Red Miso Soup (Akadashi)
Ingredients
- 500 ml dashi stock make it vegetarian/vegan by using plant-based dashi
- ½ tbsp dried wakame seaweed
- 15 g fried tofu pouch (aburaage) sliced
- 75 g firm tofu or silken tofu, cubed
- 2 tbsp red miso paste I recommend Hatcho Miso if you can get it
- 1 dash Japanese soy sauce (koikuchi shoyu)
- finely chopped green onions optional garnish
Instructions
- Pour 500 ml dashi stock into a saucepan and bring to a boil over a medium heat.
- Add ½ tbsp dried wakame seaweed and 15 g fried tofu pouch (aburaage). The temperature will drop slightly, so wait for it to bubble again, then add 75 g firm tofu Lower to a simmer, then turn off the heat when the tofu is warmed through.
- Place 2 tbsp red miso paste onto a mesh spoon, and submerge it into the dashi. Whisk until it breaks up into the soup. (See note) Add 1 dash Japanese soy sauce (koikuchi shoyu) and taste test. If the flavor feels a bit sharp, heat for another minute or until it starts to steam (do not boil).
- Divide into serving bowls and sprinkle with finely chopped green onions. Enjoy!
Notes
Buy soybean-based red miso, not rice-based: This is the one decision that makes or breaks the bowl. A lot of dark red miso is rice miso tinted dark. Read the label and confirm soybeans are the base.
Warm the miso, stop before the boil: Soybean miso gains depth from gentle heat, but a hard boil scatters the top aroma and the soup smells dull. Watch for the surface to shimmer, then kill the heat.
Pick a real dashi, skip the granulated instant if you can: A normal kombu and katsuobushi dashi or a tea-bag-style pack is plenty. The granulated instant kind tastes flat and off against this miso.
Keep the dried wakame small: Wakame swells a lot the moment it hits the hot broth, so measure a small pinch, not a handful. Too much turns the soup into a bowl of seaweed instead of a light savory broth.
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