Dinner Tonight: Miso Soup 101 Recipe

I didn’t know much about miso before I picked some up at the grocery store the other day. Since then I’ve learned that it is a Japanese fermented paste that contains grains or soybeans, sea salt, and a special mold called kōji-kin, and is aged anywhere from a few days to a few years. It's used to flavor sauces, as a marinade for meats, and as an integral part of soups. Miso is also praised for its health benefits, including loads of amino acids, vitamins, minerals, and digestive enzymes. The flavor is very subtle yet quietly rich, with a nice fermented tang.

The best part is that you’re not even supposed to cook it much; all the hard work has been done for you in the fermenting, and excessive heat hinders its health benefits. So a miso soup can be as simple as bringing some water to boil, adding vegetables, cooking them until tender, and stirring in miso paste off the heat. With temperatures dropping, a rich, simple soup was just what I needed. I went to the website of South River Miso, who made my Three-Year Barley variety (it turns out they’ve been profiled in the New York Times and adhere to old traditions like blending up their mixtures by stomping on them with human feet), where they offered a recipe called Miso Soup 101.

The result was deeply satisfying, and probably the healthiest thing I’ve ever cooked. The flavor was very, very subtle—almost too much so—but I think it was a good introduction to the taste of miso. I’m eager to try other preparations—this recipe from The Breakaway Cook with ginger and fennel is enticing--but for now, I’m just happy to be in the club.