It’s super easy to make authentic Japanese miso soup at home! My recipe shows you how to make quick and easy soup stock (dashi) from scratch and then make the classic miso soup with tofu and wakame seaweed. Homemade miso soup is not only delicious, but it also brings many great health benefits.
Miso soup is a staple in Japanese cuisine and the Soup for the Soul. We enjoy it almost every single day, for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. As a Japanese home cook, I would also say that miso soup is probably one of the easiest soups you can make at home.
There are many paths to making miso soup, but once you know the basics, you will be able to branch out and customize. The goal of this post is to arm you with all the important knowledge so you can make yourself a bowl of authentic miso soup at home any time of the day. And trust me, what you make will taste 10,000 times better than the Japanese restaurants or the instant ones.
Table of Contents
What is Miso Soup?
Most Japanese meals are served with a small bowl of steamed rice and a traditional Japanese soup called Miso Soup (味噌汁). At its most basic, miso soup is simply made of 3 components:
Depending on the region, season, and personal preference, you can find many varieties of miso soup enjoyed in Japan. In addition to the classic tofu and wakame combination that I show you today, we also use different savory ingredients such as veggies, meat, and seafood to make the soup. That’s why we can never get bored with it.
We’ll go over how it all works together in detail below.
How to Make Classic Miso Soup with Tofu and Wakame
In this post, we’ll master the most basic miso soup with tofu and wakame (seaweed). Once you know how to make this classic Japanese miso soup, you can easily make an endless variations by changing up the ingredients.
Step 1: Make Dashi (Japanese Soup Stock)
Dashi (だし・出汁) is Japanese stock and the base of many Japanese dishes. To make authentic Japanese miso soup, you will have to use dashi as the soup broth and not any other types of broth. Miso soup is not miso soup without dashi.
Five Types of Dashi
While you may not be familiar with dashi, it is actually the easiest and quickest broth one can make at home. There are 5 types of dashi that you can choose from. You can read this Ultimate Guide on how to make dashi if you are serious about making Japanese food at home.
Japanese home cooks commonly use Awase Dashi (made with kombu kelp + dried bonito flakes) and Iriko Dashi (made with anchovies) for their miso soup.
💡Pro Tip
If you’re vegetarian or vegan, you can use Kombu Dashi (made with kombu kelp).
Three Ways to Make Dashi
I make my homemade dashi from scratch because it is so much simpler and straightforward than making chicken or vegetable stock! You can find all the ingredients in Japanese and most Asian grocery stores or online. Click here for the video tutorial on how to make dashi from scratch.
Some recipes online use instant dashi powder (dashi granules) for miso soup. However, I don’t recommend this option as most dashi powder brands contain MSG and additives and the flavor and fragrance do not last long.
If you’re still reluctant to make dashi from scratch, try a dashi packet instead of dashi powder.
💡Pro Tip
Japanese cooking requires dashi in many recipes. You can make a big batch of dashi and store it in the refrigerator for up to 3-5 days or in the freezer for 2 weeks and it’s always ready to go. Use dashi for different recipes throughout the week. With dashi on hand, you can make the basic miso soup in under 5 minutes!
Step 2: Add Miso Paste
Miso (味噌), fermented soybean paste, is made from soybeans, grains (steamed rice or barley), salt, and koji culture (麹, a fermentation starter).
Types of Miso
There are many different types of miso in the market. In the US, most miso available at the mainstream grocery stores goes by colors, such as white miso (shiro miso), red miso (aka miso), and yellow miso. Read this post if you want to deep dive into miso. If you are interested in making your own miso at home, read about it here.
Each miso paste and brand varies in saltiness and flavor. When it comes to miso soup, there is no “right” miso for your miso soup. All you need to remember is to adjust the amount according to taste. You can also mix two to three miso brands/types together for more complex flavors. If you have good quality miso, enjoy its unique characters by using just one type.
Try out different miso and find your favorite!
My favorite miso is this Kodawattemasu from Hikari Miso (slow-aged red koji miso) as the flavor is the most versatile. It has a more rounded character that goes well with any ingredients.
💡Pro Tip
Dashi-included miso (だし入り味噌) seems convenient as you don’t need to prepare dashi; however, you can’t expect good health benefits from it. In order to keep the quality and taste and to prevent the expansion of the container, the manufacturer has to add additives and sterilize by heating, which stops the action of yeasts. Therefore, I don’t recommend getting dashi-included miso.
Miso to Dashi Ratio
💡Pro Tip
A typical Japanese miso soup bowl holds about 200 ml of liquid. As a general rule, we add 1 tablespoon (18 g) of miso per one miso soup bowl (200 ml dashi).
How to Dissolve Miso
Put the miso inside a ladle and slowly add the dashi into the ladle. Stir the miso mixture with chopsticks and let chunks of miso dissolve completely. You can buy the following tools to help dissolve miso.
- Miso Muddler (Miso Whisk)
- Miso Soup Fine-Mesh Strainer Set
Step 3: Add Tofu
There are three reasons why you add tofu last when you make miso soup with tofu.
- Silken tofu may break when you dissolve the miso paste in the soup.
- If you heat the tofu too much, the water in the tofu will escape and it will become hard.
- Tofu is edible (and delicious) out of the package (try Chilled Tofu and Tofu Salad recipes) and does not require cooking. You just need to reheat it.
Two Types of Tofu
- Silken or Soft Tofu (Kinugoshi Tofu 絹ごし豆腐) – Undrained and unpressed; the highest water content; a custardy texture.
- Medium to Medium-Firm Tofu (Momen Tofu 木綿豆腐) – Pressed; a spongy texture.
💡Pro Tip
The typical size for the tofu used in miso soup is ½ inch (1.3 cm) cubes.
Although it is very common to cut tofu on your palm in Japan (you have probably seen this in Japanese drama or manga), it’s not required and I recommend using a cutting board if you have never done this.
Two Important Cooking Tips
- Add miso paste to the soup stock right before serving. You can cook the ingredients in advance, but wait to add miso until you’re ready to serve.
- Never boil miso soup once miso is added because it loses nutrients, flavors, and aromas. If you turn off the heat right before boiling, this temperature (203ºF/95ºC) is considered the most fragrant stage for miso soup. And by the time you are ready to enjoy the soup, it is an ideal temperature (167ºF/75ºC) for drinking.
Let’s Make Miso Soup with Various Ingredients
Besides tofu and wakame seaweed, you can add so many seasonal and year-round ingredients to your miso soup. Here are some simple ones:
- Dense & root vegetables – carrot, daikon, potato, onion, gobo, taro, turnip, kabocha
- Soft & leafy vegetables – spinach, cabbage, leeks, eggplant, okra
- Mushrooms – shiitake mushrooms, enoki mushrooms, shimeji mushrooms.
- Tofu – aburaage (fried tofu pouch), koya dofu (freeze-dried tofu), yuba
- Seaweed – wakame, hijiki
- Noodles: cooked somen noodles
💡Pro Tip
For hard and dense root vegetables, start cooking them in cold dashi until they become tender, 5-10 minutes (depending on the vegetable and how it’s cut). For leafy vegetables, cook them in the simmering dashi for a few minutes. For mushrooms and tofu, cook them until heated after you add miso to the dashi.
Health Benefits of Miso Soup
Japanese people drink miso soup daily as we believe this delicious, healing soup is a gateway to great health. Just like green tea, you can safely say miso soup is the elixir of the Japanese diet. Here are just some of the health benefits of miso soup:
1. Helps maintain a healthy digestive system
With its beneficial probiotics, drinking miso soup helps to improve your overall digestion and absorption of nutrients.
2. Good source of nutrients
Miso is rich in minerals as well as copper, manganese, protein, Vitamin K, and zinc. Therefore, drinking a bowl of miso soup a day is like taking a natural supplement for your health.
3. Good for bones
Miso soup provides many bone-building minerals like calcium, magnesium, and manganese, which helps to reduce the risk of developing osteoporosis.
4. Improve your heart
The natural chemical compounds in miso, such as Vitamin K2, linoleic acid and saponin, are known to reduce the risk of heart disease and lower cholesterol.
To enjoy the amazing health benefits of miso soup, you will want to make your own miso soup. The instant miso soup will not be as good since they tend to contain higher sodium and may include other preservatives. There are some good brands out there, so just be sure to read the label.
Now that you’ve learned how to make miso soup at home, I hope you enjoy this nourishing soup every day!
Other Variations of Miso Soup You May Enjoy
- Homemade Instant Miso Soup
- Vegan Miso Soup (with silken tofu and wakame seaweed)
- Vegetarian Miso Soup (with easy seasonal vegetables)
- Kabocha Miso Soup
- Tonjiru (Pork & Vegetable Miso Soup)
- Clam Soup (Asari Miso Soup)
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Homemade Miso Soup with Tofu
Ingredients
For the Dashi (makes a scant 4 cups)
- 4 cups water
- 1 piece kombu (dried kelp) (⅓ oz, 10 g; 4 inches x 4 inches or 10 cm x 10 cm)
- 1 cup katsuobushi (dried bonito flakes) (packed; I used a loosely packed 3 cups in the video for stronger flavor)
For the Miso Soup
- 7 oz soft/silken tofu (kinugoshi dofu)
- 4–5 Tbsp miso (use 1 Tbsp (18 g) for every 1 cup (240 ml) of dashi)
- 1 Tbsp dried wakame seaweed
- 1 green onion/scallion
Instructions
- Gather all the ingredients.
- Cut 1 green onion/scallion into thin rounds.
To Make the Dashi (can make in advance)
- Add 4 cups water and 1 piece kombu (dried kelp) to a medium saucepan. If you have time, soak the kombu in water for 30 minutes. NEVER wash kombu and do not remove the white substance—that’s umami! These days, it‘s pretty clean, so just make sure there are no dirt particles.
- SLOWLY bring it to a boil (about 10 minutes) on medium-low heat so you can extract as much umami from the kombu as possible. Right before the stock boils, remove the kombu and set it aside for another use. (If you leave the kombu, it gets slimy and yields a bitter taste.) Now, what you have is Kombu Dashi. If you’re vegetarian/vegan, use this kombu dashi for your miso soup.
- If you‘re not vegetarian/vegan, add 1 cup katsuobushi (dried bonito flakes) to the kombu dashi and bring it back to a boil again. Once the dashi is boiling, reduce the heat, simmer for just 30 seconds.
- Turn off the heat and let the katsuobushi sink to the bottom, about 10 minutes. Then, strain through a fine-mesh sieve.
- Now you have roughly 4 cups of Awase Dashi. You can store the dashi in the refrigerator for up to 3–5 days and in the freezer for up to 2 weeks. Reserve the spent katsuobushi and repurpose it; see the suggested recipes that follow at the end of the instructions.
To Make the Miso Soup
- Add the dashi to the saucepan. If you are using dashi from the refrigerator, bring it to simmer over medium heat and turn off the heat.
- Add 4–5 Tbsp miso. Put the miso in a ladle, slowly add the dashi into the ladle, and stir with chopsticks to dissolve completely. Here, I‘m using a miso muddler. If you accidentally add too much miso, dilute the miso soup with dashi (or water).
- Here, I‘m using a fine-mesh miso strainer, which helps you dissolve the miso faster. After dissolving the miso in the strainer, you may see rice koji (especially when it‘s koji miso). It‘s up to you if you want to include it in the miso soup or discard it (personal preference).
- Cut 7 oz soft/silken tofu (kinugoshi dofu) into ½-inch (1.3 cm) cubes and add to the miso soup. Tip: Add the tofu after the miso is completely dissolved; otherwise, you might break the tofu when stirring in the miso. Note: It is very common to cut tofu on your palm in Japan. However, I recommend using a cutting board if you have never done this.
- Add 1 Tbsp dried wakame seaweed to the pot. Reheat the miso soup until it is just hot. NEVER BOIL miso soup because it loses nutrients, flavor, and aroma. Add the chopped green onions right before serving to keep their fresh fragrance and color. Tip: If you worry about salt intake, I recommend rehydrating the dried wakame in a separate bowl of water to get rid of the saltiness, instead of rehydrating it in the soup itself.
To Serve
- Serve immediately. Place on the right side of the table setting (read about this on Ichiju Sansai (One Soup Three Dishes)).
To Store
- In general, it‘s best to consume all the miso soup right away because it will lose its aroma and taste as time passes. Let your miso soup cool to room temperature (up to 4 hours; any longer and it will spoil) and then refrigerate. Keep for up to 2 days in the refrigerator. If you want to make a big batch to store for later, it‘s best to refrigerate the soup without adding the miso. When ready to use, add the miso only for the portion you need. You can freeze miso soup for up to 2 weeks. However, you have to remove the tofu before freezing as the texture will change.
To Reheat the Miso Soup
- Heat the miso soup in a pot over medium heat, but do not boil. Miso loses its nutrients, flavor, and aroma at high temperatures.
What to do with the spent katsuobushi and kombu?
- Save the spent kombu and katsuobushi in an airtight container and store it in the refrigerator for a week or in the freezer for up to a month.
- With the spent kombu, you can make Simmered Kombu (Kombu Tsukudani).
- You can also make Homemade Furikake (Rice Seasoning).
Nutrition
Editor’s Note: The post was originally published on Mar 3, 2011. The post has been updated with new images and a video on April 3, 2017. The post was republished with more content on April 18, 2022. The recipe and blog content were revised and updated on June 7, 2022.
