Name: Simple Restaurant Miso Soup
Yield: 1
Ingredients: 250 ml (1 cup ) dashi; 5 pieces of wakame; A few 1 cm cubes of medium-firm tofu; 1 tablespoon (about 15 ml) miso paste (either white, red, or a mixture)

Why it works: Tofu and miso share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 75 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓

Simple Restaurant Miso Soup

Serves 1

Ingredients

250 ml (1 cup ) dashi
5 pieces of wakame
A few 1 cm cubes of medium-firm tofu
1 tablespoon (about 15 ml) miso paste (either white, red, or a mixture)

Directions

Prepare

Heat the dashi to a light simmer.
While this is heating, lay out your bowl and place the wakame and tofu in the bottom.

Make and serve the soup

When the dashi simmers, take a ladle or so of liquid aside and mix it with the miso paste.
Remove the pot of dashi from the stove and stir in the miso mixture.
Ladle the prepared soup into the bowl and serve.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

110Calories

10 gProtein

6 gFat

6 gCarbs

Counts 2 of 3 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 2 portions

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Tofu	100g firm	76
Miso	1 tbsp (18g)	34
Wakame	not in our table	0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

Recipe from the Wikibooks Cookbook.

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

Tofu + misotop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together75 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Wakame + misotop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together8 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Wakame + tofutop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Dashi: Forms the liquid base that carries the flavor of the whole soup.
Miso paste: Adds salty, savory depth and aroma to the broth.
Tofu: Adds soft, mild protein that absorbs the surrounding broth.
Wakame: Adds chewy texture and a mild savory, oceanic flavor.

The step that matters

Mixing the miso into the broth. Miso should be dissolved in a little warm liquid first and stirred in off the heat. Boiling miso can dull its aroma and make the texture grainy, so the flavor is lost.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

Tomato Soup526 recipes

Brown Bread461 recipes

Mutton Broth292 recipes

Yorkshire Pudding264 recipes

Like knowing why a recipe works?

The free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.

Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.

Simple Restaurant Miso Soup