A bowl of steaming broth, swirls of miso paste and young spring vegetables.
Put 750ml of vegetable or chicken stock on to boil. Trim 200g of small spring carrots and cut them in half lengthways. Let them cook in the boiling stock for 7 or 8 minutes until they are tender to the point of a knife. Tip 150g of shelled peas (fresh or frozen) into the stock, leave to boil for 3 minutes (fresh peas will take an extra couple of minutes or so).
Trim 100g of baby courgettes and slice them in half, then add to the stock. Shred 125g of spring greens leaves into thin ribbons. Finely slice 3 spring onions and stir in, along with the spring greens.
Trim 100g of small mushrooms, such as enoki or shimeji, then add to the stock with 150g of canned beans such as butter beans or haricot. Stir in 3 tbsp of white miso paste, squeeze the juice from 1 lime. Check for seasoning, adding more miso or lime as you wish. Divide the soup between 2 deep bowls. Shake in a little soy sauce to taste. Enough for 2. Ready in 20 minutes.
A simple miso broth to which you can add any small, spring vegetables. I suggest spring carrots and small courgettes, peas or green beans and mushrooms, such as enoki or shimeji, but you could add spring greens, purple sprouting or asparagus, too.
Adjust the amount of miso paste to your taste, stirring it into the broth, but try not to let it boil once the miso paste is added.
This is a light soup to celebrate spring, but one to which you can add beans or noodles as the need arises. I had butter beans and they worked well, but it could easily have been haricot or sprouted seeds, such as mung beans or lentils. Soba noodles would be a fine addition, too.
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