Japanese Miso soup

Recipe for a typical Japanese Miso soup

Miso soup is traditionally eaten for a Japanese breakfast. The soup is also served for lunch or dinner with more more complex garnishes. Miso is a spicy soybean paste that gives the soup its flavour. Further tofu, Dashi (fish broth), Wakame (seaweed) and scallions are added. You can also add to taste shiitake mushrooms, snow peas or finely sliced red bell pepper.

Ingredients

150 g Silken (soft) tofu
1 l Dashi
10 g dried wakame (type of seaweed)
4 tblsp red Miso paste
2 scallions

Preparation

You can use Dashi as an Instant Dashi or make it yourself. To do this, add some Konbu (dried seaweed) to water for a quarter of an hour, bring 4 cups of water to the boil, stir in a handful of bonito flakes, take the whole of the oven (ii loses the taste if it cooks too long) and let it steep for 5 minutes. Then drain through a sieve and press the bonito flakes well.
Cut the tofu into 1 cm cubes. Clean the scallions and chop into rings.
Heat the dashi, add the wakame seaweed, and simmer for 1-2 minutes on low heat. Take some soup and stir in the miso paste. Then add this mixture back into the pot. Add the tofu and allow to heat for one minute.
Serve the soup immediately in pre-heated bowls and garnish with the scallion greens.

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