Miso Soup

This is my favourite version of miso soup with dried shiitake mushrooms. Served with a bowl of rice it's a healty and delicios simple Japanese breakfast.

Prep and Cook Time: 10 minutes

For 2 servings: 

• 400 ml vegan dashi
• 3 table spoons cooked dried shiitake mushrooms (e.g. from cooking the vegan dashi) 
• 2 table spoons shiro miso (light/white miso paste)
• a small piece of scallions

Cut mushrooms into pieces and scallions into small pieces. Bring the dashi to a boil, turn down the heat, put 3 table spoons of the heated dashi in a bowl and dissolve the shiro miso in it. Pour the mixture back to the dashi. 

Put shiitake mushrooms into two bowls, pour miso soup over them and sprikle with scallions.

Enjoy your meal!

Vegan Dashi - Step by Step

I really love Japanese food and dashi is a staple, not only for miso soup but for many Japanese dishes. Usually dashi is made using konbu seaweed and bonito fish blakes, but I'm not a big fan of fish, so I usually make vegan dashi using konbu seasweed and dried shiitake mushrooms. Of course, this is not the original - but it tastes delicious and goes really well with any kind of Japanese dish.

I usually prepare 2,5 litres of dashi at once and freeze it in ice cube forms. You can store it up to 6 months in the freezer.

Prep and cook time: 45 minutes.

For 2.5 litres of dashi you need: 

• 2,5 litres water
• 3 pieces of dried konbu seaweed (~ 10 * 7 cm in size)
• 5 dried shiitake mushrooms

Cut the konbu pieces from the side to increase surface.

Pour 2.5 litres of cold water into a large pot, add konbu seaweed and shiitake mushrooms and let it soak for 30 minutes.

Bring to a boil and remove konbu seaweed when it starts to boil. Boil the water with the shiitake mushrooms for 10 minutes.

Remove the shiitake mushrooms (you can cut these and use them as e.g. a soup vegetable for miso soup). That's it, your dashi is ready.

Enjoy your meal!

Soba & Spinach Soup

This soup is really fast and easy to cook, but it's also very delicious. I especially love the savoury and salty taste of the buckwheat soba and it harmonises perfectly with the sweet carrots and the earthy spinach.

By the way, I really love spinach. It's my favourite veget ... wait ... I already said that about carrots. But really, I love both of them and can't decide which one I like better. So, my favorite vegetables are carrot and spinach. And avocados. And egglpant. And ... some more ;)

For 4 Servings: 

• 750 ml vegetable stock
• 200 g spinach leaves (fresh or frozen)
• 1 carrot, sliced
• 3 bunches buckwheat soba noodles (you can buy these in any Japanese supermarket)

In a small pot heat water and add a pinch of salt. When it's boiling, add the soba and cook until al dente (about 2-3 minutes).

In another pot, heat the vegetable stock. When it's boiling, add the spinach and the carrots and cook for 2-3 minutes. 

Put the soba on soup plates and add the soup. 

Enjoy!