Miso mushroom broth with soba
A ten-minute broth with the depth of something that simmered all afternoon.
Words — WT Editorial Team
- Prep
- 10 min
- Cook
- 20 min
- Serves
- 2
- Level
- Easy
Broth is the most forgiving thing you can cook. This one leans on dried shiitake and white miso for savouriness, which means no stock cube and no long simmer.
Keep the miso off the boil: heat flattens its flavour and kills the live cultures it arrives with.
Ingredients
- 15g dried shiitake mushrooms
- 1 litre just-boiled water
- 200g fresh mushrooms, sliced
- 1 tbsp neutral oil
- 2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
- Thumb of ginger, julienned
- 2 tbsp white miso paste
- 1 tbsp soy sauce or tamari
- 150g soba noodles
- 2 spring onions, sliced
- Toasted sesame oil, to finish
Method
- 1
Steep the dried shiitake in the just-boiled water for 15 minutes. Lift them out, slice, and keep the soaking liquid — that is your stock.
- 2
Warm the oil in a deep pan and fry the fresh mushrooms hard until browned at the edges. Add the garlic and ginger for a minute more.
- 3
Pour in the shiitake stock, leaving the last gritty spoonful behind. Add the sliced soaked mushrooms and simmer for 8 minutes.
- 4
Cook the soba separately in plenty of water, then rinse briefly under cold water so it does not cloud the broth.
- 5
Take the pan off the heat. Loosen the miso with a ladleful of hot broth, stir it back in with the soy, and taste.
- 6
Divide the noodles between bowls, pour over the broth, and finish with spring onion and a few drops of sesame oil.
Notes from the kitchen
- Add a jammy egg or a block of silken tofu for protein.
- The broth keeps three days in the fridge and improves overnight.
Why we cook it
Mushrooms and fermented soy give a large amount of flavour for very little salt, which makes this an easy weeknight default rather than a project.
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