Adventures in Edibles: Potato and Spinach Miso Soup

The other day, when I was rereading a chapter about potatoes in Oishinbo, I got a sudden craving for the potato and spinach miso soup my mom used to make for me when I was a kid. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any kombu on hand, and I’d used the last of my frozen dashi cubes a couple weeks ago when I went on a one-person nabe spree. Being the incredibly lazy resourceful person I am, I ended up modifying her recipe to just use what I had on hand, plus I decided to include some potato prep ideas I’d gleaned from the izakaya volume of Oishinbo. Actually, I ended up deviating a ton from my mom’s original dish, so the only resemblance it had to my childhood soup was that I included potatoes, miso and spinach.

In the end, though, it ended up being pretty tasty, so I thought I’d share in case anyone else might want to give it a try.

SobaNoodleFan’s Potato and Spinach Miso Soup

(makes enough for 4 servings and keeps pretty well in the fridge)

Ingredients:

4 small – medium potatoes (I used Yukon Golds)

32 ounces chicken stock

1/2 pound spinach

2 tablespoons butter

1 heaping tablespoon white miso

1/2 teaspoon Thai garlic chili paste (optional)

Wash and peel the potatoes before cutting them into small, uniform pieces. Fill a heavy pot (I use a 3.5 quart cast iron dutch oven for soups and curry) with the chicken stock, potatoes and butter. Cover and simmer for 60 minutes. After 60 minutes, the potatoes should already be very soft. Incorporate the tablespoon of miso using either a ladle or a sieve. If you want it to be a little bit spicy, add the garlic chili paste as well. Cover the pot again, and continue to simmer for another 30 minutes.

After the last 30 minutes, carefully pour the soup into a blender or food processor. You might need to do this in two batches as potato and miso splattered walls would surely not be a fun mess to clean. Blend until everything has been pureed and mixed together. Return the soup to the pot.

If you’re going to serve the entire pot immediately, add the spinach at the very last minute. Once it’s just barely wilted, ladle the soup into bowls and serve. I hate overly wilted spinach so I just put a portion of the spinach in a bowl and poured a serving of the piping hot soup over it, sufficiently wilting the leaves just enough to be delicious.

You can keep the leftover soup in the refrigerator, but you may need to add a little bit of stock upon reheating to get the consistency back to a “soupy” state. It still tasted great the next day, though.