Miso Soup

Drinking miso soup is a Japanese tradition which is still much alive. Most of the miso produced in Japan is used for the preparation of miso soup. Miso soup is very popular because of its rich taste, short preparation time and health benefits. It is considered essential for good health and longlivety. For most Japanese the word "miso" and "miso soup" are synonyms. In Japan, where miso soup became popular about 750 years ago when the samurai warriors were in power, everyone knows how to make miso soup. In the Western world, soup is eaten with dinner or lunch but in Japan, miso soup is most often eaten during breakfast. Since the 1960s miso soup was introduced in the Western world by health conscious people.

Ingredients (for 4 servings):

• 7 g dried kelp (Hoshi wakame)
• 1/2 block tofu
• 4 cups dashi (niboshi dashi)
• 80-90 g miso

Preparation:

• 
  Soak kelp (wakame) in warm water, remove hard stems and rinse with water, strain with net and cut into bite size pieces.
• 
  Heat dashi without bringing it to a boil.
• 
  Smash miso through a net ladel (misokoshi) into dashi, when it is about to boil remove foam rising on the top.
• 
  Add wakame.
• 
  Place tofu on palm, cut lengthwise and then into 1/8 th pieces. Slide into soup.
• 
  When tofu floats to the top turn off heat.