Advice on making miso soup from scratch?

Cafe Society
1

I had this crazy idea that I would try to make miso soup from scratch. Here’s what I have on hand:

white miso
bag of dried black fungus mushrooms
bag of wakame
some nori
pound of firm tofu
bunch of scallions
fresh ginger
various types of rice noodles in different widths
soy sauce
sesame oil

Can I pull it off? I’d rather not have to go to the store again if I can help it this week. Anyone have any tips for making it correctly? I’m looking at recipes online and they vary widely in their ingredients and procedures, so any firsthand knowledge would be appreciated.

2

If you can find it dried bonito powder makes the broth taste more authentic.

3

I’m making the soup for a vegan friend, and I’m vegetarian, so that’s out, but I should have mentioned that in my OP. I appreciate the suggestion, though.

4

From what I’ve read, the main broth is kombu (a particular sort of seaweed) and katsuobushi (bonito flakes), with some miso stirred in after the broth is made. Then the tofu,wakame and other stuff go in.

5

I thought the main ingredient was the miso paste, and everything else was optional. I got wakame, but not kombu. Do I need to get it or can I do it without?

6

I would look for and use dried shiitake mushrooms, also. Shaved burdock root and carrots too for additional body.

A typical miso soup as made by my mother is basically a broth/soup that has miso added. The meat can be left off, as is done when served for some religious services.

7

So you would steep the mushrooms in the water to make the broth? Do you then discard the mushrooms? What about the kombu?

8

Obviously, you can’t make miso soup without miso. However, the dashi is absolutely essential; miso soup = dashi + miso + stuff.

Dashi is usually referred to as a broth, but infusion would be a better term. The most standard form of dashi is made from kombu seaweed and bonito flakes but many variations exist. You can make a vegan dashi, but meat, on the other hand, is never used for dashi.

Here are a couple of dashi recipes:

Bonito dashi
2 cups water
A 10cm strip of dried kombu seaweed.
A fistful of bonito flakes (about 20g)

Rub lightly the seaweed with a moist cloth to remove any dirt or extra sea salt. Place the kombu in the water, which should be cool or at room temperature. Bring to a boil, but remove the kombu just before the water actually boils. When the water is boiling scoop up any foam that might form. Remove from heat. Add bonito and let infuse until the flakes sink to the bottom. I usually infuse for about 3 minutes. Strain and you’re done.

Vegan dashi
2 cups of water
A 10cm strip of dried kombu seaweed.
Dried shiitake mushrooms (about 20g)

Proceed as with the bonito dashi but stop when you’ve removed the kombu. Let the dashi cool back to room temperature. Clean the mushrooms of any dirt and put in the water. Wait a few hours until the mushrooms are soft. Remove the mushrooms and you’re done. You can add the mushrooms back to your soup later but make sure you cut off the stems.

The last recipe takes a bit of time. You might ditch the kombu, as the shiitake will provide the necessary umami. You can also make dashi from other types of dry fish but I think they might be hard to come by outside of japan. I also once did the shiitake dashi and added some dry morrells. Very awesome.

Once you have your dashi, you can then add things to your soup. I added a list at the end of the post, but since people have miso soup almost everyday here, you’re going to find a huge range of variation. Add in the miso at the very end and whatever you do, do not boil it.

Things that might go in a miso soup:
Tofu (both “silk” and “cotton”, but not the hard crap they sell in North American health food stores)
Various kinds of mushrooms, but, more authentically, shiitake or enoki.
Japanese radish (daikon)
Asparagus
Potatoes
Okra
Squash/Pumpkin
Malukhiyah
Spinach
Cabbage
Chinese cabbage
Onions
Bamboo shoots
Burdock
Eggplant
Lotus root
Etc…

9

I wouldn’t discard anything except for the bonito or ebi, if you use these.

10

I just wanted to chime in and say that when I make dashi using kombu, I can’t bear to throw out that wonderful piece of kelp. I take a pair of scissors and cut it into thin strips (the short way so they’re more like sticks than noodles), then throw some shoyu (soy sauce), sesame oil, and roasted sesame seeds and have a tasty little side dish. Eat it cold. You can also put some brown sugar in there if you want.

11

Hippies eat veggie miso soup all the time. A mixture of red and white miso makes for a stronger broth. I like the idea of using the shiitake water for the soup. The world is yours when it comes to miso soup. Sweet potatoes, yum!