Adriana Urbina is an In The Know cooking contributor. Follow her on Instagram and visit her website for more.
This cozy and comfy seaweed miso stew is ideal for cold weather. It’s packed with vitamins, minerals and nutrients that will give you instant comfort and an immune boost.
For the root vegetable component, you can opt to use sweet potatoes or winter squash, both of which will balance out the saltiness that comes from the seaweed and miso. You should also note that I used brown miso, which is very strong and delicious, but you can also use white or red miso. (Just make sure it’s unpasteurized, if possible!)
If you would like to add any animal protein to your stew, you are more than welcome to (cooked chicken or pork both work). When making the stew, the mushrooms are browned with garlic and onions first to maximize their flavor and then simmered in a miso-based soup. Once finished, this stew will warm you up in a second!
The seaweed root veggie miso stew will last for about two weeks in the fridge or two to three months in the freezer.
Seaweed Root Veggie Miso Stew
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 15 minutes
Yield: 4 generous servings
Ingredients:
- 3 dried shiitake mushrooms*
- 6 cups of water
- 1/2 small onion, sliced
- 1 chopped winter squash or sweet potato
- 3 stalks of wakame*
- 3 tablespoons of miso (white, red or brown miso)
- 1 block of tofu, cut into small squares (firm or soft)
For garnish:
- Toasted sesame seeds
- Sliced scallion
*Look for shiitake and wakame in the macrobiotic section of your local natural food store.
Directions:
1. Soak shiitake mushrooms in one cup of water.
2. Bring remaining water to a boil. Add onion, sweet potato and wakame.
3. Once softened, remove shiitake from water. Thinly slice and add to your stew. Strain the soaking liquid and add that to the soup as well.
4. Simmer until root vegetables are tender. At this point, you can mash the winter squash/sweet potato a little to make the soup creamier.
5. Add the tofu and continue cooking for at least five more minutes.
6. Pour one cup of the stew into a bowl using the stew’s heat to dissolve the miso.
7. Add the dissolved miso back into the pot and stir to combine with the rest of the stew. Once you’ve added the miso to the stew, do not bring it back to a boil, as boiling miso destroys its nutritious enzymes.
8. Serve stew hot with garnishes of sesame seeds and scallions.
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