But I still had to eat dinner, and peering over into the steaming pots my housemate had on the stove, I decided to go for noodles, my comfort food of choice. I basically imitated what she had going on.
Housemate's miso noodle soup:
- 1-2 tbsp miso paste or mix
- Handful of dried noodles (whole wheat soba, udon, etc.)
- Napa cabbage or lettuce (this is a point of contention: housemate says she "hates lettuce"; I used iceberg and think it came out great)
- Vegetable such as mushrooms (she used enoki) or edamame
- Tofu cubes optional
- Additional seasoning optional: cilantro, hot sauce, sesame oil, soy sauce (use just a drop)
According to my dad the food writer, the proper way to make a miso soup is to boil kombu (thick dried seaweed) and bonito (dried fish) flakes in water, fish them out, and then add your miso paste. Sometimes I'm feeling too lazy for the additional 3 minutes this requires and just skip to the miso paste. Tip from Japan: pushing the paste through a strainer as you add it to the water allows it to diffuse in the soup rather than clump together, and the result is that you can use less miso (and sodium) overall, since it mixes better.
Add water to a pot, add your veggies, boil, then add your noodles (cooked separately) and season with miso and other sauces. Lettuce (or napa cabbage) is an ingredient I noticed my Chinese-American friends using; when I tried it for the first time, I was surprised at how much flavor it added. My housemate makes this at least once a week.
I bet this would also be great with some fried garlic or ginger sprinkled on top. From a restaurant in Cambridge a few weeks back:
No comments:
Post a Comment