Japanese · Soup

Miso Soup Recipe

This miso soup recipe is the everyday soup served with Japanese meals: a light dashi, miso stirred in off the boil, cubes of silky tofu, wakame seaweed and spring onions.

It takes about 10 minutes once the dashi is ready, and it is low in calories, so a bowl fits alongside almost any meal.

Serves

4

Prep

5 min

Cook

10 min

Per serving

110 kcal

Ingredients

  • 1 litre dashi (kombu and bonito, or instant dashi) (not counted)
  • 3–4 tbsp miso paste
  • 200 g tofu, cubed
  • 2 tbsp dried wakame (about 40 g once soaked)
  • 2 spring onions, finely sliced

Method

  1. 1Soak the dried wakame in water for 5 minutes, then drain.
  2. 2Bring the dashi to a gentle simmer and add the tofu for 2 minutes.
  3. 3Turn off the heat. Put the miso in a ladle or small sieve, lower it into the dashi and whisk it in until dissolved.
  4. 4Add the wakame, then serve topped with spring onions. Don't let the soup boil again once the miso is in.

Miso soup recipe: nutrition per serving

Calories

110 kcal

Protein

11 g · 37%

Carbs

6 g · 22%

Fat

5 g · 41%

One of 4 servings. Estimated from the ingredient weights above and per-100 g values in USDA FoodData Central (SR Legacy); brands and cooking change the real numbers. Not counted, because USDA SR Legacy has no record for them: litre dashi (kombu and bonito, or instant dashi).

Tips

  • Add other quick-cooking extras with the tofu: sliced mushrooms, spinach, or thin rounds of daikon simmered for a few minutes first.
  • Boiling miso dulls its aroma, so always add it last, off the heat.
  • White (shiro) miso is mild and sweet; red (aka) miso is saltier and stronger. Blend them if you like.

Swaps and variations

  • Vegan: make kombu and shiitake dashi instead of bonito dashi.
  • Soy-free versions exist using chickpea miso.

Storage

Eat it fresh. Keep the dashi in the fridge for 3 days and add miso to each portion as you heat it.

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Frequently Asked Questions

USDA SR Legacy has no record for dashi. A bonito or kombu dashi adds very few calories, so leaving it out barely changes the numbers, and we'd rather show that than guess.

Sources: USDA FoodData Central records used