Sesame miso soup

Miso soup is something that my daughters can make with one eye closed. Along with kani salad, miso soup has been such a favorite in our family that there was a period when we’d have kani salad and miso soup every other day. We’re past that stage now, we still love kani salad and miso soup but we don’t crave for them as badly as we used to.

This recipe is a twist to the traditional miso soup. With the addition of a paste made from ground toasted sesame seeds, miso soup takes on a new dimension. Don’t be tempted to use a lot of sesame seeds though as they are strongly flavored and you don’t want their taste to overpower the delicate flavors of the dashi and miso.

More details about the ingredients are found in the links below.

Serves four.

Ingredients:

a packet of powdered dashi
a cake of silken tofu, cut into 1-cm cubes
1 tbsp. of Japanese miso
two generous pinches of dried wakame
patis (fish sauce), to taste
1 tsp. of sesame seeds

Dry fry the sesame seeds in a pan until lightly browned. Grind (with a mortar and pestle, blender or food processor) until the seeds turn into a smooth paste.

Heat about four cups of water in a pot. Add the powdered dashi and silken tofu, and season with patis. Bring to the boil.

Place the miso in a bowl, add about half a cup of the hot broth and stir until smooth. Pour into the pot. Add the wakame and sesame seed paste, stir and cover for a few minutes until the wakame soften. Serve hot.