The Miso and I

School began this week, and I found myself giddily hurrying home to cook (*sigh*, I should be hurrying home to start reading for class the following week, but somehow cooking my own meals has become pretty important to me as well).

Tuesday I made a hearty bowl of Miso Soup (adapted very loosely from the Miso and Adzuki Beans recipe in Vegetarian Times Healthy stuff issue). Instead of adzuki beans, I used a small portion of black beans from a pot I had cooked the week before. Also, I used fresh shitake mushrooms insted of dried, added my own veg stock instead of water, added carrots and double the green onions and toned down the dosage of miso.

I will admit, the first time I made a miso soup last February, I HATED THE CRAP OUT OF IT. I promptly dumped out the bowl of miso soup in the sink and swore it off, though pining for the feeling that I kept reading about from others. WTF?

Miso is said to be healing and good for you, but it definitely has a flavor only a mother would love, if you know what I mean. I bought some miso products from South River Co. in the hopes of a second chance encounter, and it worked out pretty well for all parties involved (the miso and I).

This was way yummy along with a wheat roll and homemade pickles on the side (sliced cucumbers added to leftover pickle brine...works really well!)

And then on Thursday, while The Hubs was in his litho class, I made some polenta cakes topped with a wonderful black bean and corn mixture.

The polenta was just one of those convenient tubes, cut into circles and pan fried. The beans mixture was 1 can of black beans (rinsed), 1 cup of frozen corn, mixed together in a small sauce pan. Then I added 3 TBS of homemade pasta sauce that I had in the fridge and some torn cilantro, smoked paprika, garlic powder and coriander. SUPER YUM.

And nothing beats making a meal to the Monsters of Folk on Austin City Limits that I had dvr'd :)

Jes