Miso Soup With Vegetables

I love making miso soup because it can be done in a jiffy. Apart from the commonly served tofu and seaweed version, a few additions of what you have in your fridge can make it a lot more tasty and wholesome.

There are so many ingredients you can add to miso soup - salmon, clam meat, little cubes of chicken thigh marinated with sake and a little salt, carrots, daikon (radish), mushrooms, tofu just to name a few. 2 weeks ago, I learnt a very interesting combination of pork belly, carrots, burdock root, yam and konjac at a Japanese cooking class. It was certainly OIISHII!

This recipe is very versatile, you can try different combinations of meat and vegetables. Or go meatless, like this! :)

Miso Soup with Vegetables (serves 4)

Ingredients:

1 litre of water
1 packet of dashi stock powder (see below image for reference)
1-2 tablespoons of white miso paste
1 small potato (washed, peeled, cut into quarters and then slice thinly)
1 small carrot (washed, peeled, cut into half lengthwise and then slice thinly)
A handful of brown beech mushrooms (quick rinse and cut each mushroom into 4-5 pieces)
Some dried seaweed (optional, for topping)

Notes: I used Brastagi potato as a waxy potato holds its shape better and won't fall apart like Russet potato

Method:

1. Boil 1 litre of water in a medium pot
2. While waiting for water to boil, prepare potato, carrot and beech mushrooms as indicated above)
3. When water is boiling, put all vegetables into the hot water and let it simmer at medium heat for 5-10min. Add dashi powder and mix well, simmer another 5 min
4. Turn off heat. Add white miso paste into the soup and stir till miso has dissolved into the dashi stock. Do a taste test, add more miso if you like it more salty.
5. Ladle into soup bowls, top with some dried seaweed (optional) and serve hot

Enjoy!

Pics for reference:

Dashi Powder - 10g packets

Dashi soup simmering with cut vegetables