Tomato Miso Soup

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Have you ever decided to make a recipe, gone shopping for the ingredients and then forgotten to get the key one, only realizing it part way into the cooking process?  Well, that’s what we did last Saturday.

We had decided to stay in, make dinner, and watch The Godfather (A had never seen it!). We thought it would be a pretty early night, but the evening got a little late, and not only because the movie was three hours long.

The plan was to make our Kimchi and Beef Fried Rice — and we were craving Miso soup.  We did our research and came across a recipe on Food and Wine.com by Marcia Kiesel.  We did some simplifying, made our list and left the house.  Somehow the day got away from us and we finally started cooking at 7pm.  Z was slicing the carrots for the Fried Rice and the shiitakes for the soup. A was combining ingredients for a marinade spicing up the meal.  We filled the pot with water and then look dumbfounded at each other.

“Did you get the miso paste?”

“No, did you?”

Now, we have bags of instant miso that we enjoy in a pinch, but that wasn’t going to cut it tonight.  We made a few calls to local known grocery stores who didn’t have any — and then resigned ourselves to a 15 block trek to Fairway, and an even later night.

The happy ending: a few blocks from home, on a lark, we decided to pop into a store that we somehow had never deigned to enter — and discovered a neighborhood gem that we plan to be back at again soon (and not just because we’ve forgotten something).

We didn’t start watching the movie until 9, but the soup was worth the late night.  If you have the ingredients, this is an incredibly quick recipe.  If you want to make a night of it — then just get your ingredients in multiple trips. Worked for us.

 

Tomato Miso Soup

(Adapted from Marcia Kiesel)

½ c miso paste

4 c water

1 tsp tamari

1 tbsp tomato paste

¼ lb shiitake mushrooms

1 tbsp sesame oil

2 large garlic cloves pressed

½ lb soft tofu

2 scallions (optional)

 

Slice and dice the shiitake caps so that they are in ¼” squares.  Then slice tofu into ½” cubes.  Slice the scallions into thin rounds.

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Put the sesame oil in pot and add shiitakes and garlic.  Cook for 5 min or until softened.  Add the tomato paste, water, and tamari.  Heat the water up until it starts to boil.  Then turn down the heat and take about ½ c of the liquid out of the pot and combine with the miso paste separately.  After the miso paste is fully incorporated, then add back into the pot.  Mix thoroughly and heat until steaming.  Add the tofu and continue to cook it for another 2 minutes.  Serve hot.  Top with scallions.

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If you decide to make this recipe, we recommend remembering to get your Miso paste the first time around.  Should you suffer our same fate, however, we think it is worth the extra effort to run back out, no matter how many blocks or what time of night. Who knows, you may even find a new go-to spot!