Shiitake Miso Soup

We are set for a big cool down in the weather tonight. It was a mild 61ºF  (16ºC) when I awoke this morning and is predicted to be a chilly 34ºF (1ºC) tomorrow morning. The coming change in weather, however, wasn’t the inspiration for having soup for our midday meal. I was eager to put some of the recently acquired fresh shiitake mushrooms and kefir lime leaves to use.

 

Of course, the soup would need to be flavored with miso, and red miso is the kind we have. I also wanted the vegetable ingredients to be sliced very thin, especially the mushrooms. Shiitakes are dense and rather tough, and I wanted them to be a little more tender. My mandolin (which I didn’t like anyway because it wasn’t adjustable) fell apart awhile back and all I have now are lots of sharp knives, questionable knife skills and a very small version of a mandolin barely large enough to slice garlic. That is what I used to slice the mushrooms, so don’t look for a nice cutaway view of full mushroom shaped slices in this soup.

A quality (read: expensive) adjustable mandolin is on my request list for Christmas this year (might as well wish for the best!). I will accept gifts from anyone as long as there are no strings attached.

 

Ingredients for the soup were:

• Thinly sliced shiitake mushrooms
• thinly sliced red onion
• thinly sliced celery
• shaved carrot
• sliced green onion
• chopped garlic chives
• fresh whole spinach leaves (stems removed)
• chopped fennel fronds
• kefir lime leaves
• red miso
• water

 

To accompany the miso shiitake soup I reheated leftover green falafel (wrapped in wet paper towel) in the microwave. The falafel were accompanied with store-bought coconut chutney with added sautéed mustard seeds and curry leaf paste. Sometimes the test of a good recipe is if it still tastes good reheated the next day. The falafel passed that test with flying flavors. The soup was consumed down to the last drop, so no further tests required.

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