We love a great miso soup recipe, but it can do so much more, too. Discover how versatile miso paste can be with these recipes, from miso brownies to a quick spaghetti dinner.
1. Chicken, ginger and miso patties with a sticky ponzu glaze (tsukune)
These are made like chicken meatballs, by mixing together minced chicken and a bunch of aromatics, but include a few scoops of red miso for a deliciously meaty depth. Serve as an appetizer, or part of a larger Japanese meal.
2. Sapporo ramen
What sets Sapporo ramen apart from its ramen brethren is the combination of butter, miso and fresh corn. Sweet, salty, creamy, and deeply warming - just what you need in a city that averages around 5m of snow a year!
3. Miso green spaghetti
Adding red miso paste to this dish adds a delicious umami punch, and it's a super quick meal to make, too. A great recipe from Donal Skehan for those who need to whip up a speedy dinner.
4. Miso and brown sugar ice-cream with dried peach compote
Miso and brown sugar are a match made in dessert heaven, a yin and yang of salty and sweet that come together in caramelly harmony.
5. Miso-roasted eggplant
This dish is known "nasu dengaku" ("deep-fried miso eggplant") in Japanese, but this version is adapted for larger, European style eggplant. Instead of being deep-fried, the eggplant is chopped and roasted, mixed with a miso-based dressing, then roasted a little further to deepen the flavours and so everything browns and melts together. Warning: addictive.
6. Miso raisin brownies
We know that you don’t need to mess with a brownie, but if you’re going to, we recommend doing it with miso and raisins - miso really makes the chocolate flavour pop, and raisins add surprising little bursts of fruity sweetness.
7. Miso-grilled salmon with soba noodles
This dish delivers a double-miso hit: first, the salmon is marinated in a white miso-based marinade (similar to traditional saikyo-yaki of the Kyoto area), and the freshly boiled soba noodles are mixed through a sweet and tangy miso dressing. Some freshly steamed green beans or bok choy, or fresh mizuna would balance the meal nicely.
8. Salted miso caramel with ice cream
White miso adds depth and a subtle savoury note to this caramel sauce, delivering a perfect balance of sweetness and umami. It's a perfect partner with ice-cream, pancakes or pastries.
9. Miso salmon and eggplant skewers
The marinade is a combination of white miso paste, miso, tamari, ginger and melted coconut oil. While not a traditional Japanese ingredient, it adds a nutty and creamy element that balances the salty miso.
10. Eggplant and miso dip
If you’re a fan of creamy baba ganoush, try this Japanese-style version. The trick is wrapping the eggplant in foil and grilling directly over a flame until blackened all over, which give the eggplant all sorts of new flavour dimensions. That, and the spoonfuls of rich red miso.
11. Wagyu tataki
Because wagyu beef is so rich, it’s popular to serve it tataki-style - flash-fried and finely sliced, to create little morsels of flavour. This one is topped with a creative concoction of rehydrated dried figs, white miso, and a few other surprising ingredients.
12. Chickpea and carrot salad with miso-tahini dressing
A versatile dressing to have in your repertoire - use it liberally with this chunky, hunky salad and beyond. Whatever miso you have on hand will work - red miso will make it a little stronger and saltier, and white a little creamier.
13. Miso chicken
Miso paste is added to the braising liquid for this chicken, along with mushrooms, garlic, chillies, ginger, thyme, lemon zest, nori and chicken stock, and then finished with coconut milk and coriander after roasting. Basically, flavour comes from a lot of angles and meets together to create perfectly balanced magic.
Find more in the miso recipe collection.
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