Various Japanese soup

Miso soup

Miso soup is a daily essential in Japan.
It is called Misoshiru in Japanese.

Miso soup is made by mixing miso with dashi (Japanese broth).
And a few kind of foods are added in it.

Added foods are generally tofu, abura-age, fu, wakame, green onion, hakusai, spinach, daikon and other vegetables.
Additionally mashrooms, shells, egg and so on are commonly used.

Usually, one or two kinds among these foods are used.

There are two main types of miso.
They are shiro-miso (white miso) and aka-miso (red miso).

Shiro-miso soup is cooked in many case, but also there are some areas where aka-miso soup is mainly cooked. (For example, Nagoya area and Kyoto area)

Aka-miso soup is called Aka-dashi, and it has saltier and thicker taste than shiro-miso soup.

Miso has the flavor of fermented food and dashi has the flavor of fish.
Therefore, some foreigners may dislike miso soup.

Miso soup is inseparably related to the Japanese meal.
In restaurant and hotel, miso soup is usually served in a set of the meal.

In Japan, miso soup is positioned as a dish eating with rice.
So, it is served with main dish from the beginning of the meal.
You can eat it whenever you like during the meal.

Other various Japanese soup

Suimono

Suimono is the clear soup without miso.
As the polite word, it is called Osuimono.

Suimono is made with only dashi soup and salt.
Therefore, it is very important to use high-quality and tasty dashi.

The taste is sophisticated, so it is mainly served on auspicious occasions.

Tonjiru

Tonjiru means pork soup.

Sliced pork is added to miso soup.
In addition, konnyaku and various vegetables such as goboh (burdock), satoimo (Japanese taro), carrot, etc. are added.

Pork and many foods are in the soup, so this is served not only as soup but also as one of main dish.

Kenchinjiru

Kenchinjiru is also a soup with many foods.

Tofu, kon-nyaku, daikon, carrot, burdock and sato-imo (Japanese taro) are fried with sesame oil, and they are boiled in the soup of dashi, shoyu and salt.

This is the soup without miso, and originally one of vegetarian dish.

Ushiojiru

Ushiojiru is very simple clear soup, and is a kind of Suimono.

It is made by boiling fresh fish or shells in water and adding a little salt.
We can taste the pure flavor of the ingredient.

Return to Food