I often hear Japanese food described as ‘boring’. I don’t know why. It’s certainly not the presentation, which I always find startling and pleasing to the eye. Maybe it’s because the food tends toward ‘unspiced’ – by that I mean they don’t use huge combinations of spices to mask the flavor of the food they’re eating. I find Japanese food tastes exactly like what it’s made from.

I like the term ‘simple’ because I feel like Japanese food is simple. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have depth. I find the flavors tend to stack on top of one another – each ingredient playing up an essential part of a different ingredient in a circle that doesn’t really have a single, distinguishable ‘base’ ingredient.

This recipe follows those ideals without waxing poetic about the glories of Japanese food. It uses simple ingredients to make a wonderfully delicious soup. This recipe includes some quintessential flavors for Japanese inspired cooking.

Miso is probably the most commonly heard of ingredient in North America. For good reason. A cup of miso soup is excellent comfort food or a wonderful start to a meal. Miso contains all of the essential amino acids, which makes it a complete protein. It’s stuffed with vitamin B and antioxidants. Miso also helps encourages healthy digestion, restores your gut bacteria. A neat trick with miso is that the darker in color it is, the healthier it is. (The brown rice organic from Carwari is a great place to start)

Toasted sesame oil is probably my favorite East Asian ingredient. I’ve always loved sesame, and the oil brings all of those nutrients to dishes that don’t lend themselves to including the glorious little seeds. Try to find cold compressed and organic oil, much like extra virgin olive oil, it produces the best results. Sesame seed oil is has a fairly high heating temperature, but once it reaches its ‘smoke point’ takes on a strange flavor.

The final flavor should be familiar to pretty much everyone who has ever played even the slightest attention to healthy food. Eggplant sits low on the glycemic index so it’s good for diabetics, it’s got ten percent of your daily fiber intake. It’s got decent trace minerals and vitamins. It’s loaded with antioxidants, which makes it great brain food, and perfect for fighting free radicals that can age your body.

The Recipe

• 4 tbsp toasted sesame oil 
• 1 medium eggplant, cut into cubes
• ⅓ cup of Tamari
• 7 mushrooms, sliced
• 2 tbsp ginger, finely grated
• 6 cups of water (1.5 litres) boiled
• ⅓ cup of brown rice miso paste
• 4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
• 1 small carrot, grated
• 45 grams of wholemeal rice vermicelli
• 2 handfuls of baby spinach
• Small handful of coriander, roughly chopped
• Pepper to taste
• Toasted sesame seeds to garnish (optional)

WHAT TO DO

1. In a frying pan, heat 2 tbsp of the sesame oil on a medium heat for around 30 seconds to a minute. Add the eggplant and make sure that all the pieces are touching the pan. Give it a stir every 30 seconds and cook until it is slightly browned and soft. Make sure your skillet is hot
2. Add the tamari sauce and take off heat. Put to the side until you need to add to the soup.
3. In a medium sized saucepan, add the other 2 tbsp of sesame oil and warm on medium heat. Add the mushrooms and ginger and stir till they brown slightly.
4. Add the boiled water and miso paste. Making sure that the miso paste is dissolved properly. I find it easiest to dissolve it between two tablespoons while mixing it around in the water. Stir for about 30 seconds to combine it all well.
5. Add the garlic and carrot and let it simmer for a couple of minutes then toss in the cooked eggplant and all the juices from the pan.
6. Let this cook for about 3-4 minutes and then add the vermicelli noodles. They normally take about 3 minutes to cook.
7. Add the spinach and coriander and give it a good stir.
8. Take off heat and sprinkle some toasted sesame seeds on top. You may also like to add some pepper here if you want, for a bit of heat add even more.
9. Feel free to substitute the carrot for small cubes of pumpkin or leave it out altogether. You can pretty much use any vegetable in this soup. Capsicum, shallots and other mushrooms would also work really well. If you want some more protein, you can add some tofu. 

Image Source:
http://www.japanfoodaddict.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/Miso-Soup-with-Eggplant-Ingredients.jpghttp://www.japanfoodaddict.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/Miso-Soup-with-Eggplant.jpg