Miso Ginger Kale Soup
I am often asked, “How do you stay raw in the winter”. The simple answer is I don’t. I don’t worry about being 100% raw at any time of the year. In the summer I will go for weeks without eating any cooked food but not because I have set expectations that I have to be 100% raw. It’s because I enjoy the bounty of what nature has provided. In the winter, I usually stay high raw until dinner time. Even in the winter, too much cooked food weighs me down. But once I am ready to relax for the evening, I have no problem making a wonderful plant based (vegan) whole food (just what it says, no processed junk) meal. This Ginger Kale Miso soup is one of my favorite transitional winter dinners. Let me tell you why.
Kale is a nutritional power house. I love it and I eat a lot of it. But did you know that if you cook kale, the vitamin K increases by a huge amount? At the same time, you decrease the amount of vitamin C and probably destroy some phytonutrients and enzymes in the process. Its a bit the same with most cooked veggies. Some nutrients become more bio-available while others dramatically decrease. What’s the answer? For me, I love throwing cooked and raw in a dish together! That way I get the best of both worlds. It’s an easy solution.
This soup is loaded with goodies. Miso is a fermented soy paste that is packed with nutrients such as antioxidants, minerals, phytonutrients, fiber and protein. I suggest that you use a very high quality, organic (non-gmo) miso paste. If you don’t want to eat soy, you can find miso made from other things such as brown rice. A great article on miso can be found here: Miso.
I cook some of the kale and carrots and save out the rest to throw in after the soup has been removed from the heat. That way you get the cooked kale along with the fresh kale! Make sure you wait to add the miso until after the cooling period as you don’t want to destroy the wonderful health benefits.
I hope you love this soup as much as I do. It is a staple in my house in the winter and with the additional ginger, is a great way to chase off the cold and satisfy that need for a warm meal on a cold night.
Miso Ginger Kale Soup
Serves 4
Soup
- 6 cups water
- 1 medium bunch kale, de-stemmed and torn into bite size pieces, divided
- 1 cup sliced carrots, divided
- 1 teaspoon fresh grated ginger
- 1/2 cup yellow miso
- 1 medium leek, sliced fine (white part only)
- fresh ground pepper
- Place water, half the kale, half the carrots, and the ginger in a pot. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes.
- Remove from heat, let cool for 10 minutes.
- Stir in the miso, remaining kale, carrots and the leeks. Make sure you stir well enough so the miso is completely dissolved.
Julia wrote on January 14, 2014
Like you, I adore kale and love it in tasty, warm soups like this one. I’ve never made miso soup, so I’m thinking I need to try this out!
Heidi S wrote on January 13, 2014
What varieties and brands are out there that you recommend? Miso from USA or Japan only? Where can we buy them? Thanks
Silvia wrote on January 13, 2014
Carol McKenzie,
It’s people like you that make me not want to bother posting anything on websites. If you read my comment, I do not place a label on anyone, if anything, just the opposite when I say, “everyone is different and we all have to do what is best for ourselves.” I resent your attack on my comment because you don’t agree with me. You could have simply stated your comment without bringing me into it because your comment really does not have anything to do with me. I was just sharing my experience; what I believed in the past and what I learned. It was surprising to me that a famous model who promotes a raw diet ate meat. I shared my experience to try to help anyone who might have had the struggles I have had, and you twisted around what I wrote to make it out to be something bad. Besides, I addressed my comments to Susan, not to you, so if you don’t like it, keep it to yourself. Or maybe you are just trying to defend your meat eating diet because you know the suffering and torture that farm animals endure. And when you say “there are all definitions of what constitutes raw” – maybe in your mind, but the fact is RAW is RAW. Unless you are eating a raw steak, it’s not raw. Like when people call themselves “vegetarians” then say they eat fish. If they eat fish, they are not a vegetarian. Those are just FACTS.
Heidi S wrote on January 12, 2014
Susan, what brand of yellow miso do you use Thank you
Susan wrote on January 12, 2014
I use many different varieties. Cheers!
Heather wrote on January 12, 2014
What a wonderful winter recipe — warming but still fresh. Miso soup is our family’s favorite winter dinner but, until last week, I’d never thought to add the greens at the same time as the miso. Our favorite purveyor at Seattle’s Ballard Farmers Market suggested trying that. He’s a 20something we call “The Vegetable Whisperer”, such is his knack for growing incredible-tasting produce. Last weekend, I asked how long his winter greens braising mix should be simmered in the soup broth and he recommended treating the greens like the miso — as a living organism. “Cut them into ribbons and add them with the miso,” he said. But bone-strengthening Vitamin K is something I’d like to eat plenty of, so as per your recipe, I’ll also simmer some of the greens in the soup broth.
Also, if you ever happen upon it, South River Miso (organic, made in New England, available maker-direct online) is sublime. And definitely live, which not all miso is. A quick FYI for anyone wondering whether their miso is live: Mix a spoonful of it into a dish of cooked, thick, lukewarm mushy grain (creamy oatmeal or congee work well). If the miso is genuinely live, the grain porridge will liquefy within a couple of minutes, due to the actions of microorganisms in the miso. If the grain porridge remains thick and essentially unchanged, the miso is not live and just a salty condiment.
Melissa Bechter wrote on January 12, 2014
This looks absolutely wonderful! I will be sharing the link to this in my next wellness Wednesday post!
Sessalli Obasuyi wrote on January 11, 2014
What kind of miso do you use, because I know that most miso has pork in it?
Susan wrote on January 11, 2014
I have never seen Miso with pork in it. I am not sure what product you are talking about.
Carol McKenzie wrote on January 11, 2014
@Silvia: There are all kinds of “definitions” of what constitutes raw. And as you say, it’s a personal choice. That said, I’m primarily raw but not a vegetarian. I eat meat (the best quality I can find…but I can’t eat that raw) occasionally…less than I have in the past, but I still love a good steak, especially if someone else cooks it (my son is an excellent cook).
Trying to attach labels to someone based on food choices…actually, for any reason…is never a good idea. It’s one of the things I find a tad annoying about the raw food movement. I don’t want to attach a percentage to my diet; I want to eat what appeals to me and what I find nourishes me, in the moment. While most of that is raw, whole and unprocessed, I’d never try to quantify the percentage of raw food I eat.