Grandma's Kitchen:   Miso Soup for Everyone!!!

Miso is a Japanese soup-paste made from any one of a variety of combinations of "fermented" rice and bean. A bacteria or enzyme similar to the kind of thing that turns milk into yogurt is applied to cooked rice/grain combinations, the most common being rice and soybean. This is then used as the basis of a beautiful and satisfying soup.

The skill of the miso maker is similar to that of the beer or wine craftswoman. The end product is a function of ingredients, time, skill, and the kind of barrels it is aged in. It is, however, non-alcoholic once cooked. Good miso is aged up to several years, and the varieties range from light-colored mild ones made from predominantly rice with a little soy, to dark brown wine-smelling ones, made from barley and soy.

I buy organic only, and the best miso in the USA that I have seen is at the health food stores. The miso at the Asian markets is usually cheaper and for good reason. This is one case where you get what you pay for. Even the expensive miso is not bad, as a little goes a long way. The lighter miso is good year round but especially in summer with light vegetbles like fresh corn and baby bok choy. The darker miso is good in winter and with stronger vegetables. My favorite miso is mellow white or yellow, which goes well any time. In winter, I may add some dark to the mellow miso. The possibilities for miso-soup making are as infinite as your imagination.

Miso Soup:   How to Make

The basic tenant of miso-soup making is to cook the items that will be in the soup first. Once they are cooked, one mixes the requisite miso paste with a little water till smooth, adds to the cooked ingredients and the hot water, simmer for two or three minutes, and, Voila! Its soup! If only life were that easy.

So, again, boil ingredients in water. When ingredients are cooked, add miso paste.

Simmer for a few minutes. Done.

Things that go well in a miso soup:

• Root vegetables:   daiken, burdock, carrot, parsnip, turnip, rutabaga, parsley root.
• Mushrooms, especially Shitake, are very traditional, especially with scallion.
• Hard squashes like butternut go well with tofu for example (think color!).
• Hard leafy greens like kale, collards, mustard greens, beet greens are great diced, and go well with legumes like chick-peas, kidney beans, azuki beans, toor dal, val dal.
• Onions make most vegetable dishes taste good.
• Soft leafy greens like all the various Chinese choy greens are lovely, especially with any kind of light fish.
  Dont overcook these though, just add them really with the miso and serve within five minutes.
• Sea vegetables: The most traditional Japanese miso, or maybe just the most common, contains Wakame sea kelp and tofu cubes and sliced shitake. Then shredded dried daikon a tad. Mellow miso.
  Add toasted nori sea vegetable crushed on top of the served soup along with diced scallions. Any sea vegetable though is great in miso, for example, dulse, konbu, wakame, arame, etc.
• Shell fish go very very well.
  Flesh-eaters will enjoy fish in miso soup. I have never heard of any other flesh used though.
  If I use fish, fresh ginger root will also be there then. Koreans use dried anchovies.

The sky is the limit!

The late Aveline Kushi has a cookbook called How to Cook with Miso that is excellent. (This book is out of print, but you may be able to obtain a used copy from a book store or online shopping.)

Here are some soups I have made:

• Kidney Bean and Kale
• Traditional Japanese (as above)
• Daikon root with onion and shitake summer sweet corn with baby bok choy and various light fishes like dover sole or scallops.
• French onion miso soup.
• Leftover rice miso soup.
• Vegeterian jewish chicken soup miso soup.

Use spices if you want. Why not make a curried miso soup? I often use fresh herbs like marjorom or rosemary, or spices like coriander powder, cumin powder, garlic, turmeric, fenugreek, black or white pepper.

How much miso do I use? To taste! More miso makes a thicker soup, less makes it thinner. Depends on the other ingredients. Good luck friends!

Eyton Shalom, M.S., L.Ac., has been practicing Chinese Medicine in San Diego, California, since 1991. He began his study of Alternative Medicine in 1970, when he began studying Nutrition,Yoga, and Indian Philosophy. He lived as a monk in an ashram for 12 years, including three in Tamil Nadu, India, and Sri Lanka. His medical practice includes Chinese Herbal Medicine and Acupuncture, as well as Ayurvedic medicine, nutritional counseling, and meditation instruction. Areas of focus are women's health, chronic pain, digestive and respiratory disorders. Feel free to ask questions. Eyton can be reached at 619.296.7591 or eyton@bodymindwellnesscenter.com. Link to bodymind wellness center website: http://bodymindwellnesscenter.com.

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