Japanese Soul Food: Miso Soup

Speaking from experience, when Westerners think of Japanese food, they usually think of sushi or teriyaki, but neither are common household meals in Japan. In fact, they’re special “eat-out” dishes you enjoy only on special occasions.¹ But miso soup is one dish that people know about, and is a common Japanese meal. Many people will enjoy soup frequently if not daily.

Being married to a cute Japanese girl² I learned all about Japanese food over the years, and even learned to cook a little bit. In Japan, women almost always cook, but my wife figured out pretty quick that I am not a Japanese husband, so I had to learn to cook from time to time.

So let me share some of my experience in this wonderful Japanese soul food of miso soup. Here in Ireland where it’s pretty cold right now, I drink miso soup daily. I make a big pot and usually finish by evening because the soup is both warm, salty and very easy to make. Miso soup uses very few ingredients, but the preparation is a little tricky if you’ve never done it before. Here’s the recipe my wife and I use to make it.

First, the recommended ingredients:

• Dashi power (fish stock)³. If you can get the stuff without MSG, that’s better, but more expensive.
• Miso paste: white, red, barley or brown rice. All have varying flavors, but white miso is the most common.
• Tofu, optional. Dice this into small cubes, preferably after squeezing out the water.⁴
• Vegetables, optional: carrots, daikon radish, mushrooms, diced green beans, cabbage (thinly sliced) or choose your own.
• Wakame seaweed, optional.

For some reason, people think Miso soup is just tofu and seaweed, but actually in Japan, it’s kind of a catch-all soup. Just throw in whatever vegetables you feel go well with soup. Even natto (fermented soy-beans) go well in miso. I love natto, so I should know. I’ve even seen whole crabs, cooked, in miso soup in Japan. That one was a bit much for me because I don’t like shellfish much. The point is is that Westerners see miso as something only in cool sushi restaraunts, but actually it’s more like making left-overs in Japan, but nice leftovers!

Now, here’s how you cook it:

1. First, if you have any vegetables, boil them first in some water. Make sure they’re thoroughly cooked first! Once you put in the miso and tofu, don’t let it cook long.
2. Next add some dashi. Dashi is strong, so try adding maybe one teaspoon first. Taste the broth to see if it’s too thin or too strong. If thin, add a little more until your satisfied, if too strong, add a little water.
3. Now take a ladle and scoop some miso into the ladle. Do not put the miso paste into the soup! It will not dissolve well.
4. Dip the ladle (with miso paste inside) into the boiling soup and get some water into the ladle. Now with a spoon or chopsticks, dissolve some of the miso in the ladle with the water. Then pour it back into the soup, and dip for some more water.
5. Repeat until all the miso paste is dissolved.
6. Now, if you have tofu, add that in carefully without splattering. I usually put it into the ladle, then put it in gently.
7. If you have wakame seaweed, put that into the little bowl you’ll drink from and scoop some miso soup into the bowl. You’re done!

From there you just eat veggies, drink the soup from the bowl, and go have some more. The little wooden soup-bowls normally used in Japan are called owan (お椀), and are easy to find nowadays. You could use a western-style bowl, but it’s harder to drink out of, and miso is nice to drink from. I often see my wife or her mom also use “owan” bowls for whipping eggs before putting them into the frypan, so they’re kind of handy in general and easy to replace if broken.

So that’s miso-soup. Enjoy!

Namuamidabu

¹ – Japan has lots of good “sushi” delivery services though. They’ll pick up the dishes the following day if you leave them outside the door. They’ll also have soba delivery which is gewd.

² – Or as I call her, my bodhisattva (bosatsu in Japanese)…Hi honey!

³ – For vegetarians and such, you can also try dried konbu seaweed, but the only real way to use it is to soak overnight. If you try to cook with it, the broth will be either too light, or oftentimes too bitter. Also, konbu is a lighter flavor than dashi, so your soup might be a little thinner. I also tried for a while soaking shiitake mushrooms overnight, since konbu’s hard to get in Ireland. That also produced a nice, but thin broth. When I put a little soy sauce in, that made a decent broth. Not the greatest, but pretty good. Shiitake mushrooms have a nice smoky flavor, so they work great in Italian dishes or soups.

⁴ – Put on a plate, stack another plate on top and put a book on top for weight. Tofu’s slippery, so make sure things don’t topple over. Let sit for 30 minutes, and you’re ready to use it.