Things You'll Need:
- 2 small onions
- 1 tsp. light (not toasted) sesame oil
- 2 Tbs. chickpea miso
- sea salt
- 3 small dried shiitake mushrooms, soaked at least 4 hours (optional)
- a few scallions for garnish (optional)
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Step 1
Cut the onions into small slivers.
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Step 2
Cut the stems off the shiitake mushrooms and save them for making vegetable broth or discard.
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Step 3
Add 1 tsp. of sesame oil to the bottom of a medium saucepan and heat over low heat for a couple of minutes.
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Step 4
Add the onions and a generous pinch of salt and sautee for 5-30 minutes. The longer you sautee, the sweeter and more flavorful the onions will get until they almost caramelize. Five minutes of sauteeing will give the onion soup a richer flavor. Thirty minutes of sauteeing will make it out of this world. Be careful not to burn the onions.
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Step 5
Add 4 cups of water and the chopped mushrooms and bring to a boil.
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Step 6
Turn down the heat low, cover, and gently simmer for 10-15 minutes.
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Step 7
suribachi and surikojiRemove a few tablespoonfuls of hot water from the soup and put it in a small bowl, mortar or suribachi (Japanese version of a mortar). Add the chickpea miso to the onion soup and mix well mix a spoon, pestle or surikoji.
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Step 8
Turn the heat off under the soup and add the miso mixture. Let sit for a few minutes before serving. Heat is required to activate the enzymes in the miso, but too much heat will destroy them.
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Step 9
Optionally, add some sliced scallions to each bowl of onion soup just before serving.
Comments
IcyCucky said
on 11/30/2008 This sounds so delicious and easy enough for me to try! 5*
ethoslogos said
on 11/26/2008 I love onion soup so I will have to try this recipe. Sounds so easy even I can do it!