Basic Miso Soup - Lessons from Iron Chef Kimio Nonaga

Iron Chef Kimio Nonaga of Nihonbashi Yukari is sharing with us lessons on how to make miso soup. This recipe first appeared on the Lohas website and Lohas has given us permission to translate this into English.

Miso Soup
10 minutes preparation time
127 calories

Miso Soup Ingredients (Serves four)

900 ml dashi (click here for Nonaga-san's dashi recipe)
60 grams miso
1 block tofu
1 onion
shichimi togarashi (Japanese seven spice) - optional

Put 900 ml dashi in a soup pot.

Peel and cut the onion. First cut into half and then into quarters. Then cut into thin slivers.

Key point: when cutting into quarters, cut from the outside (as shown in the first photo). When cutting into thin slivers, cut from the inside of the onion (as shown in the second photo).

Most important is to cut the onion into equal widths as it will cook evenly.

Cut the tofu into bite size pieces.

Key point: place the tofu in your hand and let the weight of the knife cut the tofu. If done properly you will not cut yourself. If you pull or push the knife you may cut your hand. (Yukari's note - tofu is much easier to manage if you can learn to cut it while holding it in your hand.)

Add the onions to the dashi and turn on the heat.

Key point: only turn on the heat after adding the onions. If you turn on the heat before now you may become anxious as you are cutting the onions or tofu and may lose your concentration.

Bring the dashi to a boil and when the onions are half translucent lower the heat to medium high. Add the tofu slowly to the pot.

Let the pot come to a boil and after the tofu is warmed up and the onions are soft, turn off the heat. Add the miso by either using a miso koshi (a miso strainer) or by mixing it in as the photo above shows. Put some dashi in a large spoon and dissolve the miso into the dashi using your chopsticks.

Key point: add the miso only after turning off the heat. If you add the miso while the pot is still cooking you will lose some of the delicate aromas and flavor of the miso.

You can garnish the miso soup with some shichimi togarashi if you would like.

Yukari's note: once you have mastered this soup, you can do many different variations by using different vegetables or including sea vegetables. Some options include potatoes, carrots, daikon, cabbage, wakame, and abura-age (deep-fried tofu).

Iron Chef Kimio Nonaga on cooking Japanese rice.
Iron Chef Kimio Nonaga on making Japanese dashi.

Iron Chef Kimio Nonaga was 2002 Champion of the original Japanese Iron Chef program. He can most often be found behind the counter at Nihonbashi Yukari. A third generation kaiseki restaurant in Nihonbashi, just minutes from Tokyo station's Yaesu exit (and also around the corner from Nihonbashi Takashimaya).