Update: Pictures and recipe are updated in September 2012.
Miso Soup is a traditional Japanese soup consisting of seafood based stock called dashi and miso paste. Most Japanese meals are served with a bowl of miso soup and steamed rice. Although there are many different kinds of ingredients that can be added to miso soup, today I will share the most basic miso soup recipe which include just tofu, wakame (seaweed), and green onion. Please note that miso paste varies in saltiness depending on type (e.g. red/aka miso, white/shiro miso, mixed/awase miso) and by brand, please adjust the proper amount of miso based on your preference.
For dashi stock, I typically use dashi packets but they may be difficult to find in your supermarkets. No worries, I also have an easy step-by-step tutorial for how to make homemade dashi stock from scratch. The ingredients for the homemade stock such as dashi kombu and katsuobushi (bonito flakes) are usually available in most Japanese market and some Asian market. The Japanese cuisine requires dashi stock for cooking many recipes and it’s very simple to make compared to other stocks.
I hope you enjoy this quick and easy homemade miso soup!
Ingredients:
- 3 cups homemade dashi stock or see Quick Dashi Stock below
- 2 1/2 - 3 Tbsp. miso (I use awase/mixed miso)
- 6 ounces firm silken tofu or soft tofu (optional)
- 2 tsp. dried wakame (seaweed) (optional)
- 1 green onion (optional)
- 3 cups water
- 1 dashi packet or 1 1/4 tsp. dashi powder
Instructions:
- In a medium saucepan, add water and dashi packet (some brand of dashi packet may ask you to add the packet after boiling). If you are using dashi powder, bring water to a boil and stir in the dashi powder – it’s ready to use.
- Start cooking covered over medium high heat. After boiling, reduce heat to medium low and simmer for 5 minutes.
- Discard the packet and dashi stock is ready to use.
- Using a strainer, add miso in the dashi stock. If you don’t have one, use a ladle and dissolve miso in the ladle so you can make sure miso is dissolved completely. Each brand or kind of miso has different level of salt, therefore taste the soup before you add more miso. If you add tofu in your miso soup, tofu dilutes the soup a little bit so you might want to add ½ Tbsp. more miso.
- Cut tofu into small cubes on your palm and add them to the soup. Stir the soup gently without breaking up the tofu.
- If you want to add wakame (seaweed), put 1 tsp. of dried wakame in water and let it soak.
- Cut the green onion to finely pieces. Put the wakame and green onion in the serving bowls.
- Return to a slight simmer until heated through. Be careful not to boil the miso soup because miso will lose flavor. Remove from the heat, ladle into soup bowls and serve immediately.
Notes
*If you don't have dashi packet or powder, see how to make homemade dashi stock.
Hi, I'm Nami. Thanks for stopping by Just One Cookbook. You can read little bit more about me 
{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }
I love miso soup, I use to drive like 40 minutes to my favorite Japanese restaurant for miso soup and seaweed salad
Can’t wait to make it at home!
Hi Firefly – Haha 40 minutes! But I know, for a good food I’d do the same (now a little hard to do with 2 kids)! I’m not sure where you live, but I hope you can find Dashi from Japanese/Asian store. If there is an Asian store, I’m pretty sure you can at least buy Hondashi powder. Now my Chinese husband can’t end a dinner without drinking miso soup. Hehe.
I’m very fond of miso soups! So far, I’ve tried different kinds of miso (white rice miso, red miso, and dark barley miso), and the red I absolutely like the best!
There’s a very nice Asian supermarket in Heidelberg where I tend to spend 1/3 of the overall money I spend on food … They already know me there. 
It’s the only store where I get kabocha squash all the around the year, and I also bought my rice cooker there and some bowls and a sake set. 
A thing I find very sad is that so many products (unfortunately also a lot of Japanese products) are stuffed with MSG. Among the (Japanese) sauces, only basic soy sauce (I always buy Kikkoman) comes without, so I rather mix special condiments at home than buy a readily done product (like teriyaki sauce) to avoid MSG. I also have sake and mirin and use them very often. (Look at my tags!
) Sadly, also many miso pastes contain MSG, but I’ve found one brand that sells red miso paste without. Recently, I’ve also bought organic miso (we have a very nice organic supermarket here, and since there’s a lady who is a macrobiotic nutrition counseler in my quarter of the city, they also sell a lot of Japanese products that are often used in macrobiotic cooking, like miso, brown mochi rice, or adzuki beans 
), but haven’t tried it yet.
I cook a lot of miso soups with different ingredients, but haven’t made the traditonal miso soup with tofu. I know that one from sushi restaurants, but it rather has wakame than green onions.
I need to post more miso soup recipes …
Hi Kath – thank you for writing! I love feedback and thank you for taking your time to write to me.
I’m glad you are close to some Asian market where you can find Kabocha. I love that sweet pumpkin (squash) but it’s hard to cut, isn’t it? haha.
Yes I hear you about MSG. I worry a lot about kids’ snack that contains MSG (although I grew up with it). About MSG in condiments, actually we have more organic condiments than years ago. If your store has only made-in-USA Kikkoman brands, etc, then you may not see organic ones. If they carry imported condiments, they should have organic kinds. So here I write in Japanese so you can find (hopefully) organic ones. Please look for 有機 (organic; yuuki) and 無添加 (additive-free; read “mutenka”). Most of condiments I buy are imported ones and they are organic and additive-free. Just no translation on the bottles… sorry….
My kids love miso soup and I put a lot of veggies in it so they drink everything. My fav combination is wakame, onion, tofu, and aburaage. I also love Tonjiru (have recipe here). My kids love cold miso soup with cabbage in it. My husband loves clams miso soup. We drink almost everyday so we have lots of variation.
A novel, sorry.
Hehee I love it!
Haha, thank you so much! The products at the Asian market where I buy my things are from Japan directly, but I don’t think I’ve seen organic soy sauce. They have wheat-free (tamari), MSG-free, and GMO-free, though. (Thank God there’s GMO labelling obligation now, some products in fact contain GMO soy, and it’s marked.) At the organic supermarket where I also like to buy I can get organic soy sauce, miso, mirin, nori, wakame, etc, but it’s twice as expensive.
I love miso soups and have them quite often. Not every day, but several times a week. I also made one with clams a while ago and it was very good.
So, I think now I’ve commented and bookmarked half of your blog. Time to put you into my blogroll.
Kath, I think your Asian store sounds like a very nice one (I like when they sell imported one since that’s what I use). Asian cooking is not so MSG free focus, unfortunately, and I can see it’s hard for you to pick some products. I think Ajinomoto (Japanese seasoning company) made the first MSG or something (if I remember correctly), so it’s very connected in the food industry for sure… Thank you for putting my website in your blogroll. I feel very honored.
I love miso soup and have never made it successfully. Just reading this recipe, I can see that it will work. I will have to find a japanese store (which is not difficult on the Gold coast) for the dashi jiru
Your blog is fascinating, I can’t wait to come back and check out more of the recipes.
Thank you and I hope you will enjoy it. You can add root veggies (daikon, carrots, potatoes, etc) or leafy veggies (spinach, cabbage etc) – these are my kids’ favorites!
We went out for sushi tonight and of course, the first thing we were serve was a bowl of tofu miso soup. While drinking it, I told Bob that I’ve GOT to learn how to make it because it is one of my most favorite soups! And here it is! Perfect timing! Thanks again Nami – you’re helping me expand my culinary repertoire!
I love miso soup, Nami, so thanks for this recipe – will be trying it as soon as I assemble the ingredients. Lovely, lovely photos (as always). Hope you and your family are enjoying the weekend.
I love Miso soup and was looking for an easy recipe for quite sometime!! Thanks for sharing this recipe Nami
It’s a must try since even my 9 yr old loves this in Japanese restaurants!!!
I was looking for a good and proper miso soup (I used to cook it a long time ago!) and I’ve immediately stopped by your lovely blog. Thank you very much : )
Not sure how much it matters, but I can’t find Japanese branded tofu. I can only get tofu with Korean, Chinese, or all English on the package. Last time I chose the organic Korean soft tofu. I was wondering if Japanese tofu had a different taste? The one I used tonight was good, but had a kinda strong flavor. The texture didnt look like the one in your picture… It’s soft and not silken tofu? Thanks!
Hi Steven! I on the other hand never bought non-Japanese brand tofu, so it’s hard to say (plus there are many brands available for Korean and Chinese). I think Korean, Chinese and Japanese soft tofu are pretty similar. Or at least when I eat at the restaurant, the tofu seems “similar” if not “same”. Each brand also makes tofu very differently too, so if you think the one you tried had a strong flavor, you may want to try a different brand. For this recipe (particularly this photo shoot), I’m using Japanese brand tofu, and it’s very smooth and silken. You can put any kinds of tofu (there is no rule what kind of tofu to use for miso soup). Hope this helps.
This is a great nutritional value, vegetarian and delicious soup!! I love your recipes.
Hi Maria! Thank you so much for your kind comment. Yes, miso has a wonderful nutritious benefit (only thing we need to worry is the salt content – make sure you don’t put too much). I am glad you enjoy my recipes! Thanks for writing!
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