Basic, filling, awesome and, well, awesome, everyone needs a basic recipe for miso soup. This vegan version swaps the traditional bonito dashi for a shiitake broth alternative, with the added bonus of soft tofu clumps stirred in (think extra soft eggy flavoured spaetzel in soup). If you'd rather, omit the tofu cream and simply add a few cubes of bean curd. Feel free to throw some big, thick udon noodles in there too!
Tofu Miso Soup with Mushroom Dashi
Makes two small bowls or one large bowl
- Directions/Method
- To make the dashi place the mushroom, kombu and water into a small saucepan. Simmer over low heat for 20 minutes or so. If you're not super keen on the kombu flavour, you can minimise its time in the broth (I generally add it for just 5-10 minutes).
- Meanwhile whisk the silken tofu, flour, black salt, and turmeric in a small bowl, until smooth.
- Remove the mushroom and kombu from the water and set the mushroom aside to cool. Add the miso pastes and sesame oil to the pot, ensuring it's well mixed. Try not to over heat the mixture, ensuring it stays below a boil at all times (or you risk killing some of what's good in miso).
- Stir the soup and then slowly pour the tofu mixture into the pot. Don't worry if it doesn't come out in a smooth stream; lumps are okay. Cut the stem off of the mushroom, which should now be dry, and slice or dice the head before chucking it back into the soup as well.
- Serve warm with spring onion (scallion) to garnish.
donkeylover says
why do i never have silken tofu in the house? so dumb. off the the store to buy some for dinner tomorrow.
Mike Atha says
I like how you thicken the soup with the tofu. Have you tried anything other than wheat flour? Maybe soy or chickpea? My family now needs to be gluten free.
Kip says
I haven't, but I would opt for a non bean flour (e.g. rice flour). The problem with soy and chickpea flowers is if they're not cooked well enough they are bitter and have a very strong taste. It would probably be fine but I'm extremely fussy about how bean flours are used (I've lost count of the times I've had undercooked gram flour dishes in restaurants, ha)
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