Meatless Monday: Roasted Vegetable Miso Soup with Broken Brown Rice Noodles
This soup has it all. It's sweet, salty, earthy, cruciferous and finishes with a kick. I feel lucky to say I had all the ingredients on hand, except miso, but it was on sale at Whole Foods, so this dish was just meant to be. I now have a large container of miso to use up, but hey, that sounds like fun!
I like to keep a well-stocked kitchen, but miso isn't something I always have on hand. When I do pick up ingredients like that, where you'll use some of it, but have a decent amount leftover, I often have a course of "that ingredient"-themed meals. Actually, upon searching for "miso" within all of my Pinterest boards, I have quite a few interesting recipes stock-piled, waiting to be tried. I won't miso you to death, but my creative culinary wheels are turning...fried wonton wrapper nachos with miso sauce, anyone?! We will see!
Roasted Vegetable Miso Soup with Broken Brown Rice Noodles
Serves: 2-4
Preparation TIme: 30-45 minutes
Ingredients:
2 c. butternut squash, diced
2 c. broccoli, florets separated
3 tbsp. light oil (e.g., canola, vegetable, or my fave, coconut), divided
1 tsp. sesame oil
1 tbsp. rice wine vinegar (or other light vinegar)
1 tbsp. soy sauce
1 tsp. maple syrup (or honey)
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp. ginger, minced
8 oz. mushrooms (I used button, but shiitake would be great!)
1 c. peas
8 c. water or broth of your choice (or a combination of both depending on how salty you want the soup to be; miso has some saltiness to it as well)
1/3 c. miso paste (I used white, which has a mellow flavor)
3-4 oz. dried rice noodles (I used brown rice cause I like the extra fiber, but white will work just fine), broken into smaller pieces
Sriracha & dark sweet soy sauces, to serve (optional, but recommended)​
Method:
1. Preheat oven to 475 degrees. Place squash and broccoli on two separate baking sheets, or on on one large one, making sure you can easily remove one of the vegetables from the pan if you need to. Whisk together 2 tbsp. light oil with the sesame oil, vinegar, soy sauce, maple syrup or honey, garlic and ginger. Evenly pour over the two baking sheets of vegetables and stir to coat. If you can't place the baking sheets side by side in your oven, make sure that the pan with the broccoli is on the upper rack with nothing above it. If they're all one one pan, don't worry about it! Roast until the vegetables start to turn golden, about 20-30 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, heat the other tbsp. of oil in a large saute pan. Once hot, saute mushrooms on high heat until golden. Set aside. My squash was golden before the broccoli, so I remove it from the oven and threw the cubes in with the cooked mushrooms and set side.
3. When the squash, broccoli and mushrooms are all close to done, heat water/broth and miso paste in a soup pot, bringing just to a simmer. Whisk the miso paste, making sure it has fully incorporated into the broth. As it simmers, feel free to scrape foam that forms off the surface of the soup. This is just a personal preference.
4. When ready to eat, add rice noodles to the broth, turn heat down to low, and let cook for 1-2 minutes. Then add roasted vegetables, mushrooms and peas. Let sit for a few minutes more until the peas are cooked through. Serve with a heavy drizzling of Sriracha and dark sweet soy sauces, which will add more deptch and hearty flavor.
