Recipes with miso

32 recipes. Page 1 of 2

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Azara (Fish and Aged Cabbage Sake-Lees Stew)

Azara comes from Kesennuma in Miyagi Prefecture, where it was eaten in spring, once cabbage pickled since winter had turned deeply sour. That cabbage simmers with the flesh, head and bones of menuke, a fatty white-fleshed fish, in sake lees and miso, and the lees thicken the sour broth as they dissolve. No salt or soy sauce goes into the pot; the salt left in the pickle and the miso do all the seasoning.

Prep 20min Cook 50min 4 servings

Rice Easy

Fukagawa Meshi

Shucked clams and thick-cut scallion simmer briefly in miso broth, and the whole pot, liquid included, is poured over hot rice to be eaten while the broth runs between the grains. In the Edo period, Fukagawa was a tidal fishing settlement full of clams, and vendors sold the meat already out of the shell, so fishers could cook it fast and eat between jobs.

⚡ 20-Minute Recipes

Prep 10min Cook 8min 1 serving

Stir-fry Easy

Koneri (Thickened Eggplant and Pepper Stir-Fry)

Flour whisked into miso turns this eggplant and green pepper stir-fry into something closer to a thick, clinging coating than a sauce. Small dried sardines fry in the oil with the eggplant for a salty, savory note, and the finished pan should have no loose water beneath the vegetables.

🏠 Everyday

Prep 15min Cook 15min 4 servings

Desserts Medium

Yakitsuke (Griddled Mugwort Rice Cakes)

In Toyama, glutinous rice dough tinted green with mugwort is pressed into flat rounds, griddled, and brushed while hot with a thin layer of sweet sesame miso. The miso is made by grinding toasted sesame until its oil just begins to show, then mixing in miso and sugar, which leaves a little texture from the seeds.

Prep 30min Cook 20min 4 servings

Grilled Medium

Miso-Stuffed Grilled Akebi

Scooped of its white pulp and seeds, the thick, faintly bitter rind of akebi becomes a shell for maitake and shimeji cooked down with miso and myoga ginger. The filling has to be cooked until almost dry and fully cooled, or the rind will not close neatly around it when tied with string.

Prep 25min Cook 30min 4 servings

Soups Easy

Dongame-jiru (Eggplant and Sesame Miso Soup)

Crosshatched purple eggplant skin looks like a turtle's shell, and ground sesame clouding the broth looks like mud, hence the name mud turtle soup. This summer soup from the Koto region of Shiga gets slight body from finely ground rice porridge, which also keeps the large amount of toasted sesame from sinking straight to the bottom.

🏠 Everyday

Prep 15min Cook 22min 4 servings

Pancakes Easy

Jiriyaki Miso Wheat Pancake

In Gunma's wheat-loving farm villages, jiriyaki, a thick wheat pancake with green onion and sakura shrimp, was the snack eaten by hand at the work breaks at 10 in the morning and 3 in the afternoon. It once cooked slowly over the ash heat of an irori hearth, and the name is said to echo the jiri-jiri sound of the batter sizzling.

Prep 15min Cook 12min 1 serving

Noodles Medium

Houtou Pumpkin Miso Noodles

Wide flour noodles from Yamanashi simmer straight in miso broth with kabocha, potato, daikon, and napa cabbage, leaving the soup thick and slow to cool. In mountain areas poorly suited to rice, houtou long served as a staple, and its lasting warmth means it is eaten most often in winter. Unlike udon, the dough has no salt and the floured strips are never boiled on their own, which leaves their starch to thicken the pot.

Prep 50min Cook 35min 5 servings

Salads Easy

Garigari Namasu with Coarsely Grated Daikon

Coarse grating on a bamboo oni-oroshi or rough grater leaves the daikon in ragged, crunchy bits instead of a watery pulp. The salted daikon gets just one light squeeze, since grating it fine or wringing it hard would erase both that roughness and its juiciness. Small fish cured first in salt and then vinegar are folded through a sweet miso-vinegar dressing in this Ibaraki-style namasu. The fish should already be gutted and scaled, and it stays cold while curing and after the dish is finished. Served straight away it has the sharpest crunch, while 15 minutes in the fridge lets the miso and vinegar soak in more evenly.

🥗 Lighter Meals

Prep 25min 0 4 servings

Asian Medium

Surimi-age (Fried Fish Cakes)

Grated mountain yam and egg go into the finely ground sardine, so these fish cakes puff up soft inside when they hit the oil. In Toyama they are eaten as they are, with rice or with drinks, and also dropped into oden or hot pot.

🍺 Bar Snacks

Prep 30min Cook 15min 4 servings

Rice Easy

Tochigi Yakimochi Leftover Rice Cakes

In Tochigi, leftover rice gets a second life: soaked in water, kneaded with flour and miso along with corn, kounago (tiny sand lance fish), aonori seaweed and toasted sesame, then pan-cooked into thick oval cakes. The outside turns lightly browned and firm while the center stays chewy, somewhere between a rice cake and a savory pancake. Drain the soaked rice too thoroughly and it will not bind with the flour, leaving cakes that crumble while shaping.

Prep 25min Cook 15min 4 servings

Stir-fry Easy

Miso Kanpura (Sweet Miso Baby Potatoes)

The small potatoes cook whole in their skins, and in a mixed batch the little ones split while the big ones stay raw inside. Matching them by diameter is where it starts. Once the miso, sugar and mirin go in, the pot is shaken rather than stirred, glazing the soft potatoes without breaking them.

🏠 Everyday

Prep 10min Cook 30min 4 servings

Grilled Hard

Iya Dekomawashi Miso Skewers

Taro, small potatoes, tofu, konjac and buckwheat dumplings share one skewer, so each bite changes texture. In this dish from Iya in Tokushima, every piece is steamed or boiled on its own first, then the skewers are browned, brushed with a sweet miso glaze and grilled until it bubbles and spots dark. Each skewer is finished with a sansho leaf.

Prep 35min Cook 40min 4 servings

Soups Medium

Iwashi Dango Jiru (Sardine Dumpling Soup)

The sardines are ground in a mortar until no grain is left, then mixed with grated mountain yam, egg and miso into a sticky paste for the dumplings. The miso seasons the dumplings themselves, so the broth needs only a little soy sauce.

🏠 Everyday

Prep 25min Cook 25min 4 servings

Noodles Medium

Kakke Buckwheat Triangles

Thin sheets of buckwheat dough, cut into triangles, simmer with daikon and tofu and are lifted out one at a time for dipping in garlic miso. Each piece has a soft, thin edge and a slightly springier center. The pungent garlic miso carries the flavor, since the buckwheat, tofu, and broth are all mild. The name is local dialect for a piece or edge, and one story ties the dish to scraps left over from soba making in southern Aomori.

Prep 35min Cook 20min 5 servings

Salads Medium

Karanamasu (Sardine and Okara Vinegar Salad)

Okara (soy pulp) is dry-toasted until crumbly, then mixed with vinegar-cured sardine, salted cucumber and carrot, and sweet simmered fried tofu, all held together by a thick peanut and miso dressing. The dish comes from the Boso coast of Chiba, and each portion is squeezed by hand into a small rice-bale shape. Store-bought okara added straight from the pack carries too much water and turns the mix soggy, which is why it is toasted first. The salted vegetables and the vinegar-rinsed sardine also need to be well drained, or the shaped bales slump. Toasty okara, salty fish, sweet vinegared miso and yuzu peel land in a single bite.

🥗 Lighter Meals

Prep 30min Cook 15min 4 servings

Asian Easy

Gunma Yakimochi, Miso Wheat Cakes

The name says mochi, but these Gunma griddle cakes are wheat: flour and baking soda mixed with scallion and shiso, then kneaded with miso dissolved in water. They reflect the prefecture's strong wheat culture, built on wheat growing and double cropping, and similar cakes are called oyaki or jiriyaki in some areas. Farm households made them for koju-han, a hearty break between stretches of fieldwork, and also ate them with tea or carried them into the mountains.

Prep 20min Cook 25min 10 servings

Rice Medium

Oae Dango

From Shiga Prefecture, oae dango combines flat boiled rice dumplings with konnyaku, shiitake, carrot and komatsuna, all coated in a shiraae dressing of tofu and ground sesame. Everything is cooled completely before mixing, and the dish is served at room temperature rather than hot.

Prep 35min Cook 20min 4 servings

Soups Medium

Gawa (Iced Bonito and Miso Soup)

Fishing villages in Shizuoka make this summer soup from raw bonito pounded with miso and umeboshi, then loosened with ice water. Since nothing is cooked, the bonito must be labeled for raw eating. It is pounded coarsely, leaving small pieces rather than a paste, and eaten as soon as it is mixed.

⚡ 20-Minute Recipes 🏠 Everyday

Prep 20min 0 5 servings

Noodles Easy

Kimchi Bean Sprout Miso Ramen

Sour kimchi, first fried in sesame oil, flavors the chicken stock, and miso with soy sauce lays a savory, salty layer on top. Frying the kimchi softens its sharp tang so it sits comfortably beside the miso.

Prep 10min Cook 18min 2 servings

Asian Medium

Iragimun, Green Papaya with Pork and Miso

Unripe green papaya is treated here as a vegetable, and once cooked its firm but tender bite is often compared to daikon. In the Yaeyama islands of Okinawa, families picked it from trees planted near the house for ordinary meals, and also made the dish around the equinoctial observances. Pork, kombu, and atsuage (thick fried tofu) cook with it in small amounts of bonito and pork broth, seasoned with miso and a little sugar. The liquid ends up as a light coating rather than soup, which keeps every piece in shape and the miso mild.

🏠 Everyday

Prep 20min Cook 35min 4 servings

Soups Hard

Ishikari Nabe Salmon Miso Hotpot

Salmon fillet with skin and bony parts, milt, and loosened roe all go into one pot of kelp stock seasoned with miso in this Hokkaido-style nabe. It is said to come from fishermen near the mouth of the Ishikari River, who dropped fresh salmon pieces and bones straight into miso soup to celebrate a big catch. Root vegetables, konnyaku, tofu, and rolls of blanched spinach wrapped in napa cabbage are arranged in sections around a mound of miso in the center. A final dusting of sansho pepper over the whole pot adds a tingling lift to the miso broth.

🏠 Everyday

Prep 40min Cook 30min 4 servings

Noodles Hard

Gunma Okirikomi Noodle Stew

In Gunma homes, wide unsalted noodles go straight into a pot of root vegetables and dashi without being boiled first. The broth comes out slightly cloudy and thick rather than clear, and that is how it should be. Taro, burdock, daikon, shiitake, and fried tofu make it a hearty one-pot meal seasoned with both soy sauce and miso. Noodle thickness and vegetables change from one household to another.

Prep 50min Cook 35min 4 servings

Asian Medium

Miso Potato (Fried Potatoes with Sweet Miso Sauce)

A floury potato center, a thin crisp coat, and sweet-salty miso sauce come in that order with each bite of this Chichibu snack from Saitama, once eaten by farmers as kojuhan, a small bite between stretches of field work. The sauce is poured over rather than tossed so some crisp edges stay dry.

Prep 20min Cook 25min 4 servings