• Miso soup is a traditional Japanese dish, made with a stock called dashi, is delicious, nutritious and surprisingly easy to make if you have the authentic ingredients. Miso is a fermented soy bean paste that is used to add a rich flavour to soups. Dashi is stock that is the base of most Japanese soups and can be used instead of water in dishes that require a delicately flavoured stock. This soup is highly regarded in Japan for its health properties.

    Cook’s tips:
    • Kelp is a kind of seaweed used in many types of Asian cooking.
    • Bonito flakes are dried fish flakes and are widely used in Japan. They form the
    basis of the dashi’s flavour.
    • All the products listed here are available at Chinese supermarkets.  

    Miso soup

    Serves: 4
    Cooking Time: 30 mins

    Ingredients

    • Dashi

    • This stock is the base of most Japanese soups and can be used instead of water
    • in dishes that require a delicately flavoured stock.
    • 3 pieces of dried kelp or dried seaweed (see Cook’s Tips)
    • 750ml water
    • 125ml (½ cup) dried bonito flakes (see Cook’s Tips)
    • Miso soup

    • 30ml (2 tbsp) miso paste
    • 50ml tofu, drained and cut into small cubes
    • 4 dried shiitake mushrooms, soaked and sliced
    • 20ml (4 tsp) wakame seaweed
    • 1 spring onion, thinly sliced

    Instructions

    1

    To make the dashi, place the kelp and water in a pot over a high heat and bring to just a boil. Remove the kelp and reserve the water.

    2

    Sprinkle the bonito flakes over the reserved liquid and remove the pot from the heat. Let the water stand for about 3 minutes, then pour through a sieve lined with muslin into a bowl.

    3

    To make the miso soup, add the miso paste and 60ml (¼ cup) of the dashi in a bowl, and stir together until smooth.

    4

    Heat the remaining dashi in a pot over a high heat until hot. Gently stir in the tofu, mushrooms and wakame seaweed. Simmer for a minute and then remove from the heat.

    5

    Immediately stir in the miso mixture and scatter the spring onion over. Serve while still hot.

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