Beyond Tofu: (Almost) Everything You Can Add to Miso Soup

In Japan, home cooks and chefs alike go beyond the usual cubes of tofu when preparing a bowl of miso soup. Depending on the person who made the soup, you might find fresh shiitakes, okra, scallions, potatoes, radishes or daikon, carrots, greens, shrimp, sliced pork, seaweed or silken tofu; truly, you can add almost anything. Tender, fast-cooking ingredients like scallions, spinach, shrimp and silken tofu may not need any pre-cooking, but tougher ones—potatoes, daikon, pork, carrots—should be par-cooked somehow before adding to the soup.

The base of a good bowl of miso soup also varies from chef to chef. Dashi—either homemade or from granules—is a must, whether it's added to plain water or chicken or vegetable stock. The miso paste itself gives the soup body and, of course, flavor. The type (white, red or a mix) and proportion are up to you: A large proportion of red miso will produce a more intense soup than a small proportion of white miso; a blend of red and white will be somewhere in the middle.