Japanese Miso Soup (Home Cooking, You’ll Never Get Enough!)

In our company, there’s a Japanese lady who, in her youth, ran a traditional Japanese cuisine restaurant in Kobe with her brother. After the Hanshin earthquake, she left Kobe alone and moved to Tokyo to make a living. Later, she joined our company. She’s naturally cheerful and skilled in cooking. We often enjoy the delicious dishes she prepares. Among them, a daily highlight is this bowl of miso soup—healthy, nutritious, simple, and delicious. It warms the body, the stomach, and the heart. Sometimes, it’s so heartwarming that it brings tears to the eyes. It truly embodies the taste of a Japanese mom.

Now, like this Japanese lady, I strive to make nutritious and delicious miso soup for my family every day. My family says it’s exceptionally tasty, claiming they could drink it for a lifetime and still not get enough!

Ingredients: (For 2 servings)

• Tender tofu: 1/2 block (about 150g)
• Onion: 1 small
• Enoki mushrooms: a small handful
• Dried wakame seaweed: 3g
• Katsuobushi (dried bonito flakes) or kombu (kelp): 3-5g
• Miso paste: 50g
• Coldwater: 2 cups (600ml)

Instructions:

1. Peel and slice the onion into thin strips.
2. Trim and cut the enoki mushrooms in half.
3. Cut the tofu into small cubes and set aside.
4. Prepare 3-5g of katsuobushi (or kombu), 3g of dried wakame seaweed, and 50g of miso paste.
5. In a pot, pour 600ml of cold water and add 3-5g of katsuobushi (or a small piece of kombu).
6. Bring the water to a boil, then turn off the heat.
7. Let it sit for 2 minutes, then remove the katsuobushi (or kombu).
8. Heat again and add the sliced onion, enoki mushrooms, tofu, and dried wakame seaweed. Cook for 2 minutes.
9. In a ladle, take a small amount of the broth and dissolve the miso paste in it using chopsticks. Pour the dissolved miso paste into the pot and stir well.
10. Simmer over low heat for 2 minutes (or until the onion strips become soft), then turn off the heat.

Tips:

1. In addition to the ingredients in the recipe, you can use other vegetables and ingredients you like or have in the fridge, such as potatoes, radishes, spinach, lettuce, carrots, cabbage, and various mushrooms.
2. If you don’t have miso paste, you can use other soybean paste like Northeastern Chinese soybean paste.
3. The saltiness and taste of miso can vary between different brands. Adjust the amount based on the saltiness of your miso (or soybean paste).
4. If you don’t have katsuobushi, you can use a small piece of kombu (or dried seaweed) as a substitute.