Fresh and dried mushrooms make this soup flavorful and packed with nutrients.
Mushroom soup is earthy and satisfying. Miso soup is also filled with great flavor and comfort. Combined, I think they are delightful together, really complex in flavor, and satisfying to the bone!
Bunapi shimeji mushrooms are also called beech mushrooms because they live and grow on beech trees. Although bitter when raw, they have a lovely nutty flavor when cooked. They are similar in appearance to enoki mushrooms, but with a little more flavor. They are a good source of fiber, antioxidants, vitamins B6 and D, thiamin, niacin, riboflavin, folate, potassium, pantothenic acid, and iron. Interesting, mushrooms are the only plant food that contain Vitamin D. I had not seen these until recently, and now they seem to be everywhere, and they are organic. For the soup, I also used my favorite shiitake mushrooms.
Make your own stock, or not.
This version uses homemade stock, but you can purchase mushroom stock or even use a mild vegetable stock enhanced with some dried mushrooms. I had prepped mushrooms for this and another dish so I had a lot of stems and pieces to use!
Use all the vegetable trimmings from the soup ingredients in your stock! Don’t want to waste a bit of flavor.
Use the noodle of your own choice
For the ramen, I chose black “Forbidden” rice noodles. They came with a flavor packet which I did not use; they are generally filled mostly with salt, and I knew the miso would have enough salt in it to satisfy the whole recipe in this regard.
The miso I used here is a lovely medium colored chickpea miso with tons of flavor and moderate salt, 500 mg. per tablespoon, so each serving worked out to 250 mg.
There are lots of things you can use for garnish, or just keep it simple and stick with the soup. You can also add tofu, shrimp, a soft-boiled egg, or other protein, green beans, pak choi –– it’s all good!
Mushroom and Miso Ramen
Stock:
- 1/2 lb. mushrooms or stems and pieces, chopped
- 1 large carrot
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 2 bay leaves
- 1-inch knob ginger
- ½ ounce dried mushrooms
- 2 quarts water
Soup:
- 1 small onion, sliced thinly
- 1 small carrot, sliced thinly half moons
- ½ lb. shiitake mushrooms, sliced thinly
- 2 quarts mushroom stock
- 2 tbsp. miso
- 3.5 oz. (100 g.) bunapi or enoki mushrooms
- 8 oz. black rice or other ramen noodle
- 4 oz. baby spinach
Garnish:
- 1 small hot or sweet pepper, minced
- 2 scallions, cut on diagonal
- Parsley or cilantro
- Daikon radish, shredded
First, prep all your vegetables for the stock, stew, and garnish. Prep for all, and use the trimmings in a homemade stock if that is what you are using. Trim mushrooms, set them aside, and throw stems into a large stockpot. If you don’t have a lot of mushroom stems, add chopped up mushroom of choice to the stockpot.
Roughly chop the stock carrot, onion, and ginger and toss into the pot. More carefully, slice the soup onion and carrot and put them aside, sending the trimmings off to the stockpot. Trim the shiitake and bunapi mushrooms, set them aside, and place the trimmings in the stock pot. You can keep the bunapi mushroom in small clumps, or separate them. Cut any tough stems off the spinach and set aside, adding stems to the stockpot.
Trim the scallions, set aside, shred the Daikon radish if using, and mince the pepper.
Now, you’re ready to make the stock. Place the stockpot with the trimmings over medium high heat and add a tablespoon of neutral oil. Sauté for a few minutes, just enough to let the vegetables soften and a glaze to form on the bottom of the pan. Add the bay leaves, dried mushrooms, and water, scraping the bottom of the pan.
Bring to a simmer then cover and let cook for about a half hour. This should be dark and richly flavored. Resist the urge to salt at this point. Strain and set aside, but save your pot!
Time to make the soup: Heat the same stockpot over medium high and add another tablespoon of oil. Add the onion, carrot, and shiitake mushrooms. Let these gently sauté, then add the stock and miso, making sure the miso is dissolved. Add the bunapi mushrooms.
Bring to a simmer, cover tightly, and let cook for a about 20 minutes.
Once the vegetables are well mingled, add your noodles and cook according to their directions. Mine took only four minutes.
Stir in the spinach, cover the pot, and set aside until the spinach is wilted
Spoon soup in bowls, and garnish with whatever you like! Today, we used some pretty purple Daikon from my winter CSA, parsley, and scallions.
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Wonderful! I’ve recently discovered a variety of Asian broths/stocks, like Pho, and Ginger Miso. I used ginger miso to create my hot pot stock the last time cause I was limited on time, but I still added good stuff to it and simmered for less time. Really nice. but in any case, great ramen! Such pretty colors!
Thank you! The little shortcuts save us on those busy days!
Yes, the color variety is what makes this look so appealing to me, although I am sure it will taste appealing as well.
Thank you! It tastes as good as it looks!
Great looking ramen! I’ve yet to try the black rice noodles. Sounds very interesting! 🙂
Thank you Ronit! The black noodles are delicious as is the rice. I’ve got some green noodles I haven’t tried yet! Should have indulged on St. Patrick’s Day!
🙂
Looks super delicious
Thank you! It was slurpingly good!
This look so delicious! I love the variety of mushrooms and the homemade stock! Trying this over the weekend!
Thank you! I hope you enjoy it as much as we do. Making the stock is second nature to me, and it makes such a difference.
What a beautiful dish!
Why thank you so much Jenna. It was beautiful to behold and really tasty to consume!
Asian bowls provide so much variety. And because it’s served in a bowl, I don’t have to share. 🤣
This is so pretty and colorful!
Thank you Rosie! I love to make a dish like this look appetizing, it always seems to taste better!
Love Asian soip and your recipe has so man y interesting ingredien ts. Looks delicious.
Thank you Jovina! It was really tasty and satisfying,.
This looks yum. I like all the ingredients and will save this away for a rainy day. Literally. Hot soup on a dreary day is perfection.
We had this on a cold, grey day and it was perfect!
You always have the prettiest presentation of dishes! I enjoy the flavor of miso, but have yet to cook with it. And I happen to have black rice noodles that looked interesting but I got them home and didn’t know what to do with them. I guess this will go on my bucket list!
Just from the look of it, we are getting hungry. We will try to cook it and hope it will work. We are not that experienced cooking special meals.
Thanks for sharing
The Fab Four of Cley
🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂
Thank you, getting hungry is good, and I hope you enjoy this bowl of delights!
Mushrooms are my favorite and sounds like the added components are also amazing !!
Thank you!! I think I could eat mushrooms every day!
Oh that’s really great !!
This dish looks like art. Mushrooms are cancer fighting foods, so good for us. Thank you for another yummy recipe.
You’re very welcome! I’m glad the appearance has lured you in! It was mighty tasty!
Yum!!! This looks so delicious! I make a very similar ramen soup with miso. I haven’t tried it with the birch mushrooms, but will keep it in mind next time I see them at the store. I’ve been getting birch mushrooms for years whenever I see them and love cooking with them. Your dishes are always so tasty looking and healthy! And vegetarian!! Thank you!
Thank you so much. I hadn’t seen the birch mushrooms locally, but now they seem to be everywhere. I love them, and they stand up to a nice simmer. I try to think of the nutritional value of a dish as well as the flavor, unless it is a dessert or treat of course, then, I’m mostly thinking about flavor!
As a child I often went foraging for wild mushrooms with my dad. Most of the ones we found I’ve never seen here in the US. One of the grocery stores I really like often has wild and or “wild” cultivated mushrooms. I love them all! I too try to think of the nutritional benefits of the food I prepare and therefore really love all the great ideas and recipes your blog features. 🙂
Thank you so much for the compliments! I am always happy to share any knowledge I have. I too went foraging as a child, my Uncle Leonard would bering me out along with my aunt, only she was more interested in looking for old cellar holes and digging antique glass bottles. We usually foraged morels, trumpets, chanterelles, lions mane, wine caps, and hen of the woods (maitake). We feasted!
We found similar mushrooms in our woods, with the most prized one being the porcini. There were also some called goats beard mushrooms, but I’ve never seen them anywhere else in. We didn’t have any antique glass bottles or cellar holes to dig up, but always had fun anyway. Chanterelles, along with shiitakes remain two of my very favorite mushrooms to this day!
Those are my two favorite mushrooms as well!
Love this!!!! I made something similar for my dinner last night. As I started to make the single serving I usually make I decided to double it so I could have it for lunch today. Yours looks amazing!
Thank you! I love doubling up so I have my lunch all made. I even like this cold!
I love Asian cooking. I used to work with a lot of Asian-born friends. They would share their cooking with me, pick up things I needed from the Asian market, and I came to love hot and spicy soups. Now that I’m retired, I’ve gotten away from Asian cooking. I need to do more of it again.
I love Asian dishes as well, especially the crispness of flavors not masked by dairy or a lot of fat.
What a comforting and delicious bowl! I love bunapi mushrooms! Are the most common mushrooms that I can find here and I always have them in the fridge 😉 I like to combine the white ones with the brown ones and are so so tasty 😋
Aren’t they wonderful! They have such a lovely flavor, I am delighted we have good sources of them now.
Dorothy, we are thinking same. Mushrooms is what cooking in my kitchen these days.
I just can’t get enough! My grandson also loves mushrooms and knows whenever he comes to my house he will be rewarded!
One of my favourite mushrooms although we love all mushrooms and I use them most days in my cooking …It looks and sounds delicious I love soup 🙂 x
Thank you Carol! They are so delicious and good for us as well!