Photo Friday: Fast Food

Miso Soup

I have pictures of your typical artery clogging fast food, and I've made a burger and fries and a chic-fil-a sandwich out of polymer clay.  Enough of that!  It's so rediculously bad for you.  Here is a picture of a very healthy soup that is quick to make called Miso soup, popular in Japanese cuisine.  This soup is a staple of the Macrobiotic diet, and I've been making it often for lunch.

The biggest challenge was finding some of the key ingredients.  All ingredients have been found at a local natural organic market, right in the same section.  Here's how to make it: 

Ingredients:

• A few pieces of Wakame (packaged and dried seaweed, follow re-hydrating instructions)
• 2 tbs. Miso Paste
• splash of Mirin to taste (rice wine)
• Optional Dashi Grandules for added stock flavor (I omit, since it has fish in it)
• 4 cups filtered water 
• silken tofu cubes, diced small
• 1/2 small onion, chopped
• handful of diced carrots
• handful of diced celery
• handful of snow peas
• diced spring onions for garnish

Directions:

1.  Soak wakame in fresh water until soft.  Set aside.

2.  Bring water to a boil in saucepan.  Add onion, carrots and celery, simmer for 7-10 minutes.  Add snow peas for the last minute of cooking.  I like to keep veggies slightly crisp in this soup. 

3.  Remove a few tablespoons of broth from the pot and mix well with miso paste.  Turn off the heat under the pot, and mix the miso in with soup.

4.  Cover the pot and let the soup sit for a few minutes to activate the enzymes in the miso.  Make sure the stove is turned off at this point because too much heat will destroy the enzymes.

5.  Remove the wakame from the soaking water.  Chop up into small pieces and add to the soup.

6. Sprinkle with diced spring onions when ready to serve.