Daikon Miso Soup

I had bought a large fresh daikon radish from the farmer's market. I love diakon radish. It's some good stuff. It's used in a Philippines soup called sinigang. I'll be making that in the near future. For this one soup, I just wanted something fairly simple. It can't get any more simple than making miso soup. How easy is it? Well, all you need is stock or water and miso paste. Then add tofu and green onions. It only takes minutes to make.

I love miso soup. I always make it a habit to order a nice hot bowl of the stuff whenever I eat out at a Japanese restaurant along with with some fresh edamame and whatever sushi I'm in the mood for.

Traditional miso soup uses dashi, which is fish stock. Since fish stock isn't readily available as vegetable or chicken, I went for some veggie stock. making this a perfect vegetarian dish. So some veggie stock, water, daikon radish and a little salt and pepper and that's about it. I added some ramen noodles shortly before serving as it doesn't take long to cook.

Serve 2.

Daikon Miso Soup

1 12oz can vegetable stock
1 Tbsp white miso paste
1 1/2 c water
1 long daikon radish - peeled & cut into 1/8-inch slices
1 packet ramen noodles (minus seasoning)
salt & pepper

Combine the water and vegetable stock in a pot. Add the radish and bring to a slight boil and until the radish becomes tender.

Dissolve the miso paste in a small bowl with some of the stock before adding into the soup. Then add the dissolved miso into the pot and let it simmer for several minutes.

Add the ramen noodles 5 minutes before serving.

Ramen Salad

When the heat outside it horrid, you don't want to spend too much time in the kitchen slaving over a steaming pot or a burning oven. A great dish to have that's not hot are cool pasta salads.
For this, I used ramen noodle. Isn't it great fifty cents a pack and you can create a whole meal out of it and it's not just soup.

I love pasta. I don't know where I would be without it. Along with cheese and maybe butter. Anyway, I had a tomato, cucumber and an avocado that I needed to use up. I didn't have lettuce to make a traditional salad, but then it occurred to me that salads don't necessarily mean a bowl of lettuce or a bunch of greens. So out came some ramen noodles and a cup of small shell pasta. The latter is optional. Chopped up the tomato and cucumber and I mixed them with a simple dijon vinaigrette and topped it off with a nice firm and ripe avocado that I marinated in some lemon juice to keep it from turning brown. This was really good. Perfect on a summer's evening. And I didn't slave away in the kitchen either. Really easy clean-up and a fulfilling meal. Yum!

Serves 2-3.





Ramen Salad

1 ramen pack (minus seasoning)
1 large heirloom tomato - diced
1 large cucumber - diced
1 ripe avocardo - diced
lemon juice
grated parmesan

Dijon Vinaigrette
2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 Tbsp dijon mustard

Toss the diced avocado in some lemon juice to keep it from turning brown. Set aside.

In a pot of boiling water, cook the ramen for rough 5-8 min. Strain and cool it down with cold water.

In a large bowl, toss the tomatoes and cucumbers. When the ramen in ready, add it into the tomato mixture.

Combine the ingredients of the vinaigrette in a separate bowl. Whisk together until blended. Drizzle over the pasta mixture and gently toss coating everything.

Top with some of the avocado.