Miso soup from scratch

Miso soup is the perfect comfort food for the cold weather season, and WE have all the ingredients to make it from scratch! Check out the recipe below to find out how you can make it at home, then download the recipe card and shopping list to help you on your next co-op run.

Miso Soup

Original recipe by Namiko Chen of Just One Cookbook, available here: https://www.justonecookbook.com/homemade-miso-soup/ (We highly recommend reading the whole post to get all of the author's important tips and video tutorial.)

INGREDIENTS

For Dashi (makes 4 cups)

4 cups water
⅓ oz kombu (dried kelp)
⅓ oz dried bonito flakes

For One Bowl of Miso Soup (Basic)

1 cup dashi
1 Tbsp miso
green onion/scallion (finely chopped)

INSTRUCTIONS

To Make Dashi:

Clean the kombu with a damp towel, but don't wash away the white substance on the surface. If there aren't any large dirt particles, you can skip this step. Soak the kombu in water for 30 minutes or overnight. Once the kombu is rehydrated, you will have cold brew Kombu Dashi.
Pour cold brew kombu dashi and kombu into a saucepan. Slowly bring to boil on medium-low heat. Remove the kombu right before the stock begins to boil. You will end up with Kombu Dashi. For plant-based miso soup, use this as your soup base and skip the next 2 steps.
For a non-plant-based miso soup, add bonito flakes to kombu dashi and simmer for 30-60 seconds. Turn off the heat and let steep for 10 minutes.
Strain everything through a fine-mesh sieve and reserve the liquid. You will have about 4 cups of Awase Dashi.

To Make Miso Soup:

Add kombu dashi or awase dashi to a saucepan. A good general rule is to use 1 cup dashi for each serving of miso soup you're making.
You can add other ingredients like root vegetables to your miso soup! If you want to use them, add them before the dashi reaches a boil.
After the dashi starts boiling, add in soft vegetables like mushrooms, spinach, and other leafy greens. Keep the soup at a simmer to make sure it stays warm.
Start by adding 1 tbsp miso for each cup of dashi in the pan. Put miso inside a ladle and slowly add dashi into the ladle to dissolve miso completely. If the miso flavor is too strong, add more dashi. If you're adding a lot of extra ingredients, add more miso a little at a time. Boiling the miso too much will reduce the flavor, so make sure to keep the soup at a simmer.
Add tofu after miso is completely dissolved. This will help you avoid breaking up the tofu. If your tofu is cold, it will lower the soup temperature. You will need to slowly bring it back up to a simmer before moving on to the next step.
Re-hydrate the dried wakame in a separate bowl of water. Once it is fully re-hydrated, add it to the soup, along with the scallions. Make sure to add them right before serving, so they keep all their flavor.
Serve immediately, while it's still hot!