a miso situation

I've been living off lentil soup for the past couple weeks. I made a batch last night with parsnips and carrots that's pretty good -- or it was, until I got carried away with the miso.

Miso is a fermented food that aids in digestion. It's a big part of the macrobiotic diet, and since I've been reading Jessica Porter's Hip Chick's Guide to Macrobiotics I decided to pick some up and play with it. I got a jar of South River three-year barley miso (organic and unpasteurized! yay!), which is in the refrigerated section at Whole Foods. It tastes like really, really concentrated miso soup. Go figure.

So, I made my soup:

1 cup chopped parsnips
3/4 cup chopped carrots
1/2 large red onion, diced
2 gloves garlic, chopped fine
3 large kale leaves, torn into pieces
1 tablespoon unfiltered extra virgin olive oil
1 cup dried green lentils, rinsed
pepper to taste

Put two cups of water in a large pot and add carrots and parsnips. Simmer until veggies are soft, but not mooshy, 10-15 minutes. In a medium sauce pan, combine three cups water with lentils and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer until lentils are soft, 15-20 minutes. Remove from heat and strain, but keep the cooking water.

Heat olive oil in a pan over medium heat and add onions. Saute until tender, then add garlic and cook for another couple minutes. Add onions and garlic to the large pot with the carrots and parsnips, then add kale and cover. Cook over low heat until kale is wilted, then add lentils and mix well. Add some of the lentil cooking water to make the soup as soupy as you want it.


Ok, so that all went really well. The carrots and parsnips gave the soup a sweet flavor, which I thought would balance nicely will the salty miso. I added the miso paste a teaspoon at a time, tasting after each addition. For some reason I couldn't taste the miso until I'd added six teaspoons, even though it was such a strong flavor out of the jar.

Right. So, I started in on a big bowl of soup, and half-way though I had to chug a glass of water. Serious miso overkill. I felt like someone had sucked all the liquid out of me, like I'd been pickled. Gross.

But I had a ton of soup left and I hate wasting food, so for lunch today I used a slotted spoon to scoop the soup contents, sans broth, into a pan and added some fresh water. Heat, eat, good. Was pleasantly miso-y.