Recipes › Radish › Radish Top and Radish Miso Soup
Radish Top and Radish Miso Soup
This is the recipe that makes you feel brilliant about your garden, because it uses every single part of the radish — the roots sliced thin and added at the end so they keep their bite, and the leafy tops wilted into the broth where they add a mild peppery depth. A deeply savoury, clean Japanese soup that is ready in twenty minutes and wastes absolutely nothing.
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Ingredients
- 350 g radishes with their tops still attached, tops removed and washed separately, roots thinly sliced into roundsIf you have lost the tops, use 30g of washed baby spinach instead
- 3 tbsp white miso pasteor use mixed or red miso for a stronger, earthier flavour
- 1200 ml vegetable stock
- 200 g firm tofu, cut into 1.5cm cubes
- 8 g dried wakame seaweed, soaked in cold water for 5 minutes, then drained
- 3 spring onions, finely sliced
- 1 tbsp tamari soy sauceor use light soy sauce
- 1 tsp sesame oil
Contains: cereals gluten, sesame, soya.
Method
- Bring the vegetable stock to a gentle simmer in a medium saucepan over a medium heat. Add the drained wakame and the tofu cubes and simmer for 3 minutes.About 4 min
- Add the radish tops to the pan and simmer for 2 minutes until wilted and tender. Add the sliced radish roots and cook for a further 2 minutes — you want them softened slightly but still with a little snap.About 4 min
- Remove the pan from the heat. Ladle about 60ml of the hot broth into a small bowl, add the miso paste and stir until fully dissolved with no lumps, then pour it back into the pan. Do not return the pan to the heat after adding the miso.About 2 min
- Stir in the tamari and sesame oil. Taste and adjust the seasoning — you may not need salt given the miso and tamari are already salty.
- Ladle into warm bowls and scatter over the sliced spring onions. Serve immediately.
Tips
- Never boil miso — it destroys the live cultures and kills the flavour. Always dissolve it off the heat after removing the pan from the hob.
- Radish tops are genuinely good eating and completely free. Make sure you wash them thoroughly as they trap grit in their leaves.
- If your radish tops are large and mature rather than young and tender, roughly chop them before adding to the pot and give them an extra minute of cooking.
Ring the changes
- Add 80g of soba noodles (cooked separately and rinsed) to each bowl to turn this into a more substantial meal.
- A 3cm piece of fresh ginger, peeled and grated, added to the broth at step 1, gives the soup a warming lift that works well in cooler weather.
Keeping it
Store the soup without the miso stirred in if you plan to keep it — add the miso fresh when reheating. Keeps in the fridge for 2 days. Reheat gently; do not boil.
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