Miso soup of the day: Lotus root, enoki mushrooms and wakame seaweed

Miso soup idea for early spring – cut lotus root and enoki mushrooms, cook until soft in broth, then add miso paste and wakame seaweed.

These days I’m trying to eat lotus root every day to prevent hay fever that tortures me every spring. According to researches, it will soothe allergic symptoms including hay fever and I really hope so!  Mushrooms and seaweed help improve intestinal environment, which also contribute to ameliorating hay fever.

 

Kenchin-jiru (popular Japanese vegetarian soup)

Kenchin-jiru is one of the most popular vegetarian dishes served at home. It’s said to be originally invented at Kencho-ji temple in Kamakura as shojin-ryori (vegetarian cuisine originally derived from the dietry restrictions of Buddhist monks).

It looks like miso-soup, but it’s flavoured with soy sauce and salt (Of course, you can use miso instead, though). There are two secrets: tear tofu instead of cut, and let the soup rest overnight.

Ingredients: 1 pack of tofu (momen-type), 1/2 burdock root, 2/3 carrot, 10cm daikon-radish, 3 eddoes, 5 dried shiitake, 1 pack of konnyaku, 5cm dried kelp, soy sauce, salt, sesame oil

Method:

1. Drain tofu well.
2. In a pot, add 1L water and dried kelp. Simmer and turn off the heat just before fully boiled. Take out kelp after a while. This is konbu dashi.
3. Soak dried shiitake in cold water until soft. Then take out shiitake to slice. This water is to be used as dashi, so don’t throw it away.
4. Peel all vegetables. Cut daikon radish and carrot in quarter-rounds. Cut eddoes in bite size pieces. Slice burdock root and konnyaku. Tear tofu.
5. Stir fry all the vegetables except eddoes with sesame oil in a pod. Then add tofu and continue stir fry.
6. Add konbu dashi (2), the water used to soak shiitake(3) and eddoes. Cook until soft. Remove the scum.
7. Add soy sauce and salt (Adjust the amount as you like. Make sure to start from the small amount).
8. Let the soup rest overnight (keep in a fridge after the pot is cooled down).
9. Heat well before serve.

 

Miso soup of the day: Spinach & tofu

Spinach is one of the popular ingredients for miso soup. Boil spinach and diced tofu in broth and add miso paste.

 

Miso soup of the day: Tofu, enoki mushrooms and wakame seaweed

A kind of back to basics recipe – tofu, enoki mushrooms and wakame. It’s easy and quick to prepare. Cut and cook enoki mushroom in broth, add diced tofu, wakame seaweed and miso paste. The only thing you need to be careful is not to cook tofu and wakame seaweed for a long time.

Isobe-yaki (Baked mochi wrapped in Nori seaweed)

Mochi is one of the typical foods served during new year’s holidays. Still in many areas, they make mochi at the end of the previous year and use it as offerings to gods, eat it as zoni (special soup for the new year) etc. After new year’s holidays, lots of mochi tend to be left, and there are many mochi recipes. Among them, my favorite way to enjoy mochi is “isobe-yaki (or isobe-maki)” which is one of the most traditonal and popular recipes.

It’s quite simple. Just bake mochi in the oven till it gets soft and swollen, dip it in soy sauce and wrap it with nori seaweed.

Miso soup of the day: nanakusa (7 herbs)

Today is January 7th and it’s a day to eat nanakusa-gayu (rice porridge with 7 herbs) to let our stomaches relax after eating and drinking too much during new year’s holidays.

Talking about myself, I just came back from my husband’s parents’ home last night. It was quite a busy trip and I had been missing my own miso soup! So using the ingredients of nanakusa-gayu, I made miso soup of 7 herbs.

Just cut water dropwort, shepherd’s purse, cudweed, chickweed, nipplewort, turnip and radish, cook them in broth and add miso paste.

Miso soup of the day: Kiriboshi-daikon, Chinese cabbage, shiitake mushroom & aburaage

Miso soup idea for winter cold days. 

Kiriboshi-daikon is dried strips of daikon radish. As it makes good broth and has unique, satisfying  texture, it is frequently used to make not only traditional Japanese dishes but also vegetarian dishes.

Slice all ingredients to the same size then it will look nice.
 

Miso soup of the day: Romanesco bloccoli, potato, onion & soy milk

Romanesco broccoli was not really common in Japan until quite recently, but it has become available in the supermarkets.  A couple of days ago, I found it in the supermarket near my apartment and it was so cheap compared with other vegetables. Maybe not so many people try to buy them yet…

So I made an experimental miso soup again. I cut and boiled romanesco broccoli, onion and potato in the broth and added miso and soy milk. .. and it worked quite well!

…By the way, romanesco broccoli always reminds me of Buddha’s head.

Miso soup of the day: Mizuna & tofu

Mizuna (potherb mustard) – Now it’s available all over Japan at any time of the year, but was originally the local vegetables in the Kansai region in the cold season. Though it’s used as an ingredients in salads and hot pots quite often, it’s also suitable for miso soup.

This time I only added tofu besides mizuna, but aburaage also goes very well. In order to enjoy its crunchy texture, Be careful not to cook mizuna for long time.

Mukago-gohan (Japanese flavored rice with yam tubercles)

Mukago, yam tubercles – when I was a kid, I picked these tiny cute potatoes in the backyard and parks in autumn. I haven’t had them for years, but yesterday I found them at the market.

This mugako-gohan is simple yet comforting. Add 2 rice measuring cups (300g) of japonica rice, 10 cm of dried kelp, 100g mukago, 1 tsp of salt, 2 tbsp of sake. Then cook the same as plain rice.