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- If you've ever wanted to make miso soup at home, I'll show you how to make a simple bowl of it from scratch, including a homemade dashi that takes just minutes to make, yet adds so much flavor. Miso soup is cozy and comforting and perfect when you want something warm and soothing without a long ingredient list. And while it's not always gluten-free when you order it in restaurants, my homemade version is, of course, gluten-free and safe. So that means you can enjoy it for breakfast, or as a light lunch or dinner, or as a simple starter alongside your favorite meal. And I'll have a few pairing suggestions at the end of the video.
All right, let me show you how to make it. To get started, we'll make the homemade dashi, and it's so easy to make from scratch with a piece of kombu and some bonito flakes. Kombu is a type of edible dried seaweed from the kelp family, and you'll need a piece about four to six inches long. Kombu is the foundation of a great miso soup, as it imparts that distinct umami flavor. So add four cups of water to a pot, then add the dried kombu and bring it to a simmer over medium heat. You'll notice the kombu start to rehydrate and expand, but it will take a few minutes for the water to warm up. So, while I'm waiting, I'll multitask and rehydrate the dried wakame seaweed.
This type of seaweed is different from the kombu in a couple of ways. The kombu is thick, and leathery, and meant to infuse flavor, then be discarded; while the wakame is soft and silky after it's rehydrated and meant to be eaten in dishes like this miso soup. You'll need one tablespoon of dried wakame and just place it in a small bowl with warm water, let it expand for about 30 seconds, then drain it and set it aside. My pot with the kombu is now just beginning to simmer, so I'll remove the kombu and discard it, then turn off the heat. It's really important that you don't boil the kombu here, as it can make the broth a bit slimy or bitter. So, make sure to not leave it in.
Now, if you'd like to make a vegan miso soup, you can leave out bonito flakes, but I personally love to add them to enhance the flavor of the broth. They're essentially thin shavings of dried smoked tuna. So they add this really delicious, gentle smokiness to the dashi. You'll need one cup of bonito flakes, so add that to the pot, give them a stir, and let them steep for about three to five minutes.
Once that's done, strain the liquid through a fine mesh sieve and into a bowl for fresh, clean dashi. Now, wasn't that super easy? Return your homemade dashi back to the pot on medium heat, and then grab some soft silken tofu. You'll need about seven ounces, though you can always add more or less, depending on your personal preference. And you'll want to slice it into bite-sized cubes. And I'd say my cubes are about a half-inch or so in size. (gentle upbeat music)
Add the tofu to the dashi and gently simmer it for two to three minutes to warm it through. And while that's warming up, I'll whisk together three to four tablespoons of miso paste with a ladle of warm dashi from the pot. The warm liquid dissolves the miso paste, so it's nice and smooth, and then you can pour it into the pot. After you make this miso soup a few times, you can tweak ratios to your preference, like adding less miso paste for a lighter, more broth forward soup and more miso paste for a deeper, richer flavor. A few other optional ingredients you can add to the soup would be a splash of tamari soy sauce or freshly-grated ginger. While the ginger may not be common in a traditional miso soup,
you guys know that I do love ginger. So if I have some in my kitchen, I'll often add it. All right, we're now to the finishing touches of the soup, and that's to add two green onions that are thinly sliced and the wakame that we rehydrated and drained at the very beginning. And once you store those greens into the pot, your miso soup is done. This is such an incredibly easy and nourishing soup to make at home that's loaded with plant-based protein; fermented miso that's good for gut health; trace minerals like iodine, magnesium, and calcium from the seaweed; and most importantly, a light, yet rich, umami flavor that is grounding and satisfying. So, my social media manager, Emily, recently got back from a trip from Japan
just about a month and a half ago, and she was like, "You need to make a recipe for miso soup." So, that was the impetus for this one. (gentle upbeat music) I love a brothy soup. It is just so light and nourishing and you're getting so many amazing nutrients from the different types of seaweed in this dish and then some of the protein from the tofu as well. So, it'll give you a little bit of substance, but won't weigh you down in any way. It just makes you feel good. And this is so nice to cozy up to on a cold day.
This is also a blank slate for a lot of different flavors. You could add mushroom, you could add spinach, you could add shrimp, you could add more tofu if you want to kind of beef it up a little bit, you can really adapt it and make it your own. And again, the benefit of making this at home is that you know it's 100% gluten-free because gluten can appear in very sneaky ways in a lot of restaurant meals. And in this case, gluten can sneak in both in the miso paste. Barley and wheat is often used in miso paste. And restaurants will often create the dashi from granules, if not making it from scratch. And sometimes, the granules may also have gluten. As you saw, it is so easy to make the dashi from scratch, though,
so I definitely recommend you do that every time. It just adds so much more flavor to the soup. And you can pre-make and meal prep jars of the dashi as well and then freeze them, so that when you wanna make this on the fly, you can just thaw some of those pre-made jars of dashi and have miso soup whenever you would like. And in terms of other recipes of mine that this would pair beautifully with, if you're looking at this for a light starter to a full meal, you could do my baked salmon, you could do my shrimp stir fry, you could do my pan-seared scallops or my honey garlic shrimp. And it's also great with my teriyaki chicken, though.
You could also assemble just really easy shrimp rice bowls, or salmon rice bowls, or chicken rice bowls, and have this as a really light and fresh starter before a heartier meal. I hope you guys enjoy today's video, and if you did, make sure to give it a thumbs up. Let me know what other Japanese recipes I need to add to my website and YouTube channel, and I'll make sure to read all of your recommendations below. And with that, I will see you guys in the next video. (gentle upbeat music)
