Miso soup

Miso soup is an essential part of many traditional Japanese meals, so much so that some Japanese people feel that their meal isn't complete without it. Provided the miso isn't too concentrated (and high in sodium) and you don't have too many fatty ingredients in it, it's also healthy. Some research shows that miso may support gut health and boost the immune system. Finally, depending on what you put in it, miso soup can be a filling and satisfying meal unto itself.

However, when you're hankering for some miso soup and it's too late to go to a restaurant, the only choice you have is to make it yourself or buy some. The problem, if you're staying in a hotel in Japan with no microwave oven and only hot water at your disposal, is that you may only have instant miso soup at your disposal at your local convenience store. You could just buy miso, usually sold at convenience stores, and make miso soup with hot water, but you'd have no ingredients in it. Convenience stores also sell tofu, but it can be quite a messy proposition if you have no knife or cutting surface to make tofu cubes.

Instant miso soup options can make for a somewhat more satisfying meal, but although they can be quite tasty on their own, there's a limit to how much sustenance you can get from freeze-dried ingredients.

With just a few additions of products you'll also find at the convenience store, however, you can turn a bowl of instant miso soup into a more hearty and gourmet dish.

Turning instant miso soup into a hearty dish

Inspired by a story we recently covered about traditional Japanese food expert 土井善晴 Yoshiharu Doi who got noticed on Twitter for soaking buttered toast in his mushroom miso soup, we experimented with three types of instant miso soup found at our local 7-Eleven branch.

From left to right, we bought 旨辛きのこ Spicy miso soup with mushrooms, 磯の香り広がる海苔 Miso soup with seaweed, and つるっとなめらかとうふとわかめ Miso soup with tofu and seaweed.

The closest thing to butter toast we found was this convenient package of "garlic-flavored baguette slices" (garlic toast). A package of baguette slices with mentai (seasoned pollock roe) also looked like a good candidate for our experiment, so we bought that too.

Spicy miso soup with seaweed was our first choice and the one that most closely resembled the mushroom miso soup that Doi made.

If you're unfamiliar with instant miso soup products, you'll invariably find two packages inside the cup, one with dry ingredients, and one with miso. Powdered miso products will usually not be as satisfying as those with real miso, and fortunately, this series uses the latter.

After adding the ingredients and pouring in some hot water, we had ourselves a tasty-looking mushroom miso soup. Since we knew we wanted to add some garlic toast, which adds more salt to the dish, we added a bit more hot water to dilute the miso. Alternatively, we could have left a bit of the miso in the package and poured hot water up to the line, as recommended.

Time to add garlic toast!

After soaking the toast, keeping it submerged for about 20 seconds with our chopsticks, we were ready to try it.

As we had hoped, the butter (or oil) and garlic flavor seeped into the soup, adding more depth to the flavor. We could also enjoy the baguette slices soaked in miso soup. As we alternated between soup and bread, we had the sense that the combination definitely elevated a simple dish of instant soup into something more tasty and satisfying.

Next, we tried the "miso soup with (nori) seaweed," although their English subtitle doesn't do justice to the Japanese original, which is closer to: "Nori imparting the aroma of the sea."

Indeed, the aroma of the nori was delightful. For an instant miso soup, this was quite delicious. For a nori-centric miso soup, we thought the mentai toast would make a good match...

Just like we did with the garlic toast, we soaked the mentai toast in the soup to mix the flavors well...

Finally, for the finishing touch, we added a slice of easy-melt cheese, which is also available at most Japanese convenience stores.

The umami-rich flavors of nori and the lightly spicy mentai blended harmoniously, while the cheese offset the saltiness and added a creamy texture to the whole.

We considered this experiment successful!

If you like miso and want to try something different to elevate a simple instant soup cup into something more gourmet and filling, why don't you give it a try?