Slurpable noodles, hearty tofu, and vibrant veggies go into this cozy soba noodle soup. Super cozy, absolutely meal-worthy, and ready to serve in under 30 minutes!
When I was eight years old my family moved to southern California, where I spent the next six years of my life, before returning to the east coast. I attribute those six years of sunshine to my current fondness for winter. I missed the snow!
The winter of 1993/1994, immediately following my family's return from California, was one roughest winters on record. We seemed to get buried in snow at least once a week. My fellow Mid-Atlanticers might recall this as the year we got hit with a blizzard every Wednesday. I couldn't for the life of me understand why everyone was so miserable about it. The snow was beautiful and cool as hell and I got to stay home from school a lot.
Now that I'm all grown up and have to do grown up stuff like drive in the snow and shovel and pay utility bills, I understand a little better why that winter got so many folks down. I still think it's pretty cool though.
Cozy meals and hot soups I suppose are a mitigating factor for lots of winter haters. (Although I consider them to be icing on the cake.) And I'm thinking this one might be what lots of folks need to get through those incredibly cold and dark days of winter.
This soup is incredibly easy to make and comes together in about 25 minutes, so you can save your energy for playing in the snow.
First off, tofu! I've made this soup with tofu straight from the package (a great option if you're feeling lazy), but I love it way more when the tofu is pan-fried. Press it, dice it, and cook it up in a bit of oil. Check out this guide if you struggle with getting crispy pan-fried tofu right.
To make the soup, start by sautéing some aromatics in a bit of oil: garlic, ginger, and the white parts from a couple of scallions. Add some water, bring it to a boil, and simmer some julienne cut carrots for just a couple of minutes. Remove the pot from the heat, ladle out a bit of water, and whisk it together with some miso paste. Add it back to the pot with some spinach, and give everything a few stirs. Season the soup with some soy sauce.
Ladle the soup into bowls and sprinkle with scallions and sesame seeds.
Put on a cozy sweater, grab a spoon and dig in!
FAQ & Tips for Making Delicious Soba Noodle Soup
- You can save time while making this by cooking the tofu and the soup at the same time. And if you're a real pro, you can even cook the noodles at the same time.
- For a lazy version of this soup, skip the step of pan-frying the tofu — just cube it up straight from the package and toss it in your soup.
- Use 100% buckwheat soba noodles and gluten-free tamari if you'd like to keep this recipe gluten-free.
- You can absolutely switch things up and use your favorite veggies in place of the carrots and/or spinach. Just be sure to adjust the cook time: you'll need more cook time for harder veggies, less for more delicate ones. The veggies in this soup are meant to be lightly cooked, so between zero and 2 minutes of cook time will be sufficient for most.
Miso Soba Noodle Soup with Crispy Tofu
Slurpable noodles, hearty tofu, and vibrant veggies go into this cozy soba noodle soup. Super cozy, absolutely meal-worthy, and ready to serve in under 30 minutes!
Ingredients
- 3 ounces dried soba noodles
- ½ teaspoon toasted sesame oil
- 2 tablespoons canola oil, or neutral oil of choice, divided
- ½ pound extra firm tofu, drained, pressed, and cut into ½ inch cubes
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 teaspoon freshly grated ginger
- 2 scallions, chopped, white and green parts separated
- 6 cups water
- 2 medium carrots, cut into matchsticks
- ¼ cup white miso paste
- 2-4 tablespoons soy sauce, to taste
- 4 cups sliced fresh spinach or baby spinach
- Sesame seeds, for serving
Instructions
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Bring a medium pot of water to a boil. Add the soba noodles and cook them according to the package directions.
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Drain the noodles in a colander and rinse them well with cool water.
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Return the noodles to the pot and toss them with the sesame oil.
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Coat the bottom of a medium skillet with 1 tablespoon of canola oil and place it over medium heat.
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When the oil is hot, add the tofu in an even layer and cook it for 10 minutes, flipping once or twice to achieve browning on multiple sides.
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Remove the tofu from the skillet and transfer it to a paper towel-lined plate.
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Heat the remaining tablespoon of oil in large pot over medium heat. When the oil is hot, add the garlic, ginger, and white parts of the scallions.
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Sauté the mixture for about 1 minute, or until very fragrant.
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Add the water to the pot. Raise the heat and bring it to a boil.
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Add the carrots and simmer it for about two minutes, until the carrots become bright orange and slightly tender.
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Remove the pot from heat.
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Place the miso into a small bowl and ladle in a bit of the hot liquid from the pot. Whisk until the mixture is smooth.
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Stir the miso mixture into the pot, along with the spinach. Stir until the spinach is wilted. Season the soup with soy sauce to taste.
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Divide the noodles and tofu among four bowls, then ladle the soup overtop. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and the green parts of the scallions. Serve.
Oooo, this looks perfect and I have everything to make it. Perfect for a cold Canadian day :) Thanks for sharing! I LOVE your site name, by the way!
Nice! I hope you enjoy it if you do make it. Keep warm and thank you for the wonderful compliment on my blog name :)
This is the best soup! So comforting and warming. Pho used to be my favorite but this blows it out of the water! I love it!!! Thank you so much ❤️
Awesome!! I'm so glad you like it! Thanks Dorothy!
Would red miso paste work for this recipe?
It would, though the flavor would be a bit different. Red miso is more potent, so I'd suggest adding in increments and tasting. Thanks for your question and please let me know how it turns out if you do try it with red miso!
ooohhhhh i'm totally drooling :P i've got the ingredients, but perhaps a little bit of spicy can work for me, is a perfect recipe for rainy days! :D :D thank you!
I'm always a big fan of spicy too! A little bit of srirach or chili paste would be awesome in here. Hope you enjoy it! :)
This looks really good! For the spinach, would you recommend bunch, bagged, or baby spinach?
I generally prefer bunched, but you could really get away with any of the three. :)
Excellent!!!!! I subbed rice noodles for soba but otherwise I followed exactly and it is so DELISH. Thanks!!
I'm glad you enjoyed it!!
THIS RECIPE IS EXCELLENT!!!!!! I subbed rice noodles, used 3 cups vegy broth & 3 cups water then added red pepper Wow!!!! This is a keeper!!!
Awesome!! I'm so glad you enjoyed it! Thanks Nan!
I love miso! One of my favorite soup ingredients of all time. Adds such a great flavor and reminds me of some of my favorite dishes. Thanks for sharing, cannot wait to make this at home.
Me too! I hope you enjoy this!
We really enjoyed this delicately flavored and wholesome soup. I served it with a salad dressed with miso-ginger vineaigrette, and it made a lovely meal. Next time I'll use less water in the broth, maybe five cups instead of six, because the flavor of the broth is so mild and because this made a lot of soup for two people.
That sounds like a wonderful meal! I'm glad you enjoyed it! Thanks Colleen!
My family loves this soup, but my husband has been put on a low sodium diet. Any suggestions on how to adjust the sodium? Thanks!!
I'm glad it's a hit! Almost all of the sodium comes from the soy sauce and miso paste, so you can cut back on those and/or try low sodium soy sauce.
Loved this! I tweaked it a bit and instead of spinach, waited til the very end and topped it with some fresh watercress. I also added some mushrooms. This will definitely be a new go-to for me!
Sounds like a delicious meal! Glad you enjoyed it!
This was delicious. We didn’t have any spinach, but he had bokchoi and snow peas, it tasted amazing. My boyfriend is asking if I could make it again this week. So so good. Thank you for sharing this recipe.
I made this for dinner tonight and it turned out delicious! Instead of carrots and spinach I used bok choy and shiitake mushrooms. It came together fast and the taste is on par with miso soup I've had a restaurants. Thank you very much for the recipe. :)