Soups play a significant role in Japanese foods, and there are different types of Japanese soup available, from traditional Teishoku soup found in most restaurants to Ichiju Sanai soup based on a nutritional principle. Where a soup and three other side dishes are served for balanced nutrition, most Japanese soup is made from dashi, a flavorful broth you can’t miss in most Japanese food. Dashi normally goes along with other ingredients for different soup flavours that reflect the season. After knowing these varieties of Japanese soup, you can’t wait to grab a bowl and chopsticks for the feast.
We have an unlimited variety of delicious and nutritious Japanese soups beyond miso soup you know for you to enjoy while in Japan or pretty anywhere Japanese food is served. You can give a try all types of traditional Japanese soup the next time you are there. Visit any traditional Japanese restaurant and settle your crave for Japanese soup.
Types of Japanese soup
There are different types of Japanese soup as follows:
Shirumono
These are soups with a dashi base which is vital for making any type of Japanese soup. These extracts make dashi; Kombu, Shiitake mushrooms, bonito, sardines and fish flakes. You can’t miss dashi at the heart of every Japanese cuisine.
Suimono
It simply means things to sip or clear soup. It is sometimes served at the end or before meals as an appetizer. Or in kaiseki meals, taken after the appetizer or before the entrée in sashimi course. The basic recipe for suimono is extremely simple, and it is because of its simplicity that it becomes too hard to master. Its flavours are subtle and delicate that we may be tempted until things get overboard. When in doubt concerning flavouring, please start with the amount listed and add in small quantities where you find it lacking.
A good suimono depends on fragrant herbs like mitsuba or citruses like yusu. Unfortunately, finding this flavouring stuff in the west is hard, and they are no substitutes available. And if you can’t find them fresh, even freeze-dried options can do and bottled in the case of yuzu. But, in the extend you don’t find bottled yuzu, you can use lemon rind instead. Take heed to presentations in suimono servings. Cut ingredients into beautiful shapes and cover with lacquer bowls to add extra pleasure when eating suimono.
Ramen
It is among the popular Japanese soups made with dashi broth. To make ramen, combine salt, soy sauce, pork-bone for flavouring. Serve ramen with egg noodles, thick or wavy or otherwise thin and straight. Finally, you can include toppings like siu pork, bamboo shoots, boiled egg, wakame, nori seaweed, and more.
Miso soup
This soup is a staple for Japanese cuisine made with a mixture of dashi broth and miso paste. Miso is one of the traditional popular Japanese soups and the main ingredient in Japanese cooking. It requires fermented smashed soybeans for umami-rich paste. If you want to add creative ingredients to your soup, don’t miss to add tofu, green onion, or wakame seaweed for healthy and filling soup.
Tonjiru
A soup similar to miso but heartier with more pieces of pork, root vegetables like carrots, burdock and lotus root. It goes well with pork dishes such as ginger pork – shogayaki fired tonkatsu or vegetable dishes for a balanced meal.
Kenchinjiru
It is a complete vegan soup made by extracting shiitake or kombu kelp to prepare dashi and adding root vegetables plus tofu. The soup’s origin was shojin, ryori, and it was a traditional cuisine for Buddhist monks in Kyoto. This soup is great for vegetarians and vegans.
Creamy Japanese soups
They include ingredients like milk, roux, and butter. These aren’t traditional Japanese cooking, but it borrowed a leaf from European cuisine cooking. In Japan, these kinds of soup and stew are referred to as yoshoku. Let’s dive into some of these creamy Japanese western-style cuisines.
Shichuu
You can also call it cream stew, which is a kind of white stew eaten with bread or rice. The soup is made from chicken and veggies and served in béchamel creamy sauce at the comfort of our homes. Most households in Japan use roux cubes which are ready-made than starting from béchamel from scratch.
Corn potage
Although it not native to Japan, it has become a common ingredient that you can’t miss in Japanese cuisine. It features in almost every food from salads to pizzas and is popular winter soup – corn potage. It is a type of creamy sauce made from a roux and sweet corn that many folks in Japan use to enjoy every meal with every winter. You will likely find corn potage in vending machines throughout the winter season in Japan sold in ready-to-drink cans.
Kabocha soup
It is a pumpkin soup, a preferred autumn soup blended with cream. For vegans, soy milk is used instead of milk, a preferred option for Buddhist temple cuisine.
Yudofu
If you are looking for a light and hearty meal, yudofu is one great option for winter that you can enjoy as an appetizer, a side dish or a real meal.
Kimchi gyoza nabe
It is a type of Japanese hot pot filled with succulent dumplings, tender vegetables, spicy kimchi and hearty mushroom. It is a Korean-inspired hot pot of savoury delicious for guest.
Conclusion
As you have seen above, we have different types of Japanese soup, stew, and hot pot to enjoy while in Japan which are savoury delicious even better than the famous miso soup we know. Make sure to test each one of the soups and stew in your next trip to Japan! You can check out more Japanese soup listings if you didn’t find your favourite on our list. And you love creamy soup, and you are still covered with options like shichuu, kabocha and more. Finally, you can check recipes for each type of Japanese soup, stew or hot pot to learn how to accurately make and deliver finger-licking stuff for your guests and family to the dining table.
