmer in the saucepan over medium-low heat.
Add solids
Drop in the tofu cubes and rehydrated wakame. Let them warm through for about 60 seconds.
Remove from heat
Turn off the burner completely. The liquid should be hot but not bubbling.
Dissolve the miso
Place the miso in your strainer over the pot. Whisk it into the stock until fully incorporated. Discard any heavy bits left in the strainer.
Garnish and serve
Ladle immediately into bowls and top with fresh scallions.
Other turns to take.
Earthier version
Use red miso and add thin slices of shiitake mushrooms to the dashi at the start.
Heartier version
Add a few small clams or pieces of cooked white fish during the last two minutes of simmering.
When it doesn't go to plan.
If your dashi is store-bought, taste it for saltiness before adding the miso; miso varies wildly in sodium content.
Silken tofu is fragile; stir the pot very gently once the tofu is added to keep the cubes intact.
Keep your scallions in a bowl of cold water for five minutes before slicing to make them curl and stay crisp.
The ones that keep coming up.
Can I use water instead of dashi?
You can, but the soup will lack the depth that makes miso soup satisfying. If you must use water, add a pinch of salt and a small piece of kombu to simulate the profile.
Which miso should I choose?
White miso is sweeter and milder; red miso is more pungent and intense. Many cooks prefer a mix of both.
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