This hearty and veggie-packed vegan vegetable miso soup is perfect comfort food. It’s flavourful, nutritious and satisfying so that you can enjoy this as a main. You need to prepare Umami broth (broth made of dry shitake mushrooms and kombu) at least 2 hours in advance but the making process is very easy.
You may not know Umami broth (‘Dashi’ in Japanese) if you are not familiar with Japanese cooking. There are different types of Umami broth. The most commonly known ones are broth made with fish (ready made broth flakes or powder can be purchased cheaply) and vegetarian version made with dry shitake and kombu. A lot of people in Japan use the fish one as their Umami broth, especially for making miso soup. You could get vegetarian version broth from some shops it’s not so common. Here in London, I have never seen the vegetarian umami broth so I have to make my own one. You need only 2 ingredients, dry shitake mushrooms and kombu to make broth and they look like this in the picture below.
How I make the Umami broth
It’s super easy but you need to have two extra hours in addition to your cooking time to make the vegetable miso soup. Two hours before cooking, bring water to boil with the dry shitake and kombu in a pot, turn off the cooker and set aside. Umami juice will slowly come out from the dry shitake and kombu during this process.
How to make Vegetable Miso Soup
It’s really easy to make this soup. In the recipe below, I listed vegetables that I used but If you don’t have the same, you could put any veggies that you have. However, I highly recommend to use onion, garlic and ginger.
Heat the oil in a pot and fry the vegetables until soft and pour in the Umami broth and vegetables stock. Add in the white miso paste and stir to dissolve. Season with salt and black pepper as needed. The shitake and kombu get softer after being cooked for a while so you can either serve in soup or take them out and discard. We always eat them as they are quite delicious! Please see the full instructions below as they are more precise. 
When you find dry shitake and kombu in a shop, you may think they are bit costly but they will last for a long time as you need only a little bit for one cooking so they are actually not expensive.
If you are thinking of making soup with lots of vegetables, give this try and let me know how it went☻
Vegetable Miso Soup
Ingredients
For Umami broth
- 500 ml water
- 6 dry shitake mushrooms
- one handful dry kombu known as kelp
For the rest
- 1 tbsp oil I used sunflower oil
- 1/2 medium red pepper
- 10 medium button mushrooms sliced
- 1 medium carrot chopped
- 1 medium onion chopped
- 1 tsp ginger
- 2 medium potatoes chopped
- 1 medium sweet potato chopped
- 2 handfuls frozen brussels sprouts defrosted
- 1 handful frozen edamame beans defrosted
- 2 tsp garlic puree
- 300 ml vegetable stock
- 2 medium spring onions chopped small
- salt and pepper for taste
- 45 g white miso paste I'm not sure if red miso would work for this recipe.
- extra water to adjust taste and consistency
Instructions
- At least two hours before you start cooking, bring the water to boil with the shitake mushrooms and kombu In a pot. Turn off the cooker and set aside.
- In another pot (if you don't have another pot, transfer the Umami broth to a ceramic bowl and use the same one), heat the oil and cook the red pepper, mushrooms and carrot until soft on a medium heat. Add in the onion and ginger and continue cooking for about 2 minutes.
- Add in the potato, sweet potato, brussels sprouts, edamame beans and garlic puree and carry on cooking for a minute.
- Pour in the Umami broth and vegetable stock and cook on a low heat until the potatoes are soft.
- Add in the spring onion and miso paste and stir slowly to dissolve the miso paste. Season with salt and black pepper as needed.
- Leave to simmer for about 10 minutes. Taste your soup and if you want the flavour to be a little stronger, add a bit more miso.
- You can take out the shitake and kombu and discard if you wish at this point before serving but I recommend to leave them as they continue to release the umami juice. We eat the shitake as they become softer in the soup, they are delicious!