Southeast Asian Miso Soup

Dick Allgire, Health Reporter

POSTED: 10:44 a.m. HST March 12, 2002

A lot of ingredients, but it makes a wonderful soup.

Ingredients:

1 leek, greens included roughly chopped

1 onion, peel and cut into large dice

1 carrot, peeled and chopped

1 stalk celery, chopped

8 dried shiitake mushrooms

2 lemongrass stalks, cut into 4 inch pieces

2 inch piece of ginger, cut into 6 pieces

4 cloves garlic, unpeeled, cut in half

2 jalapeno peppers, cut in half

handful of cilantro stems

Garnishes

2 oz rice stick noodles, broken into 3 in pieces

2 TBS dark red miso

4 oz firm tofu cut into small cubes

1 scallion thinly sliced

1 cup watercress, heavy stems removed

2 TBS lime juice

1/4 cup cilantro leaves

1 small chile, cut into thin rings

Instructions:

In a stockpot combine leeks, onion, carrot, celery, mushrooms, garlic, ginger, lemongrass, jalapenos, cilantro stems, and 8 cups water.
Bring to a boil, reduce and simmer uncovered about 30 minutes.
Pour stock thru a strainer set over a large bowl. Discard solids. You should have about 5 cups stock. Pour back into pot.
Bring medium saucepan of water to a boil, add rice noodles. Let boil one minute, turn off heat and let stand 10 minutes. Drain.
Remove 1 / 4 cup of stock and combine with miso in a small bowl. Stir to dissolve. Add miso to stock, Add noodles, tofu, scallions, watercress. Stir in lime juice and cilantro. Serve hot with jalapeno rings on top.

Nutrition Information:
86 Cal. 4 g protein 1 g total fat 0 sat fat 16g carbs 0 cholesterol 409 mg sodium