Miso Soup

While I was at the Asian Market here in St. Louis shopping for ingredients to go into the Japanese Noodle Salad I made for a potluck, I also picked up a few more things I have been meaning to try.  One of them being miso paste.  

You see, a while back I read Heidi's post about miso soup and was surprised at how simple the process of making it seemed.  I'm not sure what I had expected it to be like, but I guess I thought it would be more time consuming since it usually takes quite some time to make most American soups from scratch.  

But it was just as simple as it seemed - a few minutes prepping the ingredients you'd like to add (and the combinations are pretty endless) and little bit of waiting for the water to boil, but that's about it.  And it tastes just as good as if you had gotten it from your favorite Japanese restaurant.

Also, the miso paste was relatively cheap to purchase (a little more than $5) and contains about 1 1/2 cups, enough for many many more bowls of soothing miso soup.

Miso Soup

Ingredients

3 cups water

3 tablespoons miso paste

1/3 block firm tofu, cut into small cubes

1/4 head napa cabbage, shredded

1 sheet dried seaweed, cut into thin strips (I found that scissors worked best to cut this)

2 stalks scallions, thinly sliced

dash of shichimi togarashi 

Preparation

Heat 3 cups of water in a large pot.  When the water boils add the cabbage and cook for 2- 3 minutes, then turn the heat down so the water is no longer boiling and add the miso paste.  Stir until dissolved. Add the tofu and seaweed and cook for about 2 minutes more.  Remove from heat, sprinkle with scallions and shichimi togarashi and serve.