How to make easy miso soup

Miso soup is the most well-known traditional Japanese soup. Each family in Japan has their own recipe. Taste of miso soup is all different depending on families. You would be so used to your family's miso soup that when you have other miso soup, you feel very different from your own. My mom showed me how to make miso soup when I was 10 years old.

Miso soup is made from dashi (soup stock) and miso (fermented soybean paste). There are countless ingredients, just like pizza. You may put anything you can think of. One day, my friend told me that her mom put iceberg lettuce in her family miso soup! We were laughing very hard at the mom's surprising creativity. Iceberg lettuce in miso soup is very unusual, but it is OK. All ingredients become tasty in the miso soup :)

1. Make dashi - Put kelp (about 3 x 3 inch) in water and boil the water. When water is boiled, put fish flake (handful) and turn off the stove immediately. Strain the kelp and fish flake and discard them. This is one of the easiest ways to make dashi stock.

2. Put sake (about two tablespoon) in the dashi and boil the dashi. Reduce the heat and dissolve miso in the dashi. This is miso soup. Once miso soup is boiled, the soup would lose deep rich miso flavor. So, never boil miso soup!

3. Put ingredients of your choice. Popular ones are wakema seaweed, tofu, onion, daikon, green onion, and seafoods. Cook slowly with reduced heat until ingredients are cooked in your liking.

This is the exact way my mom showed me. Measuring ingredients is not necessary. Maybe because miso soup was made almost everyday in my family, my mom knew what she is doing. However, even you never make miso soup, you don't need to be precise. When you make vegetable broth, you maybe don't weight vegetables. Miso soup is the same way. There is no wrong miso soup. As you dissolve miso in the dash, taste the soup to make it to your liking.

I hope you try this recipe and miso soup becomes one of your cooking repertoires.

Miso soup is very healthy!!!