miso soup;

Simple and elegant, miso soup is an easy appetizer or side dish to your Asian-style meals!  You can use what you have on hand, although the traditional miso soup is made with miso paste, wakame (seaweed), tofu, and scallions!  

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Here’s a recipe that’s barely even a recipe.  Water and miso paste.  Bam, you’re done!  Okay, well if you want the full experience, you might need a few more ingredients.  I like some textural elements to my miso soup because otherwise it is fairly plain.  But then, miso soup is not a particularly complex dish.

To me, miso soup epitomizes the Japanese aesthetic of simple but elevated.  For 4 ingredients, it’s an extremely simple recipe, and yet has a richness and complexity of flavors.  It’s also a wonderful way to get more hydration into your life, and even better because miso paste is fermented and basically stable FOR EVER.  So…buy it once and throw it in the back of your fridge, and then you can add a simple but elevated element to your dinner.

It’s perfect to use up just a bit of tofu leftover from honey sesame tofu, or whatever you’re making.  I prefer silken tofu, personally because I love the melt-in-your-mouth texture that you don’t get from many other ingredients.  If you’re looking for complexity of flavors, you can also add a few other ingredients if you have them on hand: dashi for one, a stock made from fish and kelp, or kombu which is another kind of seaweed.  But honestly I don’t really remember to grab other ingredients, and I still really enjoy this miso soup with my four ingredients!

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