Miso soup has two key components:

Dashi base and soy bean paste. Everything else is a great extra.

Dashi is Japanese soup stock and it comes in many different forms, like dried bonito flakes, dried baby anchovies/sardines, dried kelp and dried shiitake mushrooms. Or a mix of tow of these. Each produces a different flavor our favorite is, iriko dashi. Baby sardine’s.

Then the soy bean paste is what turns this into miso soup. Combine these two ingredients and you have an beautifully rich full of umami flavor soup. Again their is many types of soy bean paste so the combinations with this soup are huge.

Extras, the obvious is some firm tofu and kelp.

We have also been adding mushrooms, bean sprouts, cabbage, onion and you name it. whatever vegetable we have laying around we throw some in.

To make the iriko dashi.

You need 30 grams of dried baby anchovies/sardines and then 4 cups of water.

Soak the dried fish once you have decapitated them all, you must remove the heads as they can be bitter. soak in the cold water overnight or for at least 20 minutes.

Then when ready, pop it in a saucepan and bring to the boil, as soon as it starts to boil lower to a simmer. Let it simmer for 10 minutes. You may need to remove the foam that builds up when simmering.

Then sieve out the fish and save for later you can make candied sardines which are a beautiful topper for rice.

The soup

Heat up 1 cup of dashi per person in a pan or whatever amount you are hungry for! Then add you extras (save the tofu till just before serving as it can break apart easily) Never let the dashi or soup boil, you will lose the delicate flavors.

Add one table spoon of soy bean paste per person, (this is a dark soy bean paste) also I add a little more when im making it for just myself as i like it strong.

Let that all dissolve into the broth, add your chopped tofu and then give it a phew minutes and serve with some chopped spring onions.