Since you asked:

"Therefore, to be possess'd with double pomp, to guard a title that was rich before, to gild refined gold, to paint the lily,
to throw a perfume on the violet, to smooth the ice, or add another hue unto the rainbow, or with taper-light
to seek the beauteous eye of heaven to garnish, is wasteful and ridiculous excess."

~William Shakespeare,
ca. 1595

Yup, that's us.

January 25, 2014

Daikon blossoms and miso happiness...



It is not uncommon for us to start our day with soup, a hangover from my days as a macrobiotic cook. There is something so comforting about a bowl of miso, something so centering for the start of the day, that we generally have this dish three times a week, supplementing it with a bowl of greens and sometimes a grain dish.

I had so many comments on Facebook that I am posting one of my soup recipes here for those who wish to try it, along with my resource for miso. South River miso is hands down the best miso around: organic, foot trod beans and rice koji, and offering such creative combinations as my favorite, garlic red pepper. You can find them here, and if placing an order, do it sooner than later. Their beautiful unpasteurized miso will only ship during the cooler months of the year. Hot tip: order in a jar of the dandelion leek for the spring. They gather their wild leeks by the river, and the bitter dandelion greens make an excellent liver cleanse.

I start my miso with filtered water, about four cups for the two of us, and add wakame, a sea vegetable that has remarkable properties of removing toxins and heavy metals from the body. Then, half an onion, thinly sliced. After that, the soup takes it shape from what I have on hand: carrots, fresh shiitake, Tuscan kale, you name it.


A spoonful of miso will do for each person. You can soften it by adding hot water to it and then adding the dissolved miso to the pot. I often just do it in my big soup ladle, using some of the broth from the pot and then adding it back in with the miso. If we're keeping it a one pot meal, I may throw in more vegetables, a few vegetable gyoza (dumplings), and the I like to finish the soup with daikon flowers, thin slices cut from a notched piece of radish. Thinly sliced scallions go in last, cut on the diagonal to impart more nutrients and flavors to the soup.

健康に

1 comment:

More about Bonnie said...

Very nice recipe, and pretty pictures!