Miso Mushroom Broth

This is a super light very low-calorie soothing broth full of mushrooms, iodine-rich seaweed and fermented mushroom. Inspired by Korean and Japanese Temple food and a firm favourite on retreat.

You can use any combination of mushrooms for this. The enoki soften and are almost like noodles in this soup and most of the delicious oomph comes from either shiitake or porcini, so one of those is essential. Fresh oyster mushrooms are meaty and delicious, chestnuts or ceps will also work.

Ingredients

enoki - 1 pack (cut off the thick base and cut into large pieces)

fresh oyster - 1 pack (chop)

plain button - 1 pack (half them)

dried shiitake - about 6 (or a small handful of porcini)

kombu seaweed - thumb-sized piece

wakame seaweed - small piece

sweet miso (Shiro miso) - start with a teaspoon per bowl and add more if desired

Small piece of grated ginger

Spring onion chopped

sea salt if desired.

Method

• Bring 2 litres of water (filtered or Spring water if available) to the boil. Add kombu seaweed and dried mushrooms (porcini or shiitake) then simmer for 20 mins to soften the mushrooms.  A simmer is fine, it doesn't need to be a rolling boil.  Soaking first is even better but this is a shortcut.  A good quality instant veggie stock is a great addition here.

• When the dried mushrooms are soft, add the ginger and all the raw mushrooms (apart from the enoki which need no time at all)

• Simmer the raw mushrooms and before serving, add the spring onion and enoki and let them soften for literally a minute. 

• Take about 2 tablespoons of broth and put it in the base of your bowl and dissolve the miso into it. 

• Ladle the broth into your bowl and mix the miso through.  Add a little more miso if you need and enjoy.  This soup is also delicious the next day.
  

Medicinal Mushroom Variations

For added medicinal mushroom boost -  use chaga tea as base when making stock 

Or - when serving, add a little broth to serving dish, stir in some miso along with ½ tsp chaga powder & 1 tsp tremella mushroom powder 

I love options so here’s an alternative approach if you would like to store a broth for use over several days. Start in the same way - bring water to the boil adding seaweed, dried mushrooms, a little vegetable stock powder, ginger & spices. At this point, add in some dried chaga chunks (a few small pieces crushed), dried reishi mushroom or foti foot pieces (both reishi and foti root are bitter so use sparingly). Additional herbs for a winter support broth could include astragalus, schizandra or cats claw. Allow broth to simmer for an hour to extract the goodness. Cool, strain and store. When ready to serve, gently heat in a pan, adding fresh mushrooms, spring onions, enoki and miso.