Recipe - Enoki Miso Noodle Soup

It is quite beautiful sometimes just how simple some dishes can be. I have made it one of my (most likely far too many) goals in 2014 to start cooking more Asian cuisine. When I found an amazing steal of a deal on enoki mushrooms at a local supermarket, I had to figure out how to best use it. I recalled that my mom used to put it in her own soups often, and considering the abundance of ingredients needing to be used in the fridge, I decided to finally clean up the coffers. Duc had just finished the last harvest of his first batch of hydroponically grown Tuscan kale - such beauts! - so he had plenty to use. We also had a bag of shirataki noodles, traditional Japanese noodles made from yam, and a small bit of miso paste left so a Japanese-inspired dish was the way to go. If you can't find shirataki noodles, you might want to use cellophane noodles also known as Chinese vermicelli - these are the translucent ones. Anyhow, this was a healthful and satisfying soup that was just plain easy to make so give it a whirl yourself.

Step 1: Ingredients (yields 2-4 servings)

• 2 cups chicken stock
• 4 cups water
• 6 oz enoki mushrooms
• 3 cups kale, roughly chopped
• 1/4 cup miso paste
• 7 oz shirataki noodles, angel hair style

Step 2: Prepping the stock
Bring stock and water to a boil in a large pot. Separate enoki mushrooms by chopping off the base and washing well. Reduce heat to medium to stop the boil but keep it hot. Add in mushrooms and then chopped kale. Right as it wilts, mix spoonfuls of hot stock to miso paste in a separate bowl until well dissolved. Then add in miso paste.


Step 3: Finishing
The last to go in are the shirataki noodles which only need to cook 2-3 minutes. Immediately after that, turn off heat so as not to kill the miso. Serve hot and with freshly cracked pepper if desired.


Photography by Duc Duong.