To recap: I’m loving my newly purchased cookbook 6 Ingredient Solutions by Americas Test Kitchen. It fills a real need for me. Despite being a food blogger I have nights where I just can’t seem to get dinner on the table. (I feel like I might not be alone on this one.) This cookbook has really helped me out with this one with great ideas that are quick and easy but not boring. In fact I was so pleased when I tried my first recipe I decided to do a week of recipes from 6 Ingredients. Though since I’m a food blogger I couldn’t just leave well enough alone and try the recipes as is… I tweaked and played. So now I’m sharing with you my thoughts on the original recipes and my adaptations. So…
Day 1. Mushroom-Miso Soup with Shrimp and Udon– The original recipe calls for udon noodles, baby spinach, shitake mushrooms, vegetable broth, extra large shrimp, and white miso.
- Right off the bat this sounded easy to me, because I already make homemade miso and honestly it’s really pretty easy. My first objection to the recipe, no dashi! Miso just doesn’t taste right without dashi, it makes the recipe. I also don’t really understand why they didn’t use dashi because it is even available in prepackaged little packets for super quick use. You really don’t have to go skin your own fish or gather seaweed to make good miso. The second thing I wasn’t really feeling was the shrimp. I like shrimp a lot, but I just wasn’t feeling it in the miso. Obviously substituting another meat would be no big deal but I also felt like this could make a really good meatless dish as well. Weather I was going to use meat or not I felt like I would I want to add more veggies to really bulk it up and make it a complete meal.
- The ingredients I actually ended up using: miso, dashi, water, spinach, onion, carrots, bok choy, mushrooms, and udon noodles. Basically I made my normal miso, added the extra veggies, followed the directions to precook the udon, distribute to my serving bowls, and pour my miso over to serve. Obviously this wasn’t six ingredients anymore, and only somewhat followed the original recipe, but the original did make a great launching pad and I was super happy with my results. Plus, super quick to cook! The bulk of my time was spent chopping veggies.
- The results: Both my family and I were very pleased with this dinner. It was easy, healthy, and everyone ate it without complaint. My husband who loves miso was thrilled. I like miso a lot but usually serve it with rice instead of udon noodles, but I’m a major pasta lover, so the udon actually really made the dish for me. ( I also tossed one of my favorite condiments on top of my bowl: Sriacha, it gave it a great heat!) I highly suggest you give this dinner a try for a really nice change to the weeknight dinner rotation that’s really healthy.
Michelle’s Miso with Udon
Ingredients
- 4 cups water
- 2 tablespoons dashi (Japanese powdered soup stock)
- 4 tablespoons aka (red) miso paste
- 4 or more cups of assorted veggies prepared in bite sized pieces (I used spinach, onion, carrots, bok choy, and mushrooms)
- package of Udon noodles
Instructions
- 1. Fill a medium sized stock pot with water and mix in dashi, stirring to dissolve. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and add miso paste stirring well, as miso has a tendency to settle. Add veggies with longer cooking times (such as carrots) and simmer until tender. Add quick cooking veggies (such as spinach leaves) and simmer until veggies are tender or leaves have wilted into the soup.
- 2. In a second pot cook the Udon noodles following the package directions. My brand has you bring the water to a rolling boil, add the noodles, reduce the water to a low boil and cook for 5 minutes or until noodles are slightly tender.
- 3. To serve place the desired amount of noodles in each individuals bowl. Ladle the miso over the noodles. Serve immediately.
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