Hearty Miso Soup Recipe

Dunja says: “Don’t forget squashes and pumpkins! They’re not only tasty and nourishing but also have a lot of beta-carotene – one of the most important antioxidants. This is a great soup to warm you up, at the same time feeding your body with vital enzymes from the miso paste.”

Serves

2–3

Ingredients

2 tablespoons dark sesame oil
60g/½ cup diced onion
60g/½ cup peeled, seeded and cubed pumpkin, squash or carrots
4 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tablespoon crushed fresh ginger
800ml/3½ cups cold water or bouillon (unsalted)
1 tablespoon barley or rice miso
¼ sheet toasted nori, cut into small pieces
1 tablespoon chopped flat-leaf parsley
1 teaspoon toasted sesame seeds
Sea salt

Method

In a large saucepan, sauté the onions for a minute or so in the sesame oil, before adding pumpkin, squash or carrot, along with the garlic, ginger and a pinch of salt.

Sauté the mixture for a little longer, and then add the cold water or bouillon and cover. Bring to a boil, lower the heat and cook until the vegetables become tender.

Take 60ml/. cup of the hot soup and put it in a small bowl. Now add the tablespoon of miso to it. Purée the miso really well with a fork, until it has completely melted.

Put the miso liquid back into the soup. Taste and adjust the seasoning. Turn off the heat, cover and let the soup sit for a couple of minutes.

Serve sprinkled with the pieces of nori, a sprinkling of sesame seeds, the chopped parsley and sesame seeds.

Don’t forget that you can combine different kinds of miso in the same soup! Since hatcho (soya/soy bean) miso is of high quality but has a strong taste, try to combine . tablespoon soya/soy miso with . tablespoon barley miso, to get all the benefits of both kinds of soya/soy bean paste. In warmer weather, substitute darker miso pastes with sweet white miso, which is a lot milder.

Extracted from My Vegan Kitchen by Dunja Gulin, published by Ryland Peters & Small. Photography by William Reavell © Ryland Peters & Small

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