Miso soup is my ‘go to’ quick soup when I want a light, clean tasting soup with a flavourful broth. Although I COULD make a dashi stock with a sheet of kombu (dried salted seaweed) and katsuobushi (thinly shaved bonito flakes), I use hon-dashi powder for the convenience. MSG is a component so if that’s an issue, you may want to avoid it. I usually have white and red miso paste in my freezer and the kind I use depends on what I’m in the mood for. Or what’s left over in this case.
Some medium firm tofu and a beaten egg drizzled into the simmering broth gives my miso soup substance. As does some soaked and thinly sliced wakame (edible seaweed also called ‘sea mustard’).
For a fresh element, I snipped in a few stalks of mitsuba (wild Japanese parsley) from a pot that’s been overwintering surprisingly well on the front windowsill. With the sunlight streaming in, my little plant is producing fresh whorls of new leaves regularly, in spite of the less than proper care that it’s been getting. Watering it regularly is about all I do. Regular parsley, green onion, or even fresh spinach are other options.
Instead of salt, I added a few dashes (close to a teaspoon to 5 cups of water, to be honest) of Chinese soy sauce and a few shakes of ground pepper.
It takes longer to write this than it does to bring the water to a boil and make this soup. A bigger challenge is taking a good picture of miso soup. If you stir it up, it looks cloudy, while if you let all your ingredients settle, it just looks like water with a bunch of stuff on the bottom.
I just wish I had a nice Japanese/Chinese spoon for the aesthetics of the picture but I’m too cheap to spend $2-3 on a single spoon. Oh well, my big sushi bowl will have to do.
Mitsuba – Trim your stalks close to the soil and use the entire stalk in your soup. Even the roots are edible especially if grown hydroponically.
Shiso – It’s hard to tell which was the plant which self seeded as several of its late siblings have really shot up after I scattered the seeds from the dried out twig over the soil and watered it. I really need to thin and separate these plants but I don’t want or need that many shiso plants and I hate to throw them away after their surprising survival.
Close-up of the shiso leaves – Unfortunately, my single red shiso plant didn’t flower so I lost it.
Lavender and basil (Mammoth Italian and Thai) – The three lavender seedlings in the pot on the left seem pretty scraggly but they’re the only successes from a planting of about a dozen seeds. I planted the four outer egg carton cups with the Italian basil but only one had any growth, two measly plants. The two center cups have a total of six Thai basil seedlings ready for transplanting.
Mammoth Italian basil and some oregano that overwintered pretty well on the window sill.
Cooking is Fun ... Really!! 
That looks delicious 🙂
Thank you.
Soup has been something I’ve been wanting lately! And we just happen to have tofu in the fridge. I’m not sure if we have miso paste though. I will have to look 🙂 Your soup looks yummy even without the soup spoon.
A clear Japanese soup (suimono) like this mushroom one might be something you’d like. Any kind of mushroom can be used and something like fresh green onions or kale or other green from your garden in place of the mitsuba. Nami’s blog is where I’ve learned a lot about Japanese cooking especially dishes made at home for the family.
http://www.justonecookbook.com/matsutake-clear-soup/
Congratulations for your shiso and mitsuba! My mitsuba plants are also quite resistant. I have never thought of adding mitsuba to a miso soup. Sounds like a great idea!
I get my best ideas from other people’s blogs.