Enoki Miso Soup

In my house, I prepare miso soup at least once a week. Half of the time, I prepare my super basic miso soup, and half of the time, I prepare something a bit extra, like this enoki miso soup. If you have easy access to Asian grocery stores that stock pretty complete Japanese ingredients, I highly recommend stocking your fridge at all times with some miso paste and dashi stock granules. With these two ingredients, you can quickly prepare lovely soup with just a handful of ingredients.

What goes into enoki miso soup?

For this miso soup, you will need:

• a packet of enoki mushroom (7 oz/200 gram)
• a packet of soft tofu (14 oz/400 gram)
• 2 tablespoon dried wakame, and
• 4 tablespoon miso paste
• 1 liter (4 cup) dashi stock, preferably homemade dashi, but store-bought dashi stock granules make a decent enough miso soup
• 2 scallions, thinly sliced

There is actually quite a lot of variety of miso paste, but in the United States, the main three common types are:

• shiro miso (white miso paste)
• aka miso (red miso paste), and
• awase miso (white and red miso paste combo)

If you are lucky enough to see other varieties, feel free to give them a try. For this recipe, I stick to the most common shiro miso.

How to preparing enoki miso soup

Miso soup is one of the simplest soup to make, which is also true for this version. Here is the step-by-step:

1. Chop off and discard 1 inch of the enoki root. Cut the enoki bunch into two halves lengthwise. Wash and drain.
2. Soak wakame in cold water to rehydrate.
3. Bring dashi stock to a boil in a soup pot, then add enoki and simmer for 2 minutes.
4. Add soaked wakame and tofu cubes into the pot. Once the soup boils again, turn off the heat.
5. Place miso paste in a strainer, then lower the strainer to the hot soup. Use a spoon or a pair of chopsticks to stir the miso paste until all the paste haste dissolved into the soup.
   Note: Miso paste is full of health benefits, but the highly valued nutrients in miso paste will not survive high heat from cooking. So, always add miso paste to hot liquid and slowly whisk once the heat has been turned off.
6. Serve the soup hot with thinly sliced scallions as garnish.