Seaweed miso vegetable soup

When I learned that Koreans eat seaweed soup for breakfast, I became curious and asked my Korean friends for pointers to the proper way of making it. It turned out to be a delicious yet really simple dish that serves as a nice platform for variations. We combined the recipe with miso soup and now eat this as a super healthy yet tasty comfort food.

Ingredients for 2-3 people:

• A large pinch of dried seaweed, Korean miyeok or Japanese wakame.
• A few garlic cloves, minced. I typically use 3-5.
• 1 TBS miso paste (do not go too heavy on miso, it will overpower eveything else)
• Tofu, cubed to 1/2 inch. A few TBS.
• 1-2 cups of vegetables, e.g. sliced cabbage, small cubes of butternut squash, chopped carrots, cubed turnips... Make sure that any root vegetables or squash are cut into 1/4 inch pieces to cook quickly.
• 1-2 TBS oil, I prefer extra virgin olive
• Dashi or water - about 500-750ml
• Seasoning: a subset of 1 TBS soy sauce, 1 TBS sesame oil

Method:

1. Soak seaweed in cold water for 10-15 minutes.
2. Drain the water, rinse the seaweed (optional), and gently squeeze out the liquid.
3. Heat the oil in a medium sized pot on a medium heat.
4. Add the minced garlic, cook for 30 seconds until fragrant.
5. Add the drained seaweed, cook for 1-2 minutes.
6. Add the dashi, vegetables, and miso paste. Stir well.
7. Add the tofu, gently stir it in.
8. Bring the soup to the boil and simmer for 5-10 minutes, until the vegetables and the seaweed are cooked.
1. Note: Cutting all the vegetables into small pieces helps with cooking time, and assures all the vegetables are cooked at the same time.
9. Turn the heat off.
10. Optionally: Season with sesame oil and soy sauce. I like to add those to the plate.
11. Yum!

Note: Sometimes we ladle the soup into our bowls over leftover grains (quinoa works really well) and cooked beans, or we add a bit of potato in the soup - and make a meal of it. Not traditional at all, but it completes the nutrients and fiber in the meal.

Soba making notes

We love soba. To the point that once I had a Tokyo layover after an overnight flight from Singapore, I took the train to the city to have some great soba noodles at Honmura An. Quite a trek for a bowl of noodles.

I tried my hand a making soba several times, with rather limited success. Here is an example where I was not able to roll the noodles as thinly as I should, they were hard to separate, and super fragile to cook. They were, however, tasty!

When we got a grain mill, I set a challenge for myself to learn how to make soba from 100% buckwheat. Sadly, I think my confidence has not been there: The lack of success in early attempts, consistent YouTube videos that making 100% buckwheat soba takes a lifetime to master, and statements from Japanese soba makers in their YouTube videos that humidity and kitchen temperature matter,  soba needed to be specially milled, a special bowl was used... None of that was particularly encouraging.

Something happened on the New Year's Eve 2020. Our MD sent out an email, saying how eating soba was a Japanese tradition for the New Year's Eve. I think I really wanted the awful 2020 to be over, so I took another look at recipes for home-made soba and found one that I attempted. And it worked beautifully. The noodles were not buckwheat flour only, but it was gluten free, which mattered as our gluten tolerance appears to be suspect. Additions to the four were psyllium husk and arrowroot powder, which I substituted with tapioca starch, that was what I had. The dough formed really nicely, I was able to roll it out thinly, noodles were easy to separate, and the flavor was stunningly delicious. I suspect freshly milled buckwheat may have played a role.

In my fear to compress the noodles too much, I cut them much wider than I would have normally, but there was no need for that. I left half of the dough for the next day, and the noodles were still perfect.

So, the quest is back on. My sincere hope is that this becomes something like crepes for me. My first attempt produced nothing but misery, which made me thinks crepes were really hard. Today I make them many different ways with more confidence that I probably should exhibit - I literally stopped measuring.

Here is the soba recipe I tried. I plan to use it as a starting point and start inching towards the 100% buckwheat, but even if I don't quite make it there, now I have confidence I can easily made delicious soba on my own. One thing I do know I need to adjust - get from volume measurements to weight, that is so much more reliable.

Soba with psyllium husk and tapioca starch

Ingredients (2-4 servings)

• 1 cup buckwheat flour
• 1/2 cup starch (I used tapioca)
• 1/4 tsp sea salt
• 1 TBS psyllium husk dissolved in 4 TBS water for about 2 minutes
• 1 TBS olive oil
• 6-8 TBS water (I needed 8)

Method

1. Mix the flour, the starch and the sea salt in a medium to large bowl
2. Add the husk, olive oil, and 6 TBS water
3. Mix with your hand until a moist but not sticky dough forms.
1. Add the remaining two TBS water if the dough doesn't come together
4. Knead the dough, first in the bowl, then on a board until it becomes soft, somewhat elastic, and easy to work with.
1. Note: I did not need to add any flour to the board, but you may need to
5. Divide the dough into two balls. If not using immediately, wrap each ball well into plastic wrap.
6. Sprinkle your board with buckwheat flour
7. Roll out the dough thinly, adding more flour as needed - make sure the dough doesn't stick.
8. Cut the noodles:
1. Pizza cutter works.
2. I sprinkled the noodles with a bit more buckwheat flour, folded them, and then cut them with a large cooking knife
9. Bring a large pot of water to boil. I added some salt to the water.
10. Boil the noodles for bout 2 minutes. I used a frying basket to hold a small batch of noodles so that I didn't need to fish them out.
11. Rinse the noodles immediately under cold water. This stops cooking and helps against sticking.
12. Eat any way you want.

Update on starch

From what I can tell, adding starch really is a matter of preference on the noodle texture. Starch adds some chewiness, which I like, so I keep using it.