Easy Miso Soup: A 4 Ingredient Recipe

If you frequent Japanese restaurants as much as me, you know how delicious miso soup is. If you want to save a buck, or eat at home for a change, this is the recipe for you. It should make about 4 servings and will literally take 15 minutes to make. You never want to cook miso soup too long because otherwise the seaweed will turn to mush. Also, feel free to double or halve this recipe to make the desired amount you're looking for. Don't feel bad about making or eating too much though: This recipe is only around 22 calories per serving!

Ingredients:

4 cups water

8 teaspoons miso

1 sheet of seaweed (nori)

3 ounces of tofu (chopped)

Directions:

  1. Add the water to a pot and turn the heat on medium. Stir in the miso and mix it together with the water until there are no more lumps. The water should look kind of murky and sandy at the same time.
  2. Bring the soup to a simmer. Rip up the sheet of seaweed (nori) and add it to the pot. Don't worry about the size and shape of the seaweed pieces you add: This won't affect the soup's flavor. That said, your seaweed pieces should be not much bigger than the size of a business card.
  3. Cut the tofu into cubes and add to the soup. Let it cook for a few more minutes (until 15 minutes are up), then serve and enjoy!

Note: You can also add washed and halved mushrooms at step 3 to give the soup more versatility, but that's completely optional. Shiitake and enoki mushrooms do great in miso soup. You can also add pre-cooked udon noodles to the soup at this point, if you want a heartier dish. Just cook the udon according to the instructions on the package, and then add it to the soup at step 3.