A nourishing, warming drink or light lunch
Miso soup is a healthy, digestive supportive lunch that we just can’t get enough of! We always have a jar of miso paste in the fridge (it lasts for ages) so it’s easy to enjoy as a mid-morning warming drink, or alternatively as a healthy lunchtime light meal.
This recipe can be pared up or down depending on what you have in your store cupboard. At it’s most basic, simply adding miso paste to warm water is an easy way to get a food source of probiotics each day (miso is a fermented food) by way of a comforting drink. Adding bone broth or chicken stock and dried seaweed instead of just water adds minerals and is nourishing and healing to the gut – which is why we often recommend a simple miso broth as part of one of our gut healing protocols.
As well as the miso itself and bone broth, ingredients such as garlic, ginger and shiitake mushrooms may help to support the immune system – so if you’re feeling a little under the weather this is a great soup to sup on. Adding some cubed tofu and brown rice vermicelli, soba or mung bean noodles towards the end of cooking turns it into a meal in its own right.
We also use this soup to support hormone balance; miso, tofu, soba (buckwheat noodles) and a handful of edamame beans act as phytoestrogenic foods – helping to reduce oestrogen levels if they’re too high, or raise them if they’re too low.
It’s important to add the miso at the end as heat reduces the health benefits of miso, killing off the beneficial probiotic bacteria; used properly, miso encourages the ‘good’ bacteria in the gut to flourish, so is a really great ingredient to get into the diet regularly – especially if you’re looking for alternatives to a daily probiotic capsule.
Miso paste is available in jars in most health shops and many supermarkets; alternatively miso soup sachets can be a handy alternative as a base for the soup.
- 1/2 tsp coconut oil
- 1 tbsp shiitake mushrooms fresh or dried and rehydrated, chopped
- 1 cm fresh ginger grated
- 1 clove garlic small, crushed
- 1 cup bone broth or chicken stock
- 1 tbsp seaweed e.g. dried arame or wakame
- 1 tsp miso paste
- 1 tbsp fresh coriander chopped
- 2 spring onions chopped
- 1 nest brown rice noodles or soba noodles, optional
- 1 handful green cabbage shredded, optional
- 2 tbsp firm tofu cubed, optional
- 1 handful edamame beans shelled, fresh or frozen, optional
- Crush the garlic and set aside.
- In a small saucepan heat the coconut oil and sauté the spring onion for a few minutes until soft.
- Add the garlic and ginger and continue stirring for another minute or so, before adding the mushrooms.
- Add the bone broth or chicken stock and dried seaweed. Bring to the boil and simmer for 10 minutes.
- If you're using the soup as a light drink, turn the soup off, let it cool for 5 minutes and then stir in the miso and coriander and enjoy. If you want to enjoy the soup as a more filling lunch, add the noodles to the soup and simmer as per packet instructions before adding the shredded cabbage and tofu for the final few minutes. Then turn the soup off for 5 minutes before stirring in the miso and coriander.
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