Miso Soup Recipe (わかめ・えのき・あげの味噌汁) Seaweed, Enoki Mushrooms and Deep-fried Tofu

Miso Hungry!

Every one knows about Miso Soup! They serve it in most Japanese restaurants all over the world as soon as you sit down on the table. Thus for most of us, it is our first taste into Japanese cuisine. It is also the most popular soup in Japan. But the Japanese have it for breakfast, lunch and dinner (Kaeru had to get used to drinking soup for breakfast but is now a happy fan of early morning Miso soup). Miso, a fermented bean paste is very healthy. (Do we still need to explain why Japan has the highest life expectancy in the world?) It helps you to recover from a hang-over and to detox your body etc. Could this be a reason how the Japanese can spend all night in an izakaya and still be up and about for work the next day?

Making real dashi from scracth (extracting flavour from Konbu, niboshi or Shiitake mashroom) is time-consuming and expensive. Dashi powder is good enough to make delicious Miso soup (at least for Kaeru) so I am sharing with you our daily breakfast ritual. If you can find these ingredients in your local Japanese grocer, then you can make yourself delicious Miso Soup.

Ingredients (serves 2-3)

1 big spoon of dried Wakame seaweed
50-80g of Enoki mushroom
1 Deep-freid tofu (Age(Ahh-ge) or Sushi age) *usually sold in 1ocm x 1ocm size packs.
1 Small Spoon of Dashi powder
1 to 1 1/2 of Miso *Appropriate amount of miso will depend on type of miso. Taste and adjust to your preference when you add Miso.
1 Big Spoon = 15ml, 1 Small Spoon = 5ml

Enoki Mushrooms and Tofu pre-cut stage. So you will know how it looks like in the grocery!

Cooking

1. Soak dried wakame seaweed in water and then cut into 3-4 cm pieces once it becomes soft.

2. Cut Enoki mushrooms into 3-4 cm sized pieces. Cut deep-fried tofu into 1cm size.

3. Cook Enoki mushrooms in a small pot of 300ml water, and add the deep-fried tofu and dashi powder. Cook for 3 min.

4. Add the wakame seaweed. Once it starts to boil, add the miso and cook in low heat. Turn of the heat right before it starts to boil. In the photo, I was stirring the miso on a laddle to assist it in dissolving. Some people filter the miso as well if it contains solid wheat parts.