A beautiful, creamy, comforting, salty broth that warmed us on a wintry night. I used a bit less than the 1litre of milk just to keep it richer. Also marinated the tofu all day before pan-frying, because flavour. x
White miso and tofu ramen with chilli garlic asparagus
You’ll need a blender to make this. You can buy podded and frozen edamame beans in big supermarkets; any leftover miso-tahini paste is great in a salad dressing.
Prep 10 min
Cook 25 min
Serves 4
For the noodles
4 tbsp dried shiitake mushrooms
1 onion, peeled and roughly chopped
4 garlic cloves, peeled and roughly chopped
2cm piece fresh ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
150g white miso paste, or 6 tbsp (I like Clearspring)
1 tbsp tahini
2 tbsp rapeseed oil
3 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp konbu powder (optional)
1 litre soy milk (Bon Soy is particularly good)
Salt
250g soba noodles (again, I use Clearspring)
For the tofu and asparagus
Rapeseed oil
250g fine asparagus
100g edamame beans, defrosted
2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely sliced
½ tsp chilli flakes
⅓ tsp salt
½ tbsp fresh lemon juice
280g extra-firm tofu, cut into 0.5cm-thick slices
1 tbsp soy sauce
Put the shiitake in a heatproof bowl, cover with 200ml just-boiled water and leave to soak for five minutes. In a blender, blitz the mushrooms and their soaking liquid with the onion, garlic, ginger, miso, tahini, oil, soy sauce and konbu powder.
Heat a nonstick frying pan on a medium heat and, when hot, scrape the paste out of the blender and into the pan. Cook for 10 minutes, stirring frequently, then add the milk, little by little, until it’s all mixed in – make sure it doesn’t boil, or it may curdle – then add salt, if need be, and take off the heat.
Next, cook the noodles to the packet instructions, drain, rinse under cold water and drain again.
Heat a tablespoon of oil in a large frying pan over a high flame. When it’s smoking hot, throw in the asparagus and edamame, leave for a minute, then turn and leave for a minute more, so both char a little. Add the garlic, chilli, salt and lemon juice to the pan, stir for a minute, then transfer to a bowl.
In the same pan, heat another tablespoon of oil, if need be, then fry the tofu for a minute on each side, until golden and crisp (when it’s ready, you’ll be able to turn the slices easily with a spatula). Add the soy sauce for the last minute, then transfer to the asparagus bowl.
To assemble, divide the noodles between four bowls. Reheat the miso soup, if you need to, and share among the bowls. Lay some tofu slices to one side of each bowl, share out the asparagus and edamame beans evenly, and serve hot.
