Miso Soup Recipe – Japanese Cooking 101 (2024)

41In Miso Soup/ Soup/ Tofu/ Video

Miso Soup (味噌汁) is, as many of you may already know, a soup flavored with Miso Paste and usually includes Tofu and vegetables. It is a very essential dish of Japanese cuisine, and comes with any traditional Japanese meal. Many of you might have had Miso Soup once before even if you didn’t order it at a Japanese restaurant, just because it came with your Chicken Teriyaki.

Miso Soup is soul food for Japanese people, and they can have it anytime of day really. Miso is fermented rice (Koji) and soy bean paste packed with Umami, and it is considered to be one of the healthiest and most nutritious Japanese ingredients. Miso Paste is easily found today at many local markets and online stores in the US. You can make your own, but it takes a long time, usually about a year. Miso Paste is the main flavoring for Miso Soup, so choose it carefully. There are generally 3 kinds of Miso Paste: red, white, and mixed. Red Miso has a strong and distinctive flavor, somewhat similar to soy sauce. Red Miso makes very good soup called Akadashi. White Miso is the sweetest and least salty flavor of Miso. White Miso is used in the famous New Year’s Ozoni soup from Kyoto. Mixed Miso, called Awase, is the most versatile Miso for everyday Japanese cooking. If you are not sure, we recommend to use Awase first. Awase Miso has the typical Miso taste you may know from restaurant Miso Soup, and it goes with almost any vegetables or other ingredients in the soup.

To make a good Miso Soup, you have to have good Dashi broth. Dashi with Katsuo bonito flakes is really good as well as Ichiban Dashi, which uses a combination of Katsuo and Kombu sea kelp. If you’re more adventurous, try Iriko Dashi fish broth using dried little anchovies. It gives a nice and wholesome flavor, not fishy, to the soup. Check out our Dashi recommendations on Amazon.com (#CommissionsEarned)

We kept the ingredients for this Miso Soup simple: Tofu and green onions. This combination never fails with any main dishes or side dishes. You can of course add Wakame seaweed, or add some potato and onion and even meat to your soup to make it more hearty. A lot of Japanese people don’t mind eating just a bowl of rice and Miso Soup without any main or side dishes, especially when the soup is made with a lot of meat and vegetables. Then Miso Soup is not only a soup but it becomes a main entree of a meal.

Miso soup is very easy to make if you have some key ingredients; Miso paste, Katsuo bonito flakes orsea kelp for Dashi, and Tofu. If you don’t have Japanese pantry staples, it may be more challenging to make the soup at a moment’s notice. But once you gather those ingredients, it’s as easy as boiling water. If you like Japanese restaurants’ Miso Soup, you will love this homemade Miso Soup even more.