Avocado and Mushroom Miso Soup

A nice tasting miso soup! 

     This is a very healthy soup!  A non traditional dashi broth was made for this recipe.  The essence of the shrimp flavor is noticeable.

     I used rinsed salt packed Japanese wakame seaweed for this soup.  Salt packed wakame seaweed reconstitutes quickly from its semi dried state, after rinsing the salt off with water.

   
     Shrimp and Wakame Dashi Broth:
     Place 2 3/4 cups of water in a sauce pot.
     Add 1 large handful of shrimp shells and shrimp scraps.
     Add 3 tablespoons of chopped rinsed salt packed wakame seaweed.
     Boil the broth over medium high heat for 10 minutes.
     Strain the broth through a fine mesh sieve into a second sauce pot.
   
     Avocado and Mushroom Miso Soup:
     Place the sauce pot with the dashi broth over medium low heat.
     Add 1 clove of minced garlic.
     Add 1 teaspoon of minced ginger.
     Add 1/2 teaspoon of thin soy sauce.
     Add 1/4 teaspoon of rice vinegar.
     Add 3 or 4 small pieces of reconstituted wakame seaweed.  (A few rinsed pieced from the the dashi broth that was strained is okay.)
     Simmer the soup for 4 minutes.
     Add 1 1/2 tablespoons of light colored miso paste.
     Stir the miso paste into the broth.
     Add 4 drops of sesame oil.
     Add 2 or 3 thin sliced mushrooms.
     Simmer the soup for 1 minute.
     Ladle the miso soup into a soup bowl.
     Float a few thin slices of avocado on top of the soup.
     Garnish the avocado slices with a little bit of thin sliced green onion.

     Thin sliced avocado actually does float in a broth.  I had salmon roe sushi, eel roll and tuna sashimi for lunch at a nice Japanese restaurant and this light miso soup was perfect for dinner!  Yum!  ...  Shawna