Japanese miso soup is not only healthy, but also very easy to prepare. Especially as breakfast with rice and salad, it offers you an energizing and delicious start to the day. Find out how to prepare miso soup here.
In Japan, breakfast traditionally consists of rice, eggs, fish, vegetables and something that should never be missing: miso soup. The concept of Ichiju Issai plays an important role here. This concept, which dates back to the Kamakura period (1185-1333), states that a meal is complete when it contains rice, miso soup and another side dish. Miso soup became famous in the Middle Ages thanks to the samurai, who often carried it with them as provisions. The samurai also developed a primitive form of instant miso soup when they boiled and dried taro root stalks with miso. Putting them back into hot water resulted in a miso soup.
What ingredients are needed for miso soup?
Of course, the first thing we need for miso soup is miso. Miso can be divided into two categories. White and red miso. White miso is not fermented for as long and therefore has a milder, almost sweet taste. This miso is mostly consumed in the Kansai region (Kytōto, Ōsaka and Kobe).
Red miso, on the other hand, is fermented for a longer time and therefore has a more intense flavor. This miso is consumed mainly around Nagoya. There are also other varieties of miso or mixtures of miso, known as awase miso.
Next, you need a broth, which in Japan is called dashi. You can make it yourself with bonito flakes or, alternatively, with konbu seaweed. Of course, it is even easier with an instant dashi broth.
In Japan, traditionally one to three of the following ingredients are added to the soup: Wakame seaweed, tofu, radish, carrot, cabbage, onion, as well as other ingredients less known in the US, such as enoki or nameko mushrooms and shijimi.
Ingredients
Here is an example of the ingredients for 2-3 servings of miso soup.
Dashi broth (2 cups) Red miso paste (2-3 tablespoons) Chinese cabbage (2-3 leaves) Wakame seaweed (1/2 teaspoon) Tofu (1/4 cup)
How to prepare miso soup?
Preparing miso soup is very simple. If you want to prepare a traditional Japanese breakfast, I recommend putting the rice in the rice cooker first and preparing the miso soup and a side dish while the rice is cooking.
First, prepare the dashi. The easiest way to make it is with instant powder, which is dissolved in boiling water, but you can also make it yourself.
Next, cut the ingredients into bite-sized pieces. For example, I like to use cabbage, tofu and wakame seaweed.
Now add the ingredients to the boiling dashi.
Once the ingredients have softened slightly (depending on the ingredient, this may take one to five minutes), turn the heat to medium.
Once the dashi has stopped boiling, take 1-2 tablespoons of miso paste for about 2 cups of dashi and dissolve them in the broth using a strainer.
The miso soup is now ready. It takes a maximum of 10 minutes in total. Miso soup is best served in a small dark colored bowl.
Enjoy! Itadakimasu!
Why is it better to use a dark colored bowl?
Traditional Japanese aesthetics differ fundamentally from Western aesthetics. While we consider symmetry, bright colors, splendor and eternity as ideals of beauty (the Palace of Versailles, the rose, the Pantheon as some examples), in the Japanese tradition the impermanence of all things, imperfection and shadows are considered aesthetically valuable (e.g., wabi-sabi, the cherry blossom, asymmetrical teahouses). According to the Japanese aesthetics, miso soup looks aesthetically pleasing when served slightly hidden in a dark bowl.
The writer and philosopher Tanizaki Jun'ichirō wrote in his book "In praise of shadows":
One only needs to look at a bowl of miso soup in full light and low light to realize what a difference shadows can make. In the shade, the swirl of miso soup takes on a beautiful, rich depth...only to become unpleasantly murky in bright light.
If you want to learn about Japanese aesthetics, visit our bookclub!
What are the health benefits of miso soup?
Miso is made from fermented soybeans, is rich in various nutrients and has two main properties: it contains all the amino acids needed by humans and is therefore an excellent source of protein. It is also a source of probiotics, the good bacteria of the digestive system.
The main benefit of miso soup is therefore the improvement of the intestinal flora. Therefore, consuming miso can also help to restore intestinal balance after antibiotic treatment, for example.
Some studies suggest that miso may prevent cancers such as stomach, lung, colon and breast cancer. It may also reduce the risk of heart disease or boost the immune system, but more studies are needed.
However, it should be noted that miso also contains a lot of salt, so it is not recommended if you have to follow a low-salt diet. However, according to the latest studies, consuming miso does not increase blood pressure compared to an equivalent intake of salt [1]. If you want to know more about the importance of salt for your health, check out our blog article here.
Simple miso soup for breakfast?
So can miso soup really be so easily incorporated into our daily lives? Our answer is clear: yes.
Miso soup has many health benefits, such as probiotics and a full, umami flavor. You can vary the ingredients and try different miso pastes, so it never gets boring. And with some good planning, a Japanese breakfast doesn't take much more time to prepare than pancakes with coffee, but it's much healthier.
What do you think, will you make miso soup for breakfast next time? Let us know what you think in the comments.
[1] Koji Ito. Review of the health benefits of habitual consumption of miso soup: focus on the effects on sympathetic nerve activity, blood pressure, and heart rate. Enviromental Halth and Preventive Medicine, 2020: 22, 45: 1-9.