Miso Soup

Miso soup is a Japanese soup made by dissolving fermented soybean paste, miso, into a stock called dashi, and it is one of the two basic soup styles in Japanese cooking, alongside clear soups known as suimono. Miso itself is made by fermenting soybeans with salt and the mold Aspergillus oryzae, and the character of a bowl of miso soup depends heavily on which type of miso is used, with common additions including wakame seaweed, cubes of tofu, sliced green onion, fried tofu or mushrooms depending on season and region. The soup is central to the traditional Japanese meal pattern known as ichiju-sansai, one soup and three dishes, usually served with rice, and it remains an everyday food in Japan today, with about three quarters of Japanese people eating miso soup at least once a day and the great majority of the country's miso production going into the soup. It has been eaten by both ordinary people and the nobility for many centuries, making it one of the most enduring dishes in Japanese cuisine.