Gingery miso mushroom soup is a light yet satisfying way to warm up most any time of year. And it’s vegan, unlike miso soup served in Japanese restaurants.
That’s right — miso soup served as a first course in Japanese restaurants is often made with fish flakes. Not always, but more often than not, so make sure to ask. Like other Asian-style soups, this one is best eaten as soon as it’s made. Unlike many other soups, it doesn’t benefit from long simmering or being refrigerated overnight.
By embellishing the soup with the optional add-ins listed in the notes section of the recipe box, you can turn the soup into more of a centerpiece. For this round I added a few stalks of baby bok choy and some cilantro.
Complete the meal: This is a fantastic soup to serve as a first course with Asian-style rice or noodle dishes, or served with vegetable sushi rolls or spring rolls.
More about miso
Salty and pungent, miso is a paste made of fermented soybeans. It adds a robust flavor to soups and sauces. Natural foods stores are more likely to carry it than supermarkets.
Note that once miso is added to soup or any other preparation, it shouldn’t be boiled, or else its beneficial enzymes will be destroyed. Miso comes in several varieties, of which these are the basics: pure soybean; soybean with barley; and soybean with rice.
Soybean (hatcho) miso is the most intense; rice varieties, of which there are several, are the mildest; and barley (mugi) miso falls somewhere in the middle. Shiro miso is a variety of mild, yellowish miso sometimes labeled “mellow white miso.”
Which to choose is entirely up to you and your palate. Because they’re aged and fermented, miso and tempeh are considered the two healthiest and most digestible forms in which to enjoy soy foods. See more about miso in our Guide to Miso.
Gingery Miso Mushroom Soup
Gingery miso mushroom soup is a light yet satisfying warm-up most any time of year.
Ingredients
- 6 cups water
- 2 vegetable bouillon cubes
- 2 teaspoons minced fresh or squeeze-bottle ginger, or more to taste
- 8 or so fresh shiitake mushrooms, stemmed and sliced
- 6 ounces cremini (aka baby bella bella) mushrooms, stemmed, cleaned, and sliced
- 3 scallions, white and green parts, sliced
- 12.5-ounce carton extra firm silken tofu, cut into 1/4-inch dice (see Note)
- Optional add-ins (see in Notes)
- 2 to 4 tablespoons miso, any variety, to taste
- Freshly ground pepper to taste
Instructions
- Combine the broth with the ginger and mushrooms in a small soup pot and bring to a slow boil. Lower the heat and simmer for 10 minutes.
- Stir in the scallions, tofu and any optional add-ins you plan to use and heat gently until piping hot.
- Dissolve the miso in enough water to make it smooth and pourable. Use the lesser amount if you’re unfamiliar with miso’s strong, salty flavor — you can always add more.
- Stir the dissolved miso into the soup. If the soup is too crowded, and water (and more miso) as needed and heat through very gently. Don’t boil once the miso is in the soup, as that will destroy its beneficial enzymes.
- Season with pepper and serve at once.
Notes
To add even more texture and flavor to the soup, add any one or more of the ingredients on this list. With more ingredients in the soup, you’ll need to add 1 to 2 cups water. Correct the flavor with more dissolved miso if need be, plus extra pepper and/or ginger.
- Chopped fresh cilantro (1/4 to 1/2 cup — stir it in, or use as a topping)
- 2 cups or so finely shredded romaine lettuce
- Baby bok choy (1 or 2, thinly sliced)
- White turnip or daikon radish, about 1 cup, finely diced or grated
- Chopped spinach or arugula, or leafy Asian greens like tatsoi or mizuna
- 2 to 4 ounces soba, bean thread, or fine Asian rice noodles, cooked separately and cut into shorter lengths
If you like this light Asian-Style soup, you might also enjoy …
Easiest, Cheapest Ramen Noodle Vegetable Soup Ever
See lots more vegan soups & stews.
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