Zucchini & Yellow Squash Miso Soup

Most people think that miso soup can only contain tofu cubes, wakame seaweed, and scallions. Well, let me tell you that miso soup can be anything really.

Depending on the season, people incorporate different vegetables into their miso soup.

In fact, in winter when the temperature drops, you might be surprised that it is common to add pork slices into miso soup!

In summer when zucchini and squash are abundant, it is time to make zucchini yellow squash miso soup.

Zucchini, Yellow Squash, and Onion

Our main stars for this miso soup are:

• zucchini
• yellow squash
• onion

To make it taste more familiar, I also add:

• tofu cubes
• scallions

And of course, just with any other miso soup, we will also need:

• dashi (Japanese stock). Regular dashi stock contains fish, if you are vegetarian that eats fish, this will work. Otherwise, use shiitake mushroom stock. Or make your own by soaking together 6 cups water with 25 gram dried kombu seaweed and 25 gram dried shiitake mushroom for overnight.

• miso paste. To keep the taste light, I stick with shiro miso (or white miso). You can always experiment with other miso paste, such as red miso, or combination miso.

Cooking miso soup

Miso soup is a really quick and easy soup to prepare. Unlike most soup that takes long hours, miso soup is usually done in a matter of minutes.

Here is the step-by-step:

1. Boil together dashi, onion, zucchini, yellow squash, and tofu cubes in a soup pot.
2. Once it reaches boiling point, quickly turn the heat to a slow simmer and simmer for 5 minutes.
3. Turn off heat, add miso paste into a strainer. Lower the strainer into the hot soup, and stir the miso paste until all has dissolved into the soup.
4. Serve hot with thinly sliced scallions.