Japanese Breakfast Food

Miso Soup

Miso Soup, which is the hallmark of a traditional Japanese breakfast, is one of my favorite soups. Though miso soup, in its most simple form is essentially warmed broth with miso paste dissolved into it, I like my miso soup prepared with lots of vegetables in it.

One of the secrets of making delicious miso soup is a starting with a good broth.  The Japanese prepare a special broth for miso soup called dashi.

Dashi is usually made with riboshi (dried baby sardines) or katsuobushi (dried bonito flakes). Since I did not have those ingredients on hand this morning I decided to make a delicious vegetarian version of dashi using only dried shiitake mushroom, kombu, and sliced onion along with a splash of tamari and mirin for flavor.

Once the dashi broth was prepared I strained off the vegetables and discarded all of them except for the shiitake mushrooms.  I sliced up the shiitake mushrooms and reserved them.  I chopped up carrots, bok choy and wakame.  I put the shiitake mushrooms, carrots, bok choy and wakame together in the pot and simmered them until they were tender.  Then I ladled up a bowlful of the soup and dissolved the miso paste right into the bowl.  I like to add the miso paste to each individual bowl of soup.  The reason I do this is so that the live enzymes and beneficial bacteria that are present in the miso paste will be preserved and not cooked away.

I served my miso soup in a stoneware bowl.  There is something about the tactile quality of stoneware, as I cup my hands around its warm surface, that I find particularly comforting.  I use chopsticks to pick up the bits of vegetable.  Chopsticks are a great way to slow down the eating process and train ourselves to savor the moment.

For breakfast this morning, and it was a cool foggy morning I might add, I enjoyed miso soup with chunks of chicken served on a bed of sauteed vegetables (handy left-overs from last night), and an assortment of homemade artisanal pickles.

Miso Soup