Rich miso broth, protein-rich edamame, flavorful and filling soba noodles, and fresh green and orange vegetables–This miso soup has everything you need for a delicious meal without using every pot in the kitchen!
Usually I serve miso soup as part of our “sushi meal.” I make or buy vegetable sushi rolls, cook some edamame, toss some green leafies with some tahini dressing, and make a simple miso soup. On a recent rushed weeknight, I decided to skip all the separate dishes and just throw everything into the soup.
If you’ve been following this blog for a while, you know that I’m a fan of one-pot meals. Many of my soups and stews (and even some of my casseroles) contain enough protein, vegetables, and starch to be nutritious and filling meals all on their own. On nights when I’m too rushed or tired to bother making several dishes, I check the fridge for what I have–or what’s been in there the longest–and figure out a way to cook it all together and make it come out tasting like a lot of thought and planning went into it–without dirtying every pot in the kitchen.
If you’re transitioning to a vegan diet and feel overwhelmed, give one-pot cooking a try. Even if you’re a seasoned vegan cook, you can get supper on the table without a lot of fuss (and make clean-up a breeze) by cooking a one-pot meal every now and then.
To make one-pot recipes easy to find, I’ve created a new category in my Recipe Index called One Pot Meals. I’ll be going back through my older recipes adding dishes that fit, but you can speed things up. Please let me know in the comments:
Which of my recipes have you made as a one pot meal? And while you’re at it, what are some other one-pot meals that you love?
I designed this recipe to make a lot so that I could eat the leftovers for lunch over a few days. You can easily halve the recipe if you want to make less.
Hearty One-Pot Meal Miso Soup
Ingredients
- 1/2 teaspoon toasted sesame oil optional, see note
- 1 tablespoon ginger-root peeled and minced
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 12 cups water
- 1/2 tablespoon wakame or other seaweed
- 1 1/2 cups carrots cut into matchsticks
- 1 1/2 ounces dried shiitake mushrooms see note
- 1 1/2 cups frozen shelled edamame
- 5 ounces buckwheat soba noodles uncooked, see note
- 1 pound baby bok choy cut into 1/2-inch slices
- 6-8 tablespoons mellow white miso see note
- 1 teaspoon prepared wasabi optional or to taste
Instructions
- Heat the sesame oil in a large, non-stick soup pot. Add the ginger and garlic and cook for one minute. Add the water, wakame, carrots, and dried mushrooms and bring to a simmer. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes, or until mushrooms are tender. Add the edamame and cook for another 5 minutes.
- Add the noodles and the bok choy, cover, and cook until noodles are tender, about 7 minutes.
- Place the miso and wasabi in a bowl and add about 1/2 cup of the hot soup broth. Stir or whisk until there are no lumps and then add it back to the pot and heat through but do not boil. Taste and add more miso or wasabi as needed.
Notes
Nutritional info is approximate.
Please pin and share!
Tiffany
September 19, 2011 at 10:51 amI’m a huge fan of miso soup and really like the sound of your hearty version of it. And it looks gorgeous. What a perfectly belly-pleasing meal!
Katie Cain
September 19, 2011 at 11:35 amI have miso soup for breakfast occasionally…nice idea to make it into a one-pot dinner. Such great ingredients in this soup and most are relatively easy to keep on hand, too. Your photo makes me want to make it tonight. 🙂
Mary Pomerantz
September 19, 2011 at 11:39 amGreat recipe! I’m going to make it some time this week. I am also a lover of one pot meals. Unless I am entertaining, I see know reason to spend a lot of time in the kitchen. I’ve tried many of your recipes and one in particular I remember is the “Berber Stew” recipe. I loved the recipe because you gave us a spice mix to use. Your recipe that I modified to make it “one dish” was your mini-quiche recipe. I bake it all in one 9×9 in pan instead of individual servings. Thanks for the inspiration!
Sue Bair
September 19, 2011 at 12:11 pmThis looks so awesome. I think I know what dinner is tonight. Thanks!
Lois Gowen
September 19, 2011 at 12:36 pmThat makes our mouth water. Just got back from the weekly marketing, but we are having miso soup next week. Thanks.
Katia
September 19, 2011 at 12:54 pmThanks! One-pot meals are sooo handy. I love your idea of adding some wasabi. I often make miso soup, very yummy and very similar to yours, but i hadn’t thought of that! I’m sure it tastes delicious and i’ll make your version for lunch tomorrow. I’ll be adding some snippets of spring onion too. I agree, miso soup followed by vegan sushi (and finally some fresh lychees and a cup of Japanese sencha or jasmine organic green tea) is an ambrosial meal 🙂
janet @ the taste space
September 19, 2011 at 1:46 pmI am the queen of one-pot meals!! Some of your one-pot meals that I have liked are the Creamy Cashew kale and Chickpeas (no need for the quinoa to make a complete meal), African Pineapple Peanut Stew, and the North African Chickpea and Kale Soup.
A few others that I have bookmarked include the French Lentil and Portabella Stew and the Eggplant and Chickpea Curry.
My most recent favourite one-pot meal salad (if you use canned beans) was this:
Skillet-Toasted Corn, Tomato and Anasazi Bean Salad
http://tastespace.wordpress.com/2011/09/09/skillet-toasted-corn-tomato-and-anasazi-bean-salad/
This Brazilian Black Bean Soup is a lovely hearty soup, too (one-pot if using canned beans):
http://tastespace.wordpress.com/2011/04/04/brazilian-black-bean-soup/
I am also fond of this completely inauthentic kitchari with quinoa and red lentils: http://tastespace.wordpress.com/2011/06/29/quinoa-and-red-lentil-kitchari/
One-pot meals don’t always have to be soups or stews.. this is a simple roasted broccoli and chickpea dish: http://tastespace.wordpress.com/2011/06/03/forty-clove-chickpeas-and-broccoli/
janet @ the taste space
September 19, 2011 at 1:47 pmJust thinking about it and your cashew kale is not one-pot since you have to puree the cashews! But it is still super tasty. 😉
js
September 19, 2011 at 3:58 pmIt is if you buy cashew butter or make some ahead of time that you keep on hand. 🙂
Karmalily
September 19, 2011 at 1:53 pmI also love one-pot meals – primarily because I despise doing dishes!
Sarah H
September 19, 2011 at 2:33 pmYour food is so beautiful and inspiring I actually use your photographs as wallpaper on my laptop! Thank you for sharing all of your hard work with us! Your blog is one of my favorite resources for healthy living, especially if I’m in a rut. 🙂
Ginger
September 19, 2011 at 3:17 pmYou can get 100% buckwheat soba noodles from Eden Organics, but they are pricey. I eat this soup all the time and absolutely love it.
moonwatcher
September 19, 2011 at 4:03 pmHi Susan,
This looks awesome!! As you know, my kinda soup bowl! For those who need to be gluten free Eden does make soba noodles that are 100% buckwheat. They are pricey, about 7 bucks, but very good. I have treated myself to them now and then when I can find them. Here is a link:
http://www.edenfoods.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=108300
Off the top of my head, your Mexican pumpkin soup has made me many a satisfying one pot meal. I usually make it with pureed winter squash, since I’m likely to have that frozen from the garden, and use multi-colored potatoes. I put salad greens or spinach in the bottom of a big soup bowl, ladle it in, and top with cilantro (or parsley if you can’t abide cilantro). That I’ve got my greens and several veggies and beans all in one bowl. It’s a great wintertime lunch or supper when there’s snow on the ground up here in the north country!
A note about the 100% buckwheat noodles: they produce a lot of “froth” as they start to cook, so if you use them, stand by and be ready to turn down the heat or take the lid off so you don’t have a frothy overflow. 🙂
Thanks for another great recipe!
xo
moonwatcher
Blue
September 19, 2011 at 5:14 pmI usually do the same on ‘Sushi night’ ie. make a whole lot of little tasty morsals but it takes ages and I always end up eating after the family have finished theirs! This looks like something they will all love.
Joann
September 19, 2011 at 6:43 pmI love love love one-pot meals, and this one looks beautiful.
GetSkinnyGoVegan
September 19, 2011 at 8:37 pmLooks so wonderful & earthy! Love Wakame in soup…..Well, I try to!!! I do like it unless I think about it too too much. Miso Meals Rock!
Haley
September 19, 2011 at 11:07 pmHoly YUM, this looks amazing!! And I just might have everything on hand 🙂 DINNER!!!
Michelle
September 20, 2011 at 1:43 amI make something very similar! It is fast and easy and fresh. I sometimes include seaweed and a huge spoonful of peanut butter. It’s so good!
Kavi
September 20, 2011 at 2:43 amI love this recipe! Its new for me & looks really beautiful!
–
Kavi | Edible Entertainment
danielle
September 20, 2011 at 12:02 pmthis looks amazing! do you think i can use red miso?
SusanV
September 20, 2011 at 12:05 pmSure! Start with a little less and add more to taste since it’s stronger.
Ninufar
September 20, 2011 at 8:35 pmToo funny – I made an almost-one-pot miso stew dealie tonight, too!
I tend to cook enough rice in my rice cooker for 3 or 4 meals, so that means most of my meals are effectively one-pot meals… I also dedicate one afternoon each weekend to slower vegetable prep, then I refrigerate or freeze the rest. Couldn’t do it every night.
So happy that you got to go to the convention, sounds like it was a wonderful time! Am slightly pouty that your upcoming book involvement is as photographer rather than as culinary mastermind… (I want YOUR book, so there! 😉
It doesn’t help that somehow my taste buds and Ms. Atlas’ aren’t very aligned. I hope the book does very well anyway!
Fiona
September 21, 2011 at 1:41 amWhat a fantastic idea to do a section called One-Pot Meals! I love when you post one-pot recipes. My favorites have always been your soups. I’d love to see some one-pot meal soups that are cold for summer (even though I know it’s going into fall in the US now). This soup looks awesome and I had actually already bought the ingredients to make your other miso soup recipe you have posted but this looks so good I might wait til I go grocery shopping next and buy a few things from this recipe and combine them together. I will post when I try it!
Fiona
September 22, 2011 at 4:49 amJust had this for dinner and loved it! I always loved miso soup but rarely made it because I also tend to like cooking one meal that covers all the bases rather than a bunch of little ones. But with this recipe I think I will be enjoying miso soup a lot more now! Thank you for the ingenious idea! I used broccoli and 1.5 cups white mushrooms instead of carrots and bok choy. I love mushrooms so it was great to have a lot. I also used cubed silken tofu instead of edamame. (I made a miso soup in between this one and your other one.) I used 6 T miso (athough I will add more tomorrow when I eat it for lunch) and used only 10 cups water. I didn’t add seaweed because I can’t find it where I am. I can get nori though – do you know if I could break up little pieces of nori and get a similar result? Thanks again for the great recipe!
SusanV
September 22, 2011 at 7:05 amAim so glad you liked it! I think nori will be fine. You can cut it into pieces or even powder it and add it to taste.
Josephine Royle
September 21, 2011 at 3:35 pmI’m really enjoying your website-I’m a newly converted vegan-following Dr. Esselstyn’s program. Do you have any suggestions for an egg-white substitute that I can use in veggie burgers or vegetable pancakes (spinach or zucchini) ? I was thinking of using applesauce as a binder but have not tried it yet. Thanks for your help.
SusanV
September 21, 2011 at 3:45 pmI would probably use corn starch. Just mix 2 tablespoons of corn starch with 2 tablespoons of water to replace one egg or egg white. There’s a list of other substitutes on this page: http://fatfreevegan.com/substitutes-and-techniques-for-fat-free-cooking/
Lani Muelrath
September 21, 2011 at 4:03 pmWhat a gorgeous picture – it reminds me of miso soup we ate every day last March in Palau at a Japanese restaurant. I can even smell it looking at your picture!
As a fellow FF gal, you are clever to remind people that the sesame oil is so strong flavored that the amount you’d use to flavor a pot is spread so far that it is a tiny molecule in a vast miso soup universe. Brava!
Lani Muelrath
Lani Teshima
September 22, 2011 at 1:04 pmOne quick tip when buying miso: In Japan, how salty the miso is seems to depend on its geographical origin. Miso from the Kanto area (where Tokyo is) generally tends to be redder and darker, while miso from the southwest regions (like Kyushu) are usually much lighter in color. In Japan, they are differentiated as “akamiso” (red miso) and “shiromiso” (white miso). Frankly, they are ALL brown, but akamiso is usually closer to a darker brown or brick brown color, while shiromiso is lighter, almost taupe or khaki. Generally, the white miso is MUCH milder and far less salty.
If you want to toss in some more ingredients, I’d pop in some grilled tofu cubes and some roasted corn kernels. The tofu would add a bit of protein, too.
I’ve actually never used miso soup for anything beyond soup by itself… This is a great idea. Typically, soba noodle bowls use a clear broth and I’ve never considered making it heartier this way. Thanks for the recipe.
Aline
September 23, 2011 at 1:22 amI made this yesterday, the only thing that I changed was using tofu instead of edamame, since I was totally out of it. And I use my own homemade shiro miso in it. It came out wonderful! Super easy to make, thanks for the great recipe
Rae
September 25, 2011 at 3:16 amOh I love miso! Not a fan of noodles (because they look like worms and I’m weak to their mental powers!) but bok choy, sesame oil, and ginger, mmm! You’re speaking my language. Thanks for the recipe!
Corrin Radd
September 25, 2011 at 5:51 pmMade this tonight. Subbed chard greens for the bok choy and went a little easier on the wakame and much easier on the wasabi. Loved it. Thank you.
Leslie
September 26, 2011 at 8:03 amHi Susan, I made this for dinner a few nights ago and it was fantastic. Only made a few minor changes: used swiss chard instead of bok choy, subbed cubed lite silken tofu for the edamame, used dried mushrooms and fresh mushrooms (I LOVE mushrooms!), and used only about half the amount of soba noodles. My husband loved it as well. Thanks for another delicious recipe. ~Leslie
maryeb
September 26, 2011 at 5:25 pmI made this over the weekend and it was wonderful. It’s even better the next day.
I cooked the noodles separately to keep them from getting soggy and just added them to each individual bowl. I had to sub green cabbage since I couldn’t find bok choy.
I’ll be making this again soon. Thanks for the great recipe.
Lori
September 27, 2011 at 7:09 pmI made this tonight for dinner. My husband loved it. Thanks so much for this recipe! It’s quick and simple.
L Dunn
October 2, 2011 at 5:28 amSusanV, this one pot Miso Soup is going to become one of my “I’m home late and I am hungry” meal. The recipe looks and sound AWESOME.
Liz
October 5, 2011 at 6:29 amMade this last night! It came together surprisingly fast and was super delicious! Thanks for another great recipe. 🙂
Jeannine Fay
October 5, 2011 at 6:20 pmThank you for this. My kids slurped it up and asked for more. It was a hit, and I haven’t had one of those in a long time. I served it with a salad with carrot ginger dressing (http://smittenkitchen.com/2010/04/avocado-salad-with-carrot-ginger-dressing/) . In the dressing I just replaced the called for 1/4 cup oil with water and sure did not miss the oil on bit. Thanks again. Your website has been such a wonderful resource for me since I’ve gone vegan.
Lynne
October 19, 2011 at 9:44 pmMade this last night. I didn’t have any baby bok choi nor did the grocery store so I used chard and while I love mushroom, not a fan of shitake, so left them out also. I used way more miso than the recipe called for, BUT it was the best miso I have ever had and I lived in Japan for 5 years where miso was even served for breakfast
Thanks so much. This was awesome.
Carol @ The Not Quite Vegan
October 23, 2011 at 3:14 pmThis looks great! I just recently bought and tried miso for the first time, and I loooove it. I can’t believe I am just now discovering it, almost 4 years into being a vegetarian. I’ll definitely have to try this one. I am all for the one-pot meal idea. Thanks!
Michelle B
November 6, 2011 at 4:37 pmRadishes are another awesome addition to hearty miso soups. Last summer I had some heirloom watermelon radishes from my CSA, which were fantastic in miso soup. I imagine Daikon would be good as well. Yum!
Diana J
December 1, 2011 at 1:49 amWe really enjoyed this meal. I used napa cabbage in place of the bok choy with terrific results. I also increased the miso for more pronounced flavor and added green onion as garnish. Thank you for this simple and satisfying soup!
Cyndie
December 1, 2011 at 5:27 pmThis Miso Soup looks wonderful! I am going to try it this weekend. I just have one question, what is wakame seaweed like and where do I find it? Is it dry like Nori? I have some of that.
Cyndie
December 16, 2011 at 1:58 pmSusan,
I just made a pot of your Hearty Miso Soup. It is wonderful! And that’s coming from someone who never liked Miso Soup at our local Japanese restaurant. I think your version is milder and it is so good. The only thing I did different is add Organic Extra Firm Tofu cut in small cubes. This will definitely be a regular at my house. Thanks for all the wonderful recipes. You have made my journey to vegan ever so much easier.
Jeanne's Daughter
January 4, 2012 at 9:50 pmThis looks wonderful. I like the idea of using edamame as the protein source in a soup. I am going to try this. Here’s another one-pot stop soup I concocted last year. The cauliflower gives it a nice smooth texture. http://tinyurl.com/itsinthesoup
Jeanne's Daughter
January 10, 2012 at 4:40 pmI love to make curried cauliflower and chickpeas I found the recipe on epicurious, and it continues to wow vegetarians and meat-eaters alike! Here’s the link on epicurious: http://tinyurl.com/6nrgrv2.