Miso Mushroom Soup for Camp
Dried mushrooms, dashi powder, and miso paste. One pot, one boil, no fresh anything.
- calories
- 320
- weight
- 2.6 oz
- cal / oz
- 123
- protein
- 16 g
- serves
- 1, scales
- prep
- 2 min
- cook
- 10 min
- total time
- 12 min
- water
- 600 ml boiled
- cost
- $$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Lunch
- Canister stove
- Alcohol / Esbit
- Campfire coals
- Backpacking
- Basecamp
- Car camping
- Winter / snow
- Gluten free
- Dairy free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Dried matsutake or other dried mushrooms | 1/3 oz | shiitake works if pine mushrooms are out of reach |
|---|---|---|
| Instant dashi powder | 1 tsp | bonito and kombu, sold in packets |
| Kombu | one 2-inch piece | optional, skip if using dashi powder alone |
| Red miso paste | 2 tbsp | carried in a small screw-top jar |
| Freeze-dried tofu | 1/2 cup | or dried yuba strips |
| Dried greens | 2 tbsp | nettle, spinach, or wakame |
| Sesame oil | 1 tsp | optional, dropper bottle |
Method
- Bring 600 ml of water to a bare simmer. Drop in the kombu and dashi powder and hold it there for three minutes. Do not boil the kombu hard; it turns slick.
- Fish out the kombu. Add the dried mushrooms and tofu and simmer five minutes until both have rehydrated and the broth smells like mushrooms.
- Add the dried greens and pull the pot off the heat.
- Stir the miso into a spoonful of the hot broth in your cup first, then pour that back into the pot. Miso boiled directly goes flat and grainy.
- Finish with the sesame oil if you brought it.
The original is a fresh-mushroom soup built on scratch dashi. On trail neither of those travels, so the mushrooms come dried and the dashi comes from powder. Dried mushrooms are actually the better carrier here: drying concentrates the aromatic compounds, and the soak water becomes part of the broth instead of being poured off.
Two things decide whether this works. Keep the kombu below a hard boil, and add the miso off the heat. Miso is a live ferment with a lot of volatile aroma in it; boiling strips that out and leaves you with salt water. Everything else is timing you can do by feel.
Packing
Mushrooms, dashi powder, kombu, tofu, and greens go in one bag. Miso rides in its own small jar; it is wet and it will find any seam it can.
Variations
- A block of instant rice or a fistful of rice noodles turns this from a starter into a dinner.
- Instant miso soup packets replace both the dashi and the paste if you want to cut the jar.
- Freeze-dried chicken adds protein but drops the vegetarian claim.
https://foragerchef.com/matsutake-miso-soup