Okay, I'm really loving my soups right now. It's been cold in our mountains and soup is just the thing to warm my bones! This miso soup is light yet so nourishing. It is believed that miso soup detoxifies the body, prevents certain cancers, increases mental focus and improves digestive and heart health.
Miso is a paste with a salty taste and buttery texture that can be made from fermented rice, barley or wheat, but it is most commonly made from fermented soybeans. Miso origins have been traced back to China as far back at the 4th century B.C. According to Japanese mythology, “Miso is a gift to mankind from the gods to assure health, longevity and happiness.”
Miso is usually quite high in sodium so I don't use a whole lot in this recipe, and I find the mellow white miso is less salty.
Ingredients:
- 1 box mushrooms, sliced
- 1 large stalk bok choy, chopped (leaves included)
- 3 green onion stalks
- 1 cup chopped kale
- 1 tsp dried wakame seaweed (see notes)
- 5 cups water
- 1 TBS veggie soup base
- 2 TBS mellow white miso
- 1 TBS liquid amino acids or tamari
- Chop the green onions, reserving some for garnish.
- Slice the mushrooms if they aren't already sliced from the store.
- Add all ingredients (EXCEPT the miso and one cup of the water) into a soup pot.
- Simmer for about 10 minutes or until the kale is tender.
- Take the soup off the burner and add the reserved cup of water. This is so that the soup will cool off a little. Cooking the miso will almost certainly kill the active enzymes it contains that add taste and benefits to your health.
- Next, put the 2 TBS of miso in a small cup. Add a little of the soup broth and stir with a fork to make a paste. Add this to the soup.
- Garnish with the reserved onions.
Helyn's Notes: I used to purchase wakame in the health food store. It came in long strips and was hard to work with. Plus it needed to be soaked in order to soften. The link for the seaweed above is for a wakame that is already cut and needs no soaking. The pieces are really small and it's deceiving in that you can really add too much and wind up with a huge amount of seaweed! So a teaspoon is plenty for a pot of soup this size... it GROWS!
Makes 4 good-sized bowls. Enjoy!
Healthy Trails,
Helyn
