A bowl of miso can be a labour of love or a convenient pick-me-up. Making miso soup from scratch is one of those things I'd always meant to do but never quite got around to. There’s a certain ceremony and mystique to it which sounded to me like lots of fun but perhaps not what everyone would do on a Monday night.
Slice the cabbage and mushrooms nice and thin so the hot miso soup can soften them and warm them just by being poured over the top. This gentle method retains more nutrients than bringing everything to a boil and gives a nice variety of textures in the bowl. When it comes to the toppings, I find it much more interesting to sprinkle the lime juice, fish sauce and sesame oil on right at the end. This keeps the flavours in different little areas of the soup so you get lovely surprises as you work your way around the bowl, choosing which veges you feel like in each spoonful.
Ingredients
| 1 cup | Mung bean sprouts |
| ½ cup | Cabbages, white, finely shredded |
| ½ cup | Red cabbages, finely shredded |
| 2 | Mushrooms, thinly sliced |
| 1 small | Tomato, sliced into small sections |
| ½ cup | Fresh coriander, chopped |
| 2 sachets | Miso paste (Main) |
| 1 ½ cups | Water, boiling |
| 1 sprig | Mint leaves, chopped |
| 1 | Spring onion, finely sliced |
| ¼ | Red chillies, finely sliced, to taste |
| ½ | Limes, juice, to taste |
| 1 tsp | Fish sauce, to taste |
| ¼ tsp | Sesame oil |
Directions
- Place the sprouts, cabbage, mushroom and tomato in separate mounds around the outside of a bowl, with the coriander in the middle.
- Add the miso soup paste to the boiling water in a small pot and stir to dissolve, then pour over the veges in the bowl. Top with the mint, spring onion and chilli.
- Just as you start to eat, sprinkle the lime juice, fish sauce and sesame oil (use more or less to taste) over the top of the soup.
