Scoop-A-Soup! – Miso Soup

I’m the type of person who’s perfectly okay eating plain rice with just one egg or some steamed veges. But my husband on the other hand insists that there needs to be something to ‘banjir‘ (flood) his rice, whether it’s gravy, curry or soup. He says I’m weird for eating dry rice like that, I told him he’s weird for always flooding his rice he might as well be eating porridge instead…until my mother-in-law does the same thing. She would not take rice without soup of some kind, so the apple does not fall far from the tree.

Sometimes when I’m in need of a quick soup just to keep the ‘audience’ happy, I’d make this. It’s easy, super fast and doesn’t take a long simmering time. I used to buy those instanst miso soups that comes in individual packets but I find that if I’m spending that much for the instant stuff, I might as well buy a whole tub of miso paste and make as much and as many times as I want.

The added ingredients are up to you but miso soup mainly has seaweed and tofu in it. I love using shimeji mushrooms (below) in my miso soup although that’s not very common. In markets, they’re labelled as beech mushrooms.

 Shimeji mushrooms

Miso paste can also be used for many other dishes besides just making soup. You can make dressings, steam fish in miso paste, make a miso hotpot theme etc. Japanese restaurants charge RM5-6 for a bowl of miso, for all you know they might be using the instant stuff too. Once you made it yourself, I’m quite sure you won’t order it again, unless you need to ‘flood’ your rice. 🙂

MISO SOUP RECIPE

Ingredients;

1 packet of instant dashi
3 tablespoons miso paste
Tofu, normal or Japanese egg tofu
Wakame (dried seaweed), a pinch is enough for two people
Shimeji mushrooms, cut off at the base and broken up (optional)
Scallions
3-4 cups water

Steps;

1. Heat the water in a pot and add the instant dashi. When it has come to a boil, add tofu that has been diced up.
2. Turn the heat down to a low simmer and add shimeji mushrooms, wakame and scallions. Scoop some of the soup into a separate bowl and dissolve the miso paste. Pour it back into the pot. Do not fierce boil the miso.
3. Give it a quick stir and serve with more scallions on top. Eat while it’s hot.

Enjoy!