This summer vegetable miso soup is a great way to enjoy the summer heat with flavorful and hearty vegetables. You will have a healthy, nutritious soup in 10 minutes with miso and lots of colorful vegetables!
Miso soup is always on our menu. We vary the vegetables we use according to what's in season, so right now, it features zucchini, eggplant, and tomatoes.
It has a slightly sour taste from the tomato that goes perfectly with summer heatwaves!
- This recipe is for you if:
- You love Japanese miso soup
- You want to make vegetable miso soup
- You are looking for a healthy and hearty miso soup recipe
Are you ready to make it? Let me walk you through it! If you want to check the recipe, please jump to the recipe.
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About This Recipe
- Japanese vegetable miso soup
- Hearty and healthy soup recipe
- Use dashi powder and miso paste
- Easily adapt to vegan/vegetarian
📋 Ingredients
Here are the ingredients (amounts are in the recipe card below).
- Vegetables: Zucchini, eggplant, tomato (or pick your favorite vegetables. See more variations paragraph)
- Dashi powder (soup stock)
- Miso paste
Miso paste and dashi are important for making miso soup, so let me tell you about them before jumping into the recipe.
How to Choose the Right Miso
Miso is a fermented paste, and the ingredients are rice, soybeans, and salt. I recommend checking the ingredients label and picking the authentic miso when you buy miso. (Something like this miso and this miso might be good.)
Miso's fermenting time is from 6 months to 2 years. It takes a lot of time. But some of the products are out in a much shorter time by adding additives to fake the deep umami and flavor. I don't recommend them because it's not real miso.
I also don't recommend "Dashi miso," which dashi is already included in miso. It's handy, but it loses its authentic miso flavor.
Dashi Powder
Miso soup is one of the most iconic dishes in Japan, and dashi (soup stock) is the key ingredient for that. We have many kinds of dashi, and each has its unique flavor profile that brings a new dimension to your dish!
You can either make dashi from scratch or buy dashi powder at a grocery store. I use dashi powder (This one contains sardine, bonito, kombu, and shiitake mushrooms.) to save time in this recipe.
If you want to learn how to make it from scratch, please check these recipes: Niboshi dashi, Shiitake Kombu dashi (vegan dashi), and Awase dashi.
Vegan Adaptable
Miso soup is easy to adapt to vegan/vegetarian. Substitute dashi with vegan dashi, such as Kombu dashi (kelp) or Shiitake Kombu dashi (mushroom and kelp).
🔪Instructions
Let me walk you through the steps of this recipe. Please see the recipe card below for more detailed instructions. You can also watch this video.
- Cut vegetables
- Bring to a boil: Put vegetables, dashi powder, and water in a pot and bring to a boil on medium heat.
- Simmer: lower the heat and simmer for 3 to 5 minutes until vegetables get tender.
- Add miso paste: Add miso paste and stir gently until it dissolves.
The tomato has lost its shape and dissolved into the soup. That's why this miso soup is slightly sour and perfect for a hot summer!
Storage
If you have leftovers, transfer them to a glass storage jar and keep them in the fridge. It will last up to 3 days.
When you eat it, warm it up in a microwave (if the jar is microwave safe) or transfer it to a pot, heat it, and turn it off right before it starts boiling.
Variations
Miso soup is a great dish to experiment with. Try adding different ingredients like other vegetables or tofu for some variety!
Other ingredients to add:
- Corn
- Green beans
- Okra
- Green leafy vegetables
- Tofu
- Aburaage (deep-fried thin tofu)
- Wakame seaweed
- Somen noodles (skinny noodles)
Somen noodles are usually served as cold noodles and dipped in noodle soup, but it's also delicious to put it in miso soup. I hope you like the idea!
Thanks for Stopping By!
Thank you for taking the time to read my blog♡ . If you’ve tried this recipe (or any other recipe on the blog), please give it a star rating below!
Also, feel free to leave comments if you have any questions. I love hearing from you!
Chef JA Cooks is a Japanese food blog that shares simple and healthy Japanese home cooking recipes, including vegan and vegetarian. From traditional Japanese recipes to modern recipes with step-by-step instructions.
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📖 Recipe
Summer Vegetable Miso Soup
Print Pin SaveEquipment
- Saucepan 18cm/7 inches
Ingredients
- 1 Zucchini, 230g
- 1 Eggplant, 160g
- 1 Tomato, 150g
- 1 teaspoon Dashi powder
- 2 tablespoon Miso paste
- 700 ml Water
Instructions
- Cut vegetables: Cut vegetables into bite-size pieces.
- Bring to a boil: Put vegetables, dashi powder, and water in a pot, and bring to a boil on medium heat.
- Simmer: lower the heat and simmer for 3 to 5 minutes until vegetables get tender.
- Add miso paste: Turn off the heat, add miso paste, and stir gently until it dissolves.
Video
Notes
- Storage: 3 days in the fridge.
- Substitute: You can substitute dashi powder with other dashi: vegan dashi (shiitake mushroom and kombu), awase dashi (bonito and kombu), niboshi dashi (dried sardine).
- If the taste of the soup is light to you, please add more miso and dashi powder.
- When you warm the soup up, do not over boil miso soup because it loses nutrients and the aroma of miso.
Nicole
Love this soup!! Made a full batch and brought it for lunch. The lovely aroma filled the lunchroom and had everyone asking what I was eating. I portioned and froze leftovers. I hope that's OK. Upon reheating I plan on just warming to save the integrity of the miso. It's rare for me to have the same lunch in a week so that says a lot for the wonderful flavor of this soup!‐
JURI
Thanks for trying this miso soup recipe, Nicole! So happy to hear you enjoy it so much!
Dashi
This soup is very light yet filling with all the vegetables. I appreciate the discussion of the major ingredients and watching the video for the preparation techniques. Thank you very much for an easy view into Japanese cooking and flavors.
JURI
Thank you for such a nice comment!