I love Soup

Especially Miso Soup

Miso Soup

Learn how to make miso soup at home! Brimming with savory, umami flavor,

this easy recipe is a delicious side dish, starter, or meal on its own.

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Raise your hand if you love miso soup! Same. The cloudy broth is warming, nourishing, and deeply flavorful. On a cold, gray winter day, there’s nothing I crave more. It clears my head and warms me up from the inside out.

For years, I only ate miso soup at Japanese restaurants. But after Jack and I traveled to Japan for the first time, we got curious about Japanese cooking at home. We cooked soba noodles, we made matcha, and we decided to try a miso soup recipe. I don’t know what I was expecting, but I certainly didn’t imagine the process to be so simple. We had steaming bowls of miso soup on the table in under 20 minutes!

Now, this miso soup recipe is a staple in our house. It has a rich, savory, umami flavor, and it’s brimming with chewy seaweed, crisp scallions, and soft tofu. Serve it as a starter or a side dish with your favorite Japanese food, or enjoy it as a meal on its own.

Miso Soup Recipe Ingredients

The first step in any miso soup recipe is making dashi. Unlike meat or vegetable soup stocks, this Japanese broth takes minutes to make. In traditional miso soup, the dashi is made with a mix of dried bonito flakes and dried kombu kelp. To keep my recipe vegetarian, I skip the bonito flakes. On its own, the kombu adds plenty of umami flavor to the base of this soup.

Here’s what else you’ll need to make this recipe:

• Miso paste
- You’ll find this fermented soybean paste in the refrigerated section of Asian markets and most grocery stores. For this recipe, look for white miso paste. Because it’s fermented for less time than darker types of miso, such as red miso, it has a milder, sweeter flavor that’s delicious in this simple soup.
• Silken tofu
  – I like to use extra-firm tofu when I’m baking tofu, but in this miso soup recipe, silken tofu is a must. With its super-smooth texture, it practically melts into the savory soup.
• Wakame
  – Find this dried seaweed in an Asian market, the Asian section of your grocery store, or online. 3 tablespoons might not seem like much for a whole pot of soup, but don’t be deceived. Soak the dried wakame in a little warm water, and it’ll expand like crazy!
• Scallions
  – They add a nice crunch and sweet, oniony flavor to the soup.
• Tamari
  – For serving! Add a drop at a time until your soup has a well-balanced savory flavor.

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