I wrote about the health benefits of miso here, and this is my go-to miso soup recipe.
It features two of my favourite vegetables, and minimal heating of the miso paste so as to preserve its probiotic power.
And it makes four generous servings, so scale the quantities up or down accordingly.
Ingredients
- 20g dried sliced shiitake mushrooms
- 1.5 litres spring or filtered water
- 1 small pumpkin, of the hokkaido variety if you can get it, peeled and chopped into approx 1cm cubes
- 4 teaspoons miso paste (I love the Clearspring brand – particularly their organic unpasteurised brown rice miso)
- a level teaspoon of wakame flakes (wakame is a sea vegetable)
Directions
1. Put the mushrooms in a pan and cover with the water. Let soak for 15 minutes.
2. Bring water to a gentle boil then add the pumpkin cubes.
3. Turn down heat and simmer for 10-15 minutes, until pumpkin is soft.
4. Stir in the wakame flakes.
5. Put the miso paste in a cup, add a generous ladle of water from the pan, and stir until the miso is mixed in and smooth.
6. Ladle the shiitake-pumpkin soup mixture into bowls and add a quarter of the miso-flavoured stock to each bowl, stirring it through.
