Delicious and Easy.

It was miso soup for my lunch today. There's always a jar of thick brown savory Miso paste lurking in the fridge. It can be forgotten about for months on end, but it's quite happy sitting there being ignored. Today was most definitely a Miso day. Peter had gone out and I didn't want any more bread, it was cold and I was hungry. So the Miso called.



Here's what I did:
Put cold water in saucepan.
Add liberal sprinkling of dashi stock.
Add handful of thin soba noodles.
Add sliced garlic and ginger.
Simmer until noodles are almost cooked - they always take longer than I expect.
Meanwhile - chop any veg you fancy, I had a couple of carrots and a few sugar snaps.
Chop some coriander.
Add vegetables to stock.
When veg are as you like them, put a spoon of Miso paste into a cup, bowl or whatever you're going to eat from and add a ladle of the stock.
Mash until mixed and pour back into the saucepan.
Turn off the heat and leave for a minute.
Decant into suitable bowl, find your chopsticks and long Japanese spoon.
Slurp and enjoy!

Miso Soup

I've just made miso soup for my lunch. It took me about seven minutes and was divine. I really don't know why people say that they "don't have time" to cook.

Here's how on this particular occasion.

All quantities are according to what you fancy at the time and how greedy you're feeling. The only really important thing is to make sure your noodles are cooked, raw noodles are not nice and spoil the miso induced glow of satisfaction.

Fill the bowl you want to eat from with water twice and put into saucepan.
Add sprinkling of Dashi stock powder (made from bonito flakes and kombu seaweed)
Add finely chopped garlic and ginger
Add as many thin soba noodles as you fancy
Bring to a healthy boil for about three minutes
Add whatever greens you like - my preference is for broccoli, cut into small and even pieces including the stalk
Meanwhile, put a heaped tablespoon of miso paste (I like the dark brown pasted made with barley or brown rice) into your bowl and add some of the hot stock, mix until combined.
When the greens and soba are as you like them, switch off the heat and add the miso.
Stir and add baby spinach leaves
Crumble some toasted nori seaweed on top
Find your chopsticks, spoon and napkin
Eat and be revived.

Okay, I'll admit that you need a larder stocked with a few specialist ingredients, but once they're in there, you'll never go hungry and the miso lasts forever in the fridge. Don't even think about buying instant miso powder, it's the work of the devil. This soup is great with some finely sliced meat, fish or a few prawns, if you're of a vegan persuasion, omit the dashi stock and add tofu and beansprouts, some sliced red chilli is good and a few coriander leaves if you're really going to town.