Me so hungry for miso!

Now that I’ve had my little rant, it’s time to say something useful. I am going to talk about miso.

Japanese miso is a delightfully salty paste made by fermenting rice, barley and/or soybeans with salt and the fungus, kojikin,

I’ve had a lot of miso these past few days because that’s what you do when you have a cough: you eat soup. I’ve been drinking it as a tea by dissolving a tablespoon of barley miso paste into a mug of hot water. I prefer white miso, but the barley stuff was cheaper.

Whoa, what a second, hold the chopsticks!

White miso? Barley miso? What am I going on about?

Yes: there are different types of miso. This is often confusing to the miso noob who often achieves unexpected outcomes when they try to recreate the miso soup they had at their favorite Japanese restaurant.

Let’s get one thing straight:

The “typical” miso soup you eat at most Japanese restaurants are made with SWEET WHITE MISO.

However, there are many varieties of miso, the four most common being

• Red Miso (Akamiso) is made from white rice, barley or soybeans and contains the highest levels of protein of all types of miso
• White Miso (Shiromiso) is made with lots of white rice and fewer soybeans, so it has the highest carbohydrate content of all miso varieties and therefore tastes the sweetest
• Barley Miso (Nukamiso), shown above, is (surprise) made from barley and is very dark in color and sharply sweet in flavor
• Soybean miso (Hatchomiso) is made only from soybean and is known for its rich astringency

Okay, so how you do you make the miso soup you get in restaurants? Let’s discuss.

Heads up to any veggies in the audience: miso soup is traditionally made with dashi, a stock flavored with dried fish flakes. The good news is that miso soup is still damn good without it. So if you can’t find or don’t eat dashi, here is a dashi-free miso soup recipe for you to try:

Basic Miso Soup

• 4 cups water
• 1/3 cup sweet white miso (or more to taste)
• 1 tbsp dried wakame flakes (seaweed)
• 1/2 block firm tofu cut into 1/2-inch cubes
• 3 green onions, sliced

Combine everything but the green onions in a pot and bring to a gentle boil. Turn the heat down to a simmer and cook until the miso is dissolved and the tofu is hot. By this time the wakame should be sufficiently hydrated. Pour into bowls and garnish with sliced green onions.

Variations: add carrots, mushrooms, peas, noodles, whatever you fancy in your cuppa miso!

Miso varieties [Soya.be]