What's For Dinner - Miso Soup, My Way

On a whim, I bought some white miso paste at the grocery store and decided I would give the soup a try. (But of course, with my personal touch.) I searched online for some basics on how to make it and took it from there. The most important thing about making miso soup, I learned, was that you can't let the miso boil. No problem.

I already had tofu and baby bella mushrooms in the fidge. I picked some kale from the garden. (Yes, it survived all winter, through a few dumpings of snow.) I had some chopped chives in the freezer that we harvested from the garden at the end of the season. It really helps when you have good stuff in the fridge at all times. You could be really creative with this recipe, I think. It was so easy!

This is how I made it:

I added the kale and green onion to 6 cups of water and brought almost to a simmer before adding a table spoon of Chicken flavored Better Than Bullion paste. (In stead of the bullion paste, you could just replace 1 or 2 cups of water with chicken or veggie stock.) Once dissolved and barely simmering, I added half a block of cubed tofu and a few thinly sliced mushrooms. I let it cook a few minutes on low heat, almost but not quite simmering. Once the mushrooms seemed barely cooked, I removed the pot from the heat. I ladeled out about 1 cup of the broth into a measuring cup and dissolved the miso paste in it. I used about 3 tablespoons of paste total, dissolving  about 1 cup broth to 1 tablespoon at a time then dumping back into the pot of soup. I tasted it once all mixed and added a few shots of liquid aminos to add some soy sauce flavor. No salt or pepper and it turned out delicious and miso-y! YUM!

I think you can really play and come up with many variations of this recipe. Of course, you could make it more traditional, with kelp and bonito. Or, you can just take what you have in the fridge and play with the amounts of water, stock, miso and veggies you use. Have fun!

Miso is very, very good for you. Check out this link to read about it's health benefits and get another (more traditional) recipe. NaturalNews.com on Miso Soup