Miso Matzo Ball Soup
Updated April 7, 2025
- Total Time
- 3¼ hours
- Prep Time
- 15 minutes
- Cook Time
- 1 hour, plus at least 2 hours’ chilling
- Rating
- Comments
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Ingredients
- 4large eggs
- 2tablespoons vegetable oil
- ⅓cup vegetable broth or water
- 1cup matzo meal
- 2tablespoons freshly grated ginger
- 1tablespoon finely chopped shiso or dill
- ¼ to ½ teaspoon ichimi togarashi or another crushed red pepper, to taste
- Salt
- 3tablespoons crumbled wakame (dried seaweed)
- 1long negi (Japanese leek) or 2 scallions, trimmed
- 2inches daikon radish (about 6 ounces), peeled
- 1to 1½ tablespoons dashi powder or konbu seaweed powder
- 4ounces maitake, enoki, shiitake or oyster mushrooms, torn into bite-size pieces
- 3 to 4tablespoons white or red miso paste
- 7ounces firm tofu (see Tip), drained and cut into ½-inch cubes
- 2tablespoons minced shiso leaves or fresh dill
For the Matzo Balls
For the Soup
Nutritional analysis per serving (6 servings)
206 calories; 12 grams fat; 2 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 5 grams monounsaturated fat; 3 grams polyunsaturated fat; 14 grams carbohydrates; 4 grams dietary fiber; 4 grams sugars; 13 grams protein; 556 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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Preparation
- Step 1
Prepare the matzo balls: Stir together the eggs, vegetable oil and the vegetable broth in a medium bowl. Add the matzo meal, ginger, shiso, ichimi togarashi and about 1 teaspoon salt, mixing well. Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or overnight.
- Step 2
To shape and cook the matzo balls, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Dipping your hands first in a small bowl of cold water, mold about 2 tablespoons of matzo ball mix into the size of a Ping-Pong ball. Quickly and gently slide the matzo ball into the boiling water. Repeat with the remaining mix. You will have about a dozen or so matzo balls. Cover, reduce to a simmer, and let cook for about 20 minutes, until al dente, then leave in the pot but turn off the heat. (If making the matzo balls in advance, you can either keep them in the cooking water until ready to serve, or drain them, put them on a pan and freeze until needed. You can drop the frozen matzo balls directly into the soup as needed.)
- Step 3
While the matzo balls are cooking, make the miso soup: Soak the wakame in lukewarm water for 10 minutes. Slice the negi into thin rounds. Quarter the daikon, then slice the quarters into ¼-inch-thick pieces.
- Step 4
Drain the wakame. Bring 10 cups of water to a boil in a pot with the dashi powder. When the dashi dissolves, add the wakame, negi and the radish slices to the soup, heating until the water hits a boil, then add the mushrooms and cook for 2 minutes to warm the vegetables through and barely cook them.
- Step 5
Meanwhile, spoon about ⅓ cup of broth from the pot of soup into a small bowl and add 3 tablespoons of miso paste, stirring until smooth. Pour the miso mixture back into the soup and taste to make sure there is a good balance of miso and dashi, adding more of each to your preference.
- Step 6
Add the tofu cubes to the soup. When the soup boils, lower the heat and simmer for 5 minutes, until the vegetables are tender and the flavors melded.
- Step 7
To serve, ladle the soup into bowls, drain the matzo balls and add to the soup, and sprinkle with shiso leaves or dill.
- In the 13th century, a rabbi in France made a ruling that effectively banned kitniyot — including corn, rice, beans, peanuts and other foods — for observant Ashkenazi Jews at Passover. In 2016, the Conservative movement overturned that ruling, although Orthodox Ashkenazi Jews (and many other Ashkenazi Jews) still do not eat soybeans at this time.
Private Notes
Comments
Instead of cooking the matzoh balls in boiling water, place them into heated soup. It gives them a better flavor -- that was my mother's technique to creating tastier and more flavor full matzoh balls for the Seder, and year-round.
Also, miso is soy-based, so "kitniyot" or "mei-kitniyot" (certain products, such as beans and rice, customarily banned during Passover according to a strong Ashkenazi custom that many descendants of European Jews follow.)
If you do that, the matzoh balls drink all the soup. You have to have a large surplus of soup to do that. I add the balls to the soup after they have swollen to the desired size.
I make a variation of this every year for the the vegetarians among the guests, by amping up Trader Joe’s miso-ginger broth with more miso, grated fresh ginger, shiitakes, etc. if you are willing to throw out all the reasons why this is unsuitable for Passover, it works great. If not, just make vegetable broth and scrap the tofu.
I was intrigued by this idea, but I adapted it to suit my taste. I made the matzo balls generally per the directions but if you can't easily find any of the spices, I'd say, don't worry about it. I, then, made a miso based soup with julienned daikon, thinly sliced onions, chopped baby bok choy, tofu, sliced baby bellas. Once assembled, I topped it with sliced cilantro and julienned green onion. If you prefer a softer daikon, boil them separately like I always do, then add to the soup.
Even if you eat kiniyot, where do you get tofu and miso? Just buy regular tofu and miso at a place like Whole Foods, where the tofu and miso do not have a kosher designation at all?