Vegan MoFo Day 15!

Hello friends! Hooray for our 15th post!!! We continue on with our adventures in soup this time trying (for the very first time) the Ginger Miso Soup recipe from Vegan Family Meals.

RECIPE:
1 cup hot water
3 dried shiitake mushrooms
4 cups Kombu Dashi (see recipe that follows)
1 3" piece daikon radish, peeled, quartered length-wise, cut into 1/4" slices
1 large carrot, peeled & cut into matchstick size strips
1/2 small onion, sliced thin
3 ounces firm tofu, drained & cut into 1/2" cubes
1 2" piece fresh ginger, peeled
1/2 cup mellow barley miso
2 scallions, sliced thin diagonally

Kombu Dashi
2 (4 by 1") pieces dried kombu
8 cups water
1 4" piece fresh ginger, peeled and cut into coins
1/4 cup tamari
1/4 mirin, sake or dry sherry





Comine the hot water and dried mushrooms in a bowl and let it steep for 30 minutes.

To make the dashi, combine kombu and water in a large saucepan and set aside for 1 hour. Set the saucepan over medium-high heat and bring the water to a bare simmer. Reduce heat and add ginger and tamari. Let simmer for 10 minutes. Remove heat and add mirin. Stir and strain the stock into another pot or bowl. Remove half the kombu and slice into 1/8 thin strips. Add these back to the pot.

Remove the revived mushrooms to a surface. Remove any grit by running under cool water. Cut the mushrooms into matchstick sized strips (julienne). Julienne the carrots and daikon and thinly slice the onion. Add to the pot and pour over the dashi. Cover and simmer for 20 mintues, until the veggies are tender. Remove from heat and add tofu.





Grate the ginger using a Microplane into some cheesecloth over a bowl. This is to extract the juice from the pulp. Bundle the ginger up and squeeze over the soup.

Just before serving, press the miso paste through a fine mesh strainer into the soup. Stir in the green onions and enjoy!




REVIEW:

Joe: Very good. I don't think the extra effort of making the ginger juice was worth it. I would just add a few extra pieces of ginger & removed them later. We also used 3 oz. fresh shiitake mushrooms instead of soaking dried ones which worked well. Overall and excellent miso soup. I really like this recipe!

Alex: This soup was earthy and delicious! It was almost a cross between miso soup and french onion soup. Definitely a win in my book. Good work Ann Gentry!