Delicious Soup Recipes

Ingredients:

8 cups dashi (see dashi recipe or buy instant dashi powder)
8-10 tablespoons miso (fermented soy bean paste, white or dark, grainy or smooth, low sodium or not, use your favorite)
1/2 head cabbage, cleaned and chopped
3 carrots, peeled and sliced
2 potatoes, peeled and cubed
1-2 lb salmon, in large bite-size pieces
1 lb tofu, drained and cubed
eggs, if desired
steamed rice

Dashi is a Japanese fish stock. There are several ways to make this. You can purchase powder at most grocery stores and reconstitute it following the package directions or you can get the"tea-type" baggies of bonito stock and boil these. The "teabags" have the correct amount of bonito flakes sealed into a little bag.
The teabag bonito has no added MSG. Vegetable stock would be a fair substitute.
Bring the dashi to a boil in a large stock pan and add the carrots and potatoes.
Reduce heat to simmer and cook 10 minutes or until carrots and potatoes are about cooked through.
Add cabbage to pan. Cook for 1-2 minutes or until cabbage is just crisp.

Put miso (starting with the lesser amount) into a sieve.
Dip the sieve into the stock and melt the miso into the soup.
The purpose of the sieve is to make sure there are no big miso chunks in the soup.
You can also disslove the miso into some hot dashi and slowly add it in.
Make sure to taste as you add the miso-- too much will make the soup salty.

Add tofu cubes gently.
Add salmon pieces to top of pan and push carefully into the soup.
Simmer until the salmon is cooked through.
When salmon is cooked, portion out the salmon pieces, vegies, and tofu to individual serving bowls.
If desired, break into the soup an egg for each person and"poach" it.
Put this on top of each portion.
Taste the miso soup and adjust miso as necessary.
Pour the miso soup over the top of the salmon, vegie, tofu, and egg bowls.