We’re coming up on Week 5, which means that the effects of exhaustion — fatigue, sore throats, and runny noses — are beginning to catch up to us. I’ve been feeling pretty under the weather for a while now but managed to pick up some ingredients to pull together this really simple soup that was instantly warming and very filling.
Since I don’t have a car, I sometimes find it hard to make Asian food because I don’t have access to an Asian grocery store. That’s why this miso-ginger broth from Trader Joe’s was a really great find — it serves as the base of the soup and the flavor can be supplemented with garlic, more ginger, or other spices. Miso is great because it’s rich in probiotics and helps supplement your stomach with healthy bacteria, and ginger has a lot of anti-inflammatory properties.
I chose basic ingredients that were easy to find and quick to cook, but the wonderful thing about this soup is that you can literally add anything to this broth — I chose tofu because I’m trying to eat less meat, but feel free to add chicken or beef if you’re not the biggest tofu fan.
Cook Time: 25 minutes
Ingredients
- 1 pack of Trader Joe’s Miso-Ginger Broth
- 2 heads of bok choy
- 1 pack of firm tofu
- 3-4 oz of shiitake mushrooms
- Salt
- Pepper
- Noodles (optional)
- A few cloves of garlic (optional)
- Soy sauce (optional)
Step 1
Heat up a large pot and pour your broth in. Mince your garlic and add it to the broth.
Step 2
Prepare your tofu and mushrooms. If you’ve never cooked with tofu before, cut a slit in the top of the packaging and drain the liquid. Pat the tofu down with a paper towel to remove some of the moisture, then cut into 2-inch pieces. Wash your mushrooms and cut them lengthwise.
Step 3
Once your broth is boiling, add the tofu and mushrooms. Cover with a lid and let boil for around 15 to 20 minutes, until the tofu has hardened a little bit and the mushrooms are chewy. Stir periodically — the tofu and mushrooms will rise to the top for a bit, but this is okay!
Step 4
Separate the bok choy leaves and give them a wash. I prefer to cut the ends a bit and put the whole leaves in, but you can also choose to chop the bok choy into pieces if you want them smaller. If you want to add noodles, now would be a good time to cook them in a separate pot!
Step 5
Once your tofu and mushrooms are cooked, lower the heat and add your bok choy. Stir a bit and put the lid back on until the bok choy leaves have wilted.
Step 6
Time to season! I added a few dashes of soy sauce to salt the broth, since it’s not very seasoned right out of the box. Add salt and pepper to your liking.
Step 7
Spoon into a bowl and enjoy!
This was large enough to last me through three dinners, which I thought was pretty reasonable given how inexpensive the ingredients were. On the first night, I added soba noodles, but the soup is also good by itself since there’s so much tofu in it. The soup tasted better on the second and third nights as well since the tofu absorbed more of the broth, so it’s also a meal that gets better over time.
If you try making this soup, feel free to shoot an email over to [email protected] with your feedback! Good luck with midterms, Tritons!
