Easy Miso Soup

5 from 15 votes

A super simple, hearty miso soup that can be made from pantry ingredients. In our experience, it also makes a great cold remedy!

Prep Time10

Cook Time10

Total Time20

Course: Soup

Cuisine: Japanese

Servings:

Calories: 131kcal

Author: Kaitlin

Ingredients

8 cups water
4 tablespoons white miso paste
1 tablespoon chicken bouillon paste (we use Better Than Bouillon—if you use something else, be mindful of salt levels and adjust accordingly)
1/2 teaspoon dashi powder (we use Ajinomoto Hon Dashi granules)
12-16 ounces silken tofu (the exact amount doesn’t matter—basically 1 package of silken tofu; typically, shelf stable boxes are 12 ounces, and refrigerated boxes are 16 ounces)
1 scallion
3 eggs
3 tablespoons dried wakame seaweed

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Add the water to a medium pot, cover, and set over high heat. Meanwhile, gather your ingredients. Add the miso paste, chicken bouillon paste, and Hondashi powder to the pot. Bring to a boil.
While the broth cooks, cut your tofu into cubes. (½-inch/1cm cubes are a good place to start, but cut them however you like!)
Give the broth a stir to make sure the miso is evenly distributed. Add the tofu, and simmer for another 5 minutes or so.
While that’s happening, chop the scallions. (If you’re like us, and you have some already chopped and frozen, you can skip this step.) Lightly beat the eggs in a small bowl. Add the wakame seaweed.
With the soup at a low simmer, pour in the egg in a circular pattern. Don’t stir the soup, and don’t let it come up to a high simmer/boil. Add the scallions, give everything a stir, and serve!

Notes

If you want to preserve the full spectrum of nutrients in the miso paste, it’s best not to let miso paste boil. This is something I learned from our friend Nami at Just One Cookbook!

Here’s what she says: “Never boil miso soup once miso is added because it loses nutrients, flavors, and aromas. If you turn off the heat right before boiling, this temperature (203ºF/95ºC) is considered the most fragrant stage for miso soup. And by the time you are ready to enjoy the soup, it is an ideal temperature (167ºF/75ºC) for drinking.”

But we love a piping hot soup, so we admittedly sometimes sacrifice a little bit of strictness on heating in the name of having a extra comforting bowl of hot soup that won’t get cold too quickly after you serve it. You can do whatever you prefer!

Nutrition