Cook’s notes
Vegetables and a little meat served with lots of fluid are definitely easier to digest and they won’t raise your body temperature too much. We just have to get creative in fighting tropical heat which can get really offensive at times.
Don’t like chayote? Substitute another chunky and neutral tasting vegetable like potato or white cabbage. If you prefer a leafy vegetable, wombok or bok choy are good choices to add to chicken miso soup.
Chicken miso soup
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons cooking oil
- 6 skin-on chicken thigh fillets cut into half-inch cubes
- 1 onion thinly sliced
- ½ teaspoon grated ginger
- 1 large chayote peeled, cored and cut into ¾-inch cubes
- fish sauce to taste
- 2 tablespoons dashi granules
- 2 heaping tablespoons miso paste white miso is recommended
- drizzle sesame seed oil
- sliced scallions to garnish
Instructions
- Heat the cooking oil in a pot.
- Add the chicken and cook, stirring occasionally, until no longer pink. Add about a tablespoonful of fish sauce, stir, continue cooking until the mixture is almost dry.
- Add the sliced onion and grated ginger. Cook, stirring often, until fragrant, about a minute.
- Add the chayote cubes. Pour in about six cups of water. Bring to the boil, lower the heat, cover and simmer for about 15 minutes or until the chayote cubes are tender.
- Add the dashi. Stir. Turn off the heat.
- Take about a quarter cup of the broth, pour into a bowl, add the miso paste and stir until smooth and pourable. Pour the mixture into the pot. Stir. Taste. Add more fish sauce, if needed.
- Drizzle in a little sesame seed oil. Sprinkle with the sliced scallions. Serve.
Agedashi tofu