A watercolour of a bowl of brown broth with noodles, mushrooms and sweetcorn
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Adapted from Japanese miso soup, using dried mushrooms in place of dashi

Miso and mushroom noodle broth

An established dish converted to shelf-stable ingredients. Every substitution is documented below.

How long it keeps

About 6 months, set by Mushrooms (dried), though 1 of 6 ingredients has no sourced figure, so the real limit may be shorter.

Indicative, for planning a build before you buy. The answer for a pack you already own is the best before date printed on it, and that only holds if it has been stored as the label says.

Serves
2
Burners
1
Pans
1
Water
1 L
Active
8 min
Total
25 min

Ingredients

Dried mushrooms weigh nothing, keep for a year and make a stock with genuine depth. The soaking water is the stock: pouring it away is the mistake this dish exists to prevent.

  1. Cover the mushrooms with 700 ml of just-boiled water. Leave 15 minutes. Do something else.
  2. Lift the mushrooms out, squeeze them over the bowl, and slice them. Keep every drop of the liquid.
  3. Bring the soaking liquid to a simmer. Noodles in for the time on the packet, usually four minutes, with the mushrooms and drained sweetcorn.
  4. Off the heat, stir the miso through with the soy sauce and chilli.

Never boil miso. It is a live ferment and boiling flattens it into saltiness; the whole reason it is in the cupboard is the complexity that destroys. Off the heat, always.

Pour the last of the soaking liquid carefully, any grit from the mushrooms settles at the bottom of the bowl.

Serves 2.

What this was adapted from

Japanese miso soup, using dried mushrooms in place of dashi

  • dashi made from kombu and bonito → dried mushrooms and their soaking water

    Dashi is the foundation of the original and neither kombu nor bonito is in a British store cupboard. Dried mushrooms soaked in hot water give a different savoury depth -- earthier, less marine -- and the soaking liquid IS the stock, so nothing is wasted. It is not dashi and does not claim to be.

  • fresh spring onion and tofu → tinned sweetcorn

    Neither keeps. Sweetcorn is the wrong culture entirely and the right texture: sweet, firm, and a contrast to the soft noodles.