Last Updated on October 26, 2022
[ヴィーガンじゃがいもと玉ねぎのお味噌汁]
Vegan Potato Onion Miso Soup is an easy and delicious vegan friendly miso soup that you can enjoy all year long! I consider this miso soup to be very simple yet hearty miso soup that can be a side dish with rice or a light meal as itself.
Taste of Vegan Potato Onion Miso Soup
The combination of potato and onion is universal and you already know they’re a great match!
Hearty and satisfying bites of potato accompanied by sweet but also savory onion can’t go wrong in any dishes. As far as I can remember, the pianist, Ingrid Fuzjko Hemming who is a vegetarian, also said she eats her potato miso soup everyday. Maybe that’d be a secret to making great music for her!
While I don’t think that’d my vitality for making music, I love this potato onion miso soup for many reasons.
- Easy
- Simple
- Basic
- Quick
- No Dashi required
I make this for breakfast all the time and eat more for lunch, then save some for the next day. Actually, I enjoy the firm texture of the potato in freshly made miso soup. But I also love the leftover when the potatoes are sort of broken down and melted into the soup.
No Dashi & Easy Steps
Just like my Japanese sweet potato miso soup, this vegan potato onion miso soup doesn’t need any dashi or stock.
I use the same hack (not really but it does work) to extract the flavor from the potato and onion—which is to cook from the cold water. No trick or special technique.
- Cut the potato and onion
- Combine them with water.
- Cook until potatoes are tender.
- Add miso.
- Serve.
When you start cooking potatoes and onion in cold water it gives a really good veggie dashi taste. In this approach, the sweetness of onion will slowly be released into the water at the same time, it also gives a good savory element to the water (soup) as well.
Believe it or not, potato actually gives a good background flavor as well! You won’t believe how much flavors you can extract from those two simple ingredients.
Another secret? Yes, but this one is an easy answer. Use good-quality and authentic Japanese miso.
It’s as simple as how it can be. Being Japanese, I use authentic miso (= miso from Japan) for making my miso soup. One of my joys is trying a variety of miso products that I can find here in the US. Actually, they all taste different from one another.
When you compare several miso products, you can really taste the difference. For example,
- Saltiness
- Sweetness
- Tanginess
- Mild or strong
- Aged or less aged
- Complexity
- Presence or ratio of rice koji (malted rice)
- Base ingredient (soybeans, barley etc.)
The truth is that the flavor profile of the type of miso you use can really affect the final taste of the miso soup you make. Of course, it’s all about your preference, availability, and what you incorporate the miso with.
My tip would be this. Just because it’s labeled as “miso” doesn’t mean that it’s just another miso. If you love miso soup or the taste of miso in general but never tried all different types of miso to find “yours”, I really recommend doing the miso taste testing.
Choice of Miso for Vegan Potato Onion Miso Soup
My go-to miso is yellow/brown color koji miso which is made of soybeans, rice koji and salt. When it’s labeled as “koji miso”, it typically contains higher ration of rice koji which makes the miso naturally sweet.
In fact, koji miso is the most common type of miso used in Japan. However, in the US, miso may be categorized by the base ingredient (soybean miso, barley miso, chickpea miso etc.) and also the color (white, yellow, red etc..) Koji miso falls into the soybean miso and yellow color miso category.
I love most of the miso selections from the rice factory New York. They have great selections of authentic miso from Japan and many organic options!
Choice of Potato for Vegan Potato Onion Miso Soup
I use yellow potatoes for this vegan potato onion miso soup recipe. It may be a personal preference but yellow potatoes doesn’t break down easily compared to russet potatoes.
That said, I often make one with russet potatoes as well. From time to time, I actually enjoy the fact that the soup gets thick from the broken potatoes. If you have other potatoes are in mind, try them, too!
Be sure to check out the “Step-by-Step Instructions (w/ Photos)” after the Printable Recipe!
Vegan Potato Onion Miso Soup
Ingredients
- 4 cups purified water
- 2 medium size yellow potatoes 2 pcs = about 14 oz / 400 g
- 1 1/2 cups thinly sliced yellow onion 1 1/2 cup = about 1/2 of medium onion
- 4 1/2 tbsp yellow/brown koji miso or your choice of miso, adjust to taste
- 1-2 scallion thinly sliced
- Shichimi pepper optional
Instructions
- Prep the potatoes, onion and scallions. Peel the potatoes and cut them in about 1-inch / 2.5 cm cubes. For the onion, slice them thinly along with the grain (fiber.) For the scallion, chop it finely and set it aside.
- In a medium sauce pan, combine purified water, potatoes, and onion. Cover and cook over medium to medium-high heat until a gentle boil.
- When it’s almost boiling, reduce the heat to medium low. Continue to simmer for 15-20 minutes until potatoes are fully cooked, soft, but not broken down. You can stick a skewer (or a toothpick) to check the doneness.
- Turn off the heat. Add miso to the soup. To do this, place the miso on a ladle then partially submerge the ladle in the soup. Use chopsticks to slowly incorporate the cooking water into the ladle so miso can dissolve.
- Turn the heat back on at medium to medium high to reheat it (never boil!)
- Serve with scallions on top. Sprinkle some shichimi pepper for some aromatic heat (optional.)
Notes
Choice of Potato
- I use yellow potatoes for this recipe but russet potatoes are also great.
Choice of Miso
- Taste profile of miso (sweetness and complexity) is completely different from one product to another. Find your favorite and adjust the amount to your preference.
- My go-to multipurpose miso is koji miso (soybean-based miso with a substantial amount of rice koji) of any kind. It has a nice balance of savory and natural sweetness from koji.
- Blended miso (of a couple of different types of miso, e.g., yellow and red miso blend) is also a good option. Red miso alone may not be recommended for this recipe.
Cooking Tips
- To extract the flavors of the potatoes and onion into the soup, start cooking in the cold water and cook slowly at medium heat.
- Never boil miso soup to retain the taste of miso at its best.
How to Store
- Although, miso soup tastes the best when freshly made, you can store the leftover in a container with lid and keep in the fridge. Consume within 2-3 days.
- Leftover miso can become saltier. If so, add water to dilute to adjust the taste as necessary.
Step-by-Step Instructions (w/ Photos)
1. Prep the potatoes, onion and scallions. Peel the potatoes and cut them in about 1-inch / 2.5 cm cubes.
For the onion, slice them thinly along with the grain (fiber.) For the scallion, chop it finely and set it aside. (miso is also shown in the photo.)
2. In a medium sauce pan, combine purified water, potatoes, and onion. Cover and cook over medium to medium-high heat until a gentle boil.
3. When it’s almost boiling, reduce the heat to medium low. Continue to simmer for 15-20 minutes until potatoes are fully cooked, soft, but not broken down.
You can stick a skewer (or a toothpick) to check the doneness.
4. Turn off the heat.
Add miso to the soup. To do this, place the miso on a ladle then partially submerge the ladle in the soup. Use chopsticks to slowly incorporate the cooking water into the ladle so miso can dissolve.
5. Turn the heat back on at medium to medium high to reheat it (never boil!)
6. Serve with scallions on top. Sprinkle some shichimi pepper for some aromatic heat (optional.)
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