Besides feasting on fruits and salads (which are mainly western-style dishes), I also do prepare warm vegetable soups either using a blender to purée the vegetables or add miso paste to a pot of vegetable soup. Whenever I feel like having something more savoury or oriental, I would cook myself a bowl of miso soup (a Japanese fermented bean soup) with my favourite seasonal vegetables.
I use to avoid drinking miso soup as I always have this impression that all miso soups are loaded with MSG and sodium which thus explains why it’s so salty. But I was proven wrong when I saw that our local supermarkets are selling organic miso that contains no MSG at the Japanese/International food section. I even studied their ingredient labels to see if there is a long list of preservatives added. But it seems pretty ‘clean’ except that it does contains some salt.
So after discovering this organic miso paste, I’ve been preparing miso soups right at the comfort of my own kitchen. Needless to say, it’s one of the easiest soup to prepare. Cook the raw vegetables in boiling water then add about a tablespoon of organic miso paste and that’s it!
But why miso?
One of the more widely-known benefit of drinking miso soup is the prevention of breast cancer. But there’s definitely more benefits to be drinking this high-sodium and probiotic soup.
Even though drinking miso soup may sound like a healthy dish to indulge in, do go easy with it as it is afterall a high-sodium food and there’s a limit to the amount of sodium our body can take.
This box of organic miso paste can last you for quite some time so make sure it is properly sealed and refrigerated after scooping out the miso paste. Sometimes I also use it to make savoury sauces and salad dressings. It can be used in place of soy sauce too.
I bought this at NTUC Xtra at JEM mall under the Japanese food section. I am not too sure if it could be found elsewhere though.
This organic miso white type by Hikari is made from 100% organic rice and soybean. It’s MSG-free and gluten-free. The koji culture is a yeast culture.
Do go for organic miso because organic miso uses non-GMO beans which are not subjected to pesticides or other harmful chemicals.