How to make miso soup from miso paste – Easy Miso Soup (味噌汁）

Ah, miso soup.

Often disregarded as that free bowl of soup you get at Japanese restaurants, miso soup (味噌汁）is actually a classic, traditional Japanese dish.

It is a staple of the Japanese diet, and can be eaten for breakfast, lunch, or dinner!

This delicious, under appreciated soup is also healthy, and simple to make. It only requires TWO essential ingredients, plus whatever else you decide to throw in. In this recipe, we look at the proper way of how to make miso soup from miso paste. Read on for a step by step guide!

How to make miso soup from miso paste

Tofu and Wakame Japanese Miso Soup Recipe (豆腐とわかめみそ汁)

There are a thousand and one miso soup variations, but this is a classic — tofu and wakame (豆腐とわかめみそ汁). Wakame is a type of seaweed often used in Japanese cooking.

Of course, you do not need to add tofu or wakame if you don’t want to.

Servings: 4 bowls of soup

Ingredients

Required Ingredients (for basic miso soup):

• Miso paste (any type you want; white miso is most common): 3 or 4 tablespoons (45-60mL)
• Dashi (any type you want): 800mL – 1L (you can also just use water)

For tofu and wakame version:

• Tofu – 1 block
• wakame (dried seaweed) – a couple tablespoons

Optional Ingredients:

• Green onion
• Any other vegetables of your choice (cabbage, carrots, daikon, mushrooms,etc.)

Equipment

Required:

• a pot
• chopsticks
• a spoon
• a bowl

Recommended:

• Large soup ladle (makes things a lot easier)
• Knife and cutting board (for cutting tofu, and other vegetables)

Luxury cookware to have:

• small meshed miso strainer

Quick version

Bring dashi to boil in pot. Turn off heat. Mix in miso paste. Add in wakame and tofu. Heat up again. Turn off heat before soup begins to boil. Top with green onions. Eat!

Detailed version

There’s not much more to it, but let’s look at each step in a bit more detail.

Step 1: Prep ingredients (optional)

If you are adding tofu, vegetables, or other ingredients, it’s time to use some of those knife skills and cutting techniques!

If you are adding any other vegetables, you should cut them up now also.

Notes: The traditional way to cut tofu for miso soup is by holding it in your hand to cut, then dropping it directly in the pot. Why? I’m not really sure. Maybe so that no small bits are wasted. Or, so that you do not need to wash the cutting board? Another option is to just rip the tofu into pieces with your hands for a more rustic feeling 🙂

Step 2: Dashi

Put your dashi in a pot and turn heat on high.

If you don’t have any dashi, you will need to make some on your own. The easiest way is to use dashi packs, or instant dashi powder. If you are using dashi powder, follow the instructions on the package for how much you should add. Usually it’s about 10g to 4-5 cups of water (800ml – 1L).

If you do not have any dashi, you can also just use plain water. It just won’t taste as good in the end.

Step 3: Add vegetables (optional)

If you are adding other vegetables, put them into the pot of dashi now.

For harder root vegetables that take longer to cook (e.g. carrots, daikon, potatoes, etc.), put them in while the dashi is still cold, so that they will cook through fully. After the dashi starts boiling, add in softer vegetables like mushrooms, lettuce, etc.

Step 4: Stir in the miso

Once the vegetables are all cooked through, turn off the heat. If you are on an electric stove, you may need to take the pot completely off the stove so it stops bubbling.

Put the miso paste in a ladle, let some of the dashi stock seep into the ladle, then mix the miso with your chopsticks until it is fully dissolved into the liquid. Once fully dissolved, dump the mixture back into the pot and stir together.

If you don’t have a ladle, put the miso into a small bowl, then pour some of the dashi into the bowl, and mix until the miso is dissolved. Then, dump the mixture back into the pot and stir everything together.

Or, you could also use a small colander or strainer specifically designed for mixing in miso.

IMPORTANT! The most important thing to remember is to not add the miso while the dashi is still boiling/bubbling. Heating miso too strongly will damage its flavor and aroma; as well as remove some of its natural nutrients.

Step 5: Add tofu and wakame (optional)

Add in the tofu and wakame you prepared from Step 1, and turn the stove back on to medium-high to reheat the soup.

When tiny bubbles appear on the edge of the soup, turn off the heat. As in Step 4, it is important not to let the soup fully boil in order to preserve the delicate taste of the miso.

Note: Tofu and wakame could also technically be added in before adding miso (but after other vegetables are cooked through). Both of these ingredients only need to be warmed, so they do not need to be boiled hard. Tofu is also very delicate, so if boiled too hard it will break apart.

Step 6: Top with green onion, and enjoy 🙂

Put your miso soup in a bowl, sprinkle on some finely sliced green onion if you want, and you’re done! Enjoy 🙂

Notes and other interesting stuff

Miso to dashi ratio

• The ratio of miso to dashi depends on how salty tasting you want your soup. Typically, it is approximately a tablespoon (15-18mL) of miso for every cup (150mL – 200mL) of dashi. Different miso/dashi will have different levels of saltiness, so you will need to adjust to suit your own taste.
• Instant dashi powders also already have some salt, so you will need to take that into consideration

Vegan / Vegetarian miso soup

• If you want to make your miso soup vegan or vegetarian, all you need to do is make sure your dashi is not made with any fish or meat. A basic konbu or shittake dashi would work well.

No dashi?

• If you are using meats or seafood, you may not need dashi, as the ingredients will create its own broth.
• Some miso also comes with dashi in it already. The downside here is you can’t control the ratio.
• If you’re really lacking ingredients, you could also just use plain water. Try adding a splash of soy sauce in the end to give your soup some umami flavour.

No knife tofu

• Try ripping the tofu into pieces by hand. It will give your miso soup a more “rustic” feeling.

Miso soup health benefits

• Miso is very healthy. It is full of vitamins, nutrients, as well as probiotics that help your digestion. There have been studies that show miso may reduce cancer, lower cholesterol, and even strengthen your immune system! (Source)

Interesting miso fact:

• Over 80% of Japan’s annual production of miso is used in miso soup, and 75% of all Japanese people consume miso soup at least once per day! (via Wikipedia)

Infinite variations:

• There are infinite variations of miso soup you can make based on ingredients added, types of miso used, or types of dashi used. You can even try mixing two different types of miso together. You can also different meats, seafood, or other spices to your liking. The only limit is your imagination 🙂

Conclusion

Awesome! Now, you know how to make miso soup from miso paste.

Miso soup is crazy simple; it really is only two ingredients (miso paste and dashi) — plus whatever else you may decide to add. Try to get creative with the variations, or just throw in whatever vegetables you have left in your fridge.

To get the most miso flavour, remember not to boil the soup too hard while (or after) adding miso paste. This includes when reheating!

Pair your miso soup with a bowl of rice topped with onsen tamago, and you have made your first Japanese meal! A very simple meal, but a meal nonetheless.

What do you think of miso soup? Let me know in the comments 🙂

Sources
Oryouri Matome
MASA’s Cooking
Marukome
Ajinomoto
Wikipedia