Miso Tofu Veggie Soup

Miso Tofu Veggie Soup

It has been SO cold here, and this made a delicious, spicy weeknight dinner for the two of us.   It is meatless and packed with veggies.  Very low fat.  Delicious and easy to make.  The hardest part is getting everything prepared before starting to stir fry.  Once cooked, all you do is divide the veggies into bowls and scatter the tofu.  At the end, a miso broth is poured over them.


Miso Tofu Veggie Soup
(adapted from The Meat Free Monday Cookbook)

Serves 2 for dinner or 4 for lunch

4 t. sesame oil, plus a little vegetable oil if things stick
5 cups mushrooms (shiitake and enoki), sliced
1 carrot, peeled and sliced into matchsticks
1 red chili, sliced  (use less or none if you don't like heat)
2 T. grated fresh ginger
2 good handfuls of baby leaf spinach
5 scallions, white  and pale green parts, finely sliced on diagonal
4 T. yellow miso paste
8 ounces, firm Tofu, drained and diced
tamari or soy sauce to taste

Get out all of the ingredients to make sure you have everything.  And one skillet or wok for stir frying.  And a large saucepan for making the miso broth.

Measure out the water and place it in the saucepan and heat it up for making the miso broth later.

Prep all of the ingredients for the stir fry:  clean and slice the shitake mushrooms, cut the end off the enoki and separate them, peel and slice the carrot into matchstick sizes, slice the chili into thin diagonal slices, grate the ginger, wash and spin the spinach (if needed), clean and slice the white and pale green parts of the scallions on the diagonal. Drain and cut the tofu into bite size cubes.

Once you have everything prepared and ready to go --

Stir the miso paste into the simmering water and whisk it until smooth and fully incorporated.  Keep warm on the back of the stove.

Heat up the skillet, add the sesame oil until hot.

Add the shitakes, and the carrots and saute until they start to wilt.  About a minute

If things start to stick, you may need to add a little vegetable oil.  Don't let things burn.

Add the chili and ginger and enoki and continue to cook. About 10 seconds.

Then, put the scallions in.  And put the spinach on top, and stir fry until the spinach wilts.  It should still be bright green.

If your stir-fry gets out of control (as mine did), just add a little of the miso liquid -- a tablespoon or two -- and scrape up the brown bits on the bottom as you continue to stir-fry.

Divide the veggies into two large bowls (or 4 smaller bowls), divide the tofu and add it to the bowls, then pour the miso on top.

There will be leftover miso broth, depending on the size of your bowls.  You can refill the bowls with miso broth as you eat the soup, if you enjoy more broth.

Serve immediately.

Add a dash of tamari or soy sauce before you dive in.

B