Miso soup with Wakame and Tofu

I made my brother's favourite soup today: Miso Soup... I even made the stock from scratch, as finally I gathered all the necessary ingredients!
The ingredients of this soup are quite unusual for the westerners, but as one of my Japanese friends asked me once: how can you cook any Japanese food without dashi stock?  
Dashi is used to prepare almost everything in Japanese cuisine, and surely not even one Japanese soup can lack this stock. 
It is prepared with the Kombu kelp and the Katsuobushi, a particular dried thin tuna flakes.

Then Wakame seaweed comes: it looks like dry thin twisted stripes that expand 10 times bigger as soon as you put them in water.
All these ingredients can be found in specialized oriental groceries. They are quite pricy here in Europe but don't worry, they will last long...



INGREDIENTS:
Servings: 2-3

For Dashi:
5x10cm kombu kelp
2tbs katsuobushi (bonito flakes)
3 glasses of water

For the soup: 
1.5tbs white miso paste
50g tofu
1.5 tbs wakame seaweed
green onions


 

1. To prepare dashi stock, soak kombu in cold water for 15minutes.
2. Bring water with kombu to boiling over the low heat.

3. When the water just starts boiling add bonito flakes and simmer for 2-3 minutes over low heat.

4. Drain through a thin stainer and your dashi is ready.
Note: You may keep dashi refrigerated for 2-3 days.

5. Put wakame seaweeds into hot dashi and it will immediately expand and will gain it's wonderful dark green colour back.

6. Cut the tofu skin off and cut the cheese into 1cm cubes and add it to dashi.


7. Bring dashi with wakame and tofu to boiling and simmer for a couple of minutes.
8. Switch off the heat and melt tofu paste in the hot soup.
Note: Don't boil the soup with miso.

9. Chop the green onions finely and add them to the soup.
Serve in small bowls.

ITADAKIMASU!!!!