Miso Noodle Soup

Lately I have been taking it easy, sleeping in, getting massages, and eating lot's of comforting foods.  One of my favorite and easiest dishes to cook for myself is miso soup.  People think miso soup is hard to make, but it is so simple: you just add miso paste to hot water.  When I'm sick its about the only thing I feel like eating, and about the only thing I have energy to make.  Miso broth alone is very nutritious, but when I am up for it I love to put in shitake and anoki mushrooms, seaweed, scallions and daikon sprouts.  You can put in tofu, edamame, noodles, veggies or whatever you like.  Here is a recipe for rice noodle miso soup:

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cups of water
• 4 tablespoons of good miso paste
• 1 tablespoon or so dried wakame seaweed flakes
• 1 large carrot sliced
• 1 bunch of fresh shitake mushrooms,sliced
• 1 block of firm silken tofu, cut into cubes
• 1 green onion, sliced
• 1 bunch of cleaned baby spinach
• 1 bunch/cup or so of cooked rice noodles 

Directions:

• Boil 2 1/2 cups of water in a pot.  But add the wakame seaweed and carrots in before you even turn on the heat.
• Once the water starts to boil take a large spoonful of the water and place it into a bowl.  At this point add the mushrooms, tofu, onions and spinach to the pot.
• In the bowl, slowly add each tablespoon of miso paste, mixing it together so it's smooth not lumpy.  If you need to add more water into the bowl you can.  
• Once you've mixed in the 4 tablespoons of miso in the bowl, turn of the stove, add this smooth miso/water mixture into the pot, but make sure the pot is not boiling anymore (miso loses it's nutrients if boiled.) Mix in the miso into the pot and add the rice noodles.  
• Garnish with scallions and sesame seeds and enjoy!