Well I was up at good ‘ole Lucky’s Market over the weekend and saw some baby bok choy (Chinese White Cabbage). It is not always the easiest to find. Regular bok choy is readily available but not baby. While they are basically the same, baby bok choy leaves are small, tender, sweeter and can be eaten uncooked in a salad. I remember the first time I discovered bok choy was back in my January post Baby Bok Choy with Tahini-Ginger Sauce. That guy in the produce aisle holding the bok choy like it was a prize trophy or fish or something, admiring it, smiling and telling me how beautiful it looks. And then his words of advice “it has to be baby bok choy – not mature stalks!” Some things you never forget. That is one of them.
So I’ve been thinking about miso soup for a few weeks now. It’s been quite awhile since we had it and I really appreciate the simplicity of this soup. For those of you unfamiliar, miso is a traditional Japanese soup with the core ingredients: stock and miso paste. Miso paste is a mixture of fermented soybeans, sea salt and koji (Japanese mold). You can find it in just about any grocery store usually in the produce or tofu section. I know what you are thinking. This is a no salt website and miso paste clearly contains sea salt. Well apparently the positive effects of soybeans cancel out the hypertensive and gastric cancer effects of sodium. That being said, miso paste is the only sodium containing product that is considered green light. Here is some supporting research.
In addition to the stock and miso paste anything else you want to put in is completely up to you. Some typical add-ins are seaweed, kelp, tofu, mushrooms, scallions and bok choy. If you like you can serve miso soup with rice noodles(very thin), udon noodles (thick) or ramen noodles.
Ingredients
- 6-7 ribs of baby bok choy (cut in pieces)
- 3 scallions (cut in small pieces)
- 10 shiitake mushrooms cut in pieces (remove stems)
- 1 block extra firm and pressed tofu (cut in small cubes)
- 6 cups vegetable or mushroom broth
- 4 tbsp. miso paste
- 1 tbsp. fresh grated ginger
- 1/2 tsp. black pepper
- Rice, udon or ramen noodles
Directions
- Place broth and ginger in a pot over medium heat.
- Add mushrooms, bok choy, white tips of scallions and black pepper and simmer for 10 minutes. Note: I remove the shiitake stems because to me they are too tough and chewy. I save them for mushroom or veggie broth.
- Add the tofu and simmer for a few minutes until warm.
- Turn off the heat and stir in the miso paste. Note: never add miso when soup is simmering or too hot because it will kill off the gut healthy probiotics.
- Serve over rice noodles and garnish with cut up green scallions.
