— Pauline Lucas

So for breakfast, uh, it's a meal. And, uh, the, the way to turn that into a meal is just to bulk it up with vegetables. That's the easiest thing that I find. And that's, that's what I've been doing for many years now, uh, this morning, for example, miso soup was, uh, let's see, kobu dashi, right? Or a stock based on kelp. And the, the dashi can vary as well, right? Uh, sometimes I'll use bonito flakes and kbu, uh, in a typical Japanese fashion, and you can use one or the other. Um, there are different types of dashi as well. Some of them are plant-based, some of them are not. Uh, but anyway, this morning it was kbu dashi, and, uh, the vegetables were, um, carrots and broccoli and dicon, uh, with the addition of tofu. And I try to have some tofu on hand, and, uh, you know, we'll add that to the, the soup, the vegetables will, will vary, and they, they vary quite a bit just depending on what's in the, in the fridge. And you can adjust the quantity as well, relative to the, the liquid in order to change that, that feel right of that soup. And, you know, give it a try. Uh, if you wanna add more layering of umami, you get some mushrooms in there, uh, for example. Um, and then also, you know, I like to mention that, you know, when it comes to using miso paste, you know, I mentioned a few minutes ago that I've always got at least two flavors of, of miso. You know, one is, uh, a white or a shiro miso, and then one is gonna be a red or an AKA miso. And those will give you some different, um, uh, salt profiles, some different sweetness profiles and different flavorings, uh, as well, there are other miso paste to choose from. And sometimes, you know, I'll have something else in the inventory, whether it's a, a chickpea miso or, or something else, or again, many, many on the market. Um, also keep in mind that you can mix different types of miso paste. So if you wanna keep, uh, just red and white, uh, you can mix those to create something in between that's, that's done in Japan, and it's, it's quite fine to do more generally. And also, uh, there's a, a salt content right, associated with miso. And if you want to, uh, decrease your salt consumption, then, you know, consider a couple of things. One is that there are low salt miso pastes on the market that you might consider, or you can make a more robust flavored stock, you know, with whatever you choose to use, whether it's the kobu or the Kaso bui, uh, or the bonito flakes or something else. Uh, and then use less miso paste in the soup while still creating a satisfying, uh, you know, soup, you know, for your end product. So those are a few things to keep in mind. Uh, but definitely you can up the game when it comes to miso soup and make it more hearty by increasing the internal ingredients and calling that the meal.