Nurse, get me 50cc's of miso onion soup, STAT!

September 18, 2008 10:36 AM

I need the recipe for Whole Foods' miso onion soup. Like... now.

Seriously. I had this soup for the first time today, and it is like unto a drug. I do not think I will be able to function properly this fall if I can not make a giant pot of it. It was quite possibly the best vegetarian onion soup I have had.

What I remember from looking at the ingredients on the placard: miso, vegetable stock, onions, bay leaf, salt, black pepper, flour, bay leaves. There were some smaller leaves in it, too. Parsley or thyme would be my guess.

I could experiment and experiment around these ingredients and maybe come up with something passable, but it is my hope that somebody, somewhere out there, has this recipe.

Please hope me, hive mind!

posted by kaseijin to food & drink (18 comments total)

This?
posted by Happy Dave at 10:44 AM on September 18, 2008

Winter Miso
posted by lee at 10:45 AM on September 18, 2008

Also, this looks nice.
posted by Happy Dave at 10:45 AM on September 18, 2008 [1 favorite]

And this one, quoted for 'cooler weather'.
posted by Happy Dave at 10:46 AM on September 18, 2008

Not the winter miso, and not the "cooler weather" one, this soup wasn't Asian at all - no ginger, carrot, wakame, kale... It was much more like this one, but more minimal.

Good finds, though, and I will definitely be trying that French onion recipe. Any more finds?
posted by kaseijin at 10:54 AM on September 18, 2008

Maybe this?
posted by Happy Dave at 11:00 AM on September 18, 2008

Also, I'd imagine if you emailed Whole Foods, they might give you the recipe/point you in the right direction.
posted by Happy Dave at 11:01 AM on September 18, 2008

My fiancee's a catering liason for Whole Foods. What store did you have it at? She's willing to try to get in touch with them and get you the recipe.
posted by EarBucket at 1:20 PM on September 18, 2008

That would be awesome, EarBucket! It was at the main store on 5th st. in Austin.
posted by kaseijin at 1:40 PM on September 18, 2008

And maybe post it here when you get it? (favoriting ... )

/wheedle
posted by sacre_bleu at 1:57 PM on September 18, 2008

I haven't had wf's miso soup, but they do sell South River Miso (here at least) and the recipe on their brown rice miso jar sounds just like what you want. Best I've ever had!
posted by cestmoi15 at 1:59 PM on September 18, 2008

Seconding that wheedle. Mmm, onion soup.
posted by sculpin at 1:59 PM on September 18, 2008

This might be it! This recipe is from The Whole Foods Market Cookbook (which is really good, by the way). It's called French Onion Soup for Everyone, but it contains miso so maybe it's pretty close to the soup you had? Give it a try.

1/8 c olive oil
3 large onions, thinly sliced
1 large portabello mushroom cap, thinly sliced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp dried thyme, or 1 tbsp fresh
1/4 cup tomato paste
1 cup dry red wine
4 cups vegetable stock
1/4 cup tamari or soy sauce
1/8 c dark miso dissolved in 1 cup warm water or vegetable stock
1 tbsp nutritional yeast
Freshly ground pepper to taste

Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat, saute the onions for at least 3 minutes before stirring. The onions should start to brown before you move them around with a spoon. Continue to cook the onions, stirring occasionally in order for the natural sugar to brown. Cook for 20 minutes, until the onions are well browned.

Add the mushroom, garlic, thyme, and tomato paste. Continue to cook for 5 minutes, until the tomato paste turns brown.

Add the wine, and scrape the pan bottom, removing all the brown bits that are sticking to it. This is called deglazing. Reduce the wine as you simmer for another 2 minutes. Add the stock, tamari, dissolved miso, and nutritional yeast. Continue to simmer uncovered for 10 minutes longer, season with pepper.
posted by Bella Sebastian at 3:44 PM on September 18, 2008 [14 favorites]

I tried Bella Sebastian's recipe... my flatmate and I really like it! Made some changes to the recipe because we didn't have some of the ingredients: used a different type of mushroom, used garlic paste rather than garlic, used oregano and basil instead of thyme, ketchup instead of tomato paste (heh), shao xing cooking wine instead of red wine, chicken stock instead of vegetable stock, white miso instead of dark miso, and no yeast. I didn't read the last sentence so it actually simmered for almost half an hour, covered. Still, it turned out delicious... :)
posted by aielen at 9:41 PM on September 18, 2008

The French onion recipes aren't it, per se... but OMG, do I have to try them. Still holding out for EarBucket's lady to see what she says!
posted by kaseijin at 12:21 PM on September 19, 2008

The lady says:

This is the recipe transposed as well as I can for a small pot. The recipe we have available is for 80 portions, so you may have to play with the amounts a bit to get the exact taste, especially because none of us actually use any recipes when cooking.

1 TBS garlic whole peeled, minced
1 medium sized spanish onion sliced
1 small can of tomato paste
1/4 cup of white unbleached flour
1 cup of burgundy wine
1/2 tsp of thyme whole
1 bay leaf
2 quarts water
1/4 tsp of black pepper ground
1/4 cup of white miso
3 TBS of canola oil

heat oil until very hot in square kettle
brown onions well, add tomato paste and continue to brown
add flour, stir, add wine, spices, and water.
simmer for 40 min until onions are soft
add miso and pepper
posted by EarBucket at 1:34 PM on September 19, 2008 [5 favorites]

EarBucket, you and the fiancee rule. Thank you so much!

I love AskMe.
posted by kaseijin at 1:45 PM on September 19, 2008

We tried EarBucket's recipe last night. Tasting as we went, we reduced the amount of tomato paste to 2 TBSP, and increased the amount of miso to 1/3 cup.

The result was very good.
posted by schrodycat at 10:48 AM on September 23, 2008