Vegan Shimeji Mushroom Miso Soup is a perfect way to appreciate the umami-rich taste of shimeji mushrooms in savory Japanese miso soup. It's impressive how much umami from the shimeji steeps into the miso soup without using any vegan dashi or broth. Yield: 5 small bowls or 4 medium bowls
Prep Time5 minutesmins
Cook Time25 minutesmins
Total Time30 minutesmins
Course: Soup
Cuisine: Japanese
Servings: 4
Author: Plant-Based Matters
Ingredients
4cupspurified water
4ozwhite buna-shimeji (beech) mushroomsor brown, trimmed off the bottom and separated
1cupthinly sliced yellow onionabout 1/4 of medium onion
5 tbsp + 1 tspkoji misoor your choice of miso, adjust to taste
In a medium pot, combine purified water, shimeji mushrooms and onion. Cover and cook over medium heat until a gentle boil (seethe “Notes” below for how to extract the flavor of shimeji.) Then reduce the heat to low and continue to simmer for 5 minutes.
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 soup into the ladle so miso can dissolve. Turn the heat back on to medium low and continue to simmer for a couple of minutes just enough to reheat.
Stir and serve with scallions on top.
Notes
Shimeji
I use the white buna-shimeji called Bunapi® from HOKTO.
Bunapi® has no bitterness at all that exists in some brown buna-shimeji. Typically, white buna-shimeji has less bitterness.
Feel free to use brown buna-shimeji or other shimeji alternatives.
Be sure to trim off the bottom end before using.
Flavor Extraction of shimeji (and onion) to make “dashi”
To extract the best flavor possible from shimeji, start cooking from cold water and cook slowly and never fully boil it. No need for kombu dashi or any other broth when you do this hack!
The same works for onion which brings out the natural sweetness to the soup.
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-base miso with a substantial amount of rice koji) of any kind. It’s still savory but koji makes it slightly sweet!
Blended miso (of a couple of different types such as yellow or mellow white & red) is also a good choice.