Miso Soup
Ingredients
- Ingredients
- For Dashimakes 4 cups
- 4cups water
- 1 1/2ounces kombudried kelp (4X6 inch piece)
- 1/2 ounce (12 grams) katsuobushidried bonito flakes
- For Miso Soup
- 4cups dashi
- 3tablespoons white miso pastesoybean paste
- 2each green onion/scallionfinely chopped
- 4 ounces tofuoptional
- 1 ounce wakameseaweed
Yield:
Instructions
- Instructions STEP 1: Make Dashi
- Clean kombu with damp towel. NEVER wash kombu! Do not remove the white substance on kombu -that’s umami! You just need to make sure there is no dirty particles left. Soak kombu in the measured water for at least 30minutes.
- Next, slowly bring kombu water to a simmer on medium low heat. You want to extract umami from kombu as much as possible. Right before boiling, discard the kombu. If you leave it inside, it gets slimy and leave bitter taste. Therefore we always remove it. Next, add Katsuobushi (dried bonito flakes) and simmer for 60 seconds. Turn off the heat and let katsuobushi steep for 10 minutes. Strain dashi and ready to use!
- STEP 2-2: Add Soft Ingredients After Boiling Soft vegetables like leafy green, mushrooms, deep fried tofu pouch are added AFTER dashi is boiling because they require less cooking time. If your miso soup doesn’t include these ingredients, go to next step.
- STEP 3: Add Miso
- Add small amount of miso at a time (in this recipe, you can start with 2 Tbsp miso for 2 cups dashi). Put miso inside a ladle and slowly add dashi into the ladle to let the miso dissolved completely. If you accidentally added too much miso, dilute the miso soup with dashi (or water if you don't have it around. NEVER BOIL miso soup because it loses flavors and fragrance.
- STEP 4: Add Tofu: Add tofu AFTER miso is completely dissolved because you might break tofu when mixing in miso. If you added chilled tofu from the fridge and miso soup got cooler, reheat miso soup, but stay around in the kitchen to avoid boiling miso soup
- STEP 5: Add Wakame & Green Onions
- Add rehydrated wakame (seaweed). I recommend re-hydrating dried wakame in a separate bowl of water to get rid of excess salt, instead of re-hydrating inside miso soup. Add ingredients that do not require cooking such as chopped green onions, mitsuba, yuzu, and blanched spinach right before serving to keep the fresh fragrance and color. Serve immediately.