Last Updated on April 12, 2024 by Fasting Planet
If you’re visiting an Asian restaurant, many such establishments start you off with a steaming hot cup of miso soup. You can also order this soup as an appetizer. Soup is broth-based, and while you don’t think miso soup uses chicken broth, you’re still not sure if it’s vegan. Is it?
Miso soup can be vegan, but ingredients such as katsuobushi (bonito flakes), dried Japanese anchovies, and fish or chicken stock that are sometimes used to make to miso soup are not vegan-friendly. Miso paste, which miso soup is derived from, is always vegan.
In this article, we’ll explain what miso is as well as provide more information on its vegan status. We’ll even have a section on navigating dining out at an Asian restaurant yet still sticking to your plant-based diet. Make sure you keep reading!
What Is Miso?
You know it’s an ingredient in soup, but admittedly, outside of that, you’re not very familiar with miso. What is it?
Long before it’s made into soup, miso starts as a powdered seasoning or paste. Miso, which originated in Japan, is made from fermented soybeans. Salt may be added for flavor, and the Aspergillus oryzae or koji fungus is another ingredient. Optional ingredients include seaweed, barley, and rice.
Here’s what a full ingredients list for miso might look like:
- Five-grain or gokoku, including foxtail millet, proso millet, barley, wheat, and/or soy
- Nari, a pulp from cycad plants
- Hadakamugi, which is Highland barley
- Sobamugi or buckwheat
- Taima or hempseed
- Genmai or brown rice
- Tsubu or barley and whole grains
- Mugi or barley
Not all miso is the same. As many as six different types of miso are eaten throughout Japan, each boasting its own special flavors. Let’s talk about the varieties now.
- White miso or shiromiso is widely produced across Japan. It includes soybeans (not many) as well as barley and rice. With a sweet flavor and a brief period of fermentation, shiromiso is distinct.
- Red miso or akamiso spends longer in fermentation, sometimes a year or more. Although it’s called red miso, depending on the fermentation length, the color of this miso may be blackish. It has a sharp, strong taste and a salty quality.
- Mixed miso is called awase or chogo. Various miso types combine to make mixed miso. This can bring down any sharper flavor profiles for a more palatable taste.
- Soybean miso or mame has a brownish-red hue, so it ferments for quite a while, although not as long as red miso. Eaten in the Mie prefecture, Gifu prefecture, and Aichi prefecture, soybean miso is not very sweet nor salty.
- Barley miso or mugi has a very light hue if it’s made in Shikoku, Chugoku, or Kyushu. In northern Kanto, mugi is redder. Its smell is quite noticeable either way, so be prepared for that!
- Rice miso or kome comes in all sorts of colors, including red, white, or yellow. The color is a result of steaming versus boiling the soybeans.
Per the USDA, 100 grams of miso contains:
- 199 calories
- 6 grams of total fat (9 percent of your daily recommended value)
- 1 grams of saturated fat (5 percent of your daily recommended value)
- 2 grams of polyunsaturated fat
- 2 grams of monounsaturated fat
- 0 milligrams of cholesterol
- 3,728 milligrams of sodium (155 percent of your daily recommended value)
- 210 milligrams of potassium (6 percent of your daily recommended value)
- 26 grams of carbs (8 percent of your daily recommended value)
- 5 grams of dietary fiber (20 percent of your daily recommended value)
- 6 grams of sugar
- 12 grams of protein (24 percent of your daily recommended value)
- 1 percent vitamin A
- 5 percent calcium
- 1 percent cobalamin
- 13 percent iron
- 10 percent vitamin B6
- 12 percent magnesium
Is Miso Soup Vegan?
Now that you understand more about miso and where it comes from, let’s delve deeper into whether miso soup is considered vegan.
Miso soup’s stock can compromise the soup’s vegan status. Broth or stock is the main ingredient in soup. It may come from all sorts of sources, including animal bones, seafood, and meat. Wine, water, and vegetables are vegan-friendly stocks.
In Japan, authentic miso soup may use non-meat stock, but it depends on the type of miso soup. Niboshi dashi has fish stock in the form of Japanese anchovies. In European and American restaurants that serve Asian food, fish and chicken stock are the norm for making miso soup rather than vegetable stock. You wouldn’t be able to eat this version of miso soup either.
Katsuobushi dashi is yet another questionable variety of miso soup for vegans. Its stock includes bonito flakes or katsuobushi. Bonito flakes come from smoked skipjack tuna, which is definitely not vegan.
Is Miso Paste Vegan?
Okay, so that’s miso soup, but you’re also curious if you can eat miso paste as a vegan. Miso paste uses the same ingredients as those that make powdered miso. The soybeans also undergo varying levels of fermentation to change the beans’ color and depth of flavor. You can’t have miso soup without miso paste, as otherwise, it’s just stock.
Besides its use in soup, miso paste can dress up many dishes. Even better is that miso paste on its own is vegan. If you’ve been eager for a strong flavor to incorporate into your vegan recipes, miso paste could be just what you’re looking for!
What Are the Health Benefits of Miso?
Besides its awesome taste, miso is very nutritious and healthful in a lot of ways. Here’s a rundown of how eating miso can be good for you!
Could Help Your Brain Health
Everyone wants their brain to be its healthiest, and eating miso may be one way to do it. Multiple studies, including this 2016 report from the Journal of Neurogastroenterology, have found that probiotics in miso can boost your brain. For instance, probiotics may lessen symptoms associated with obsessive-compulsive disorder or OCD, autism, depression, stress, and anxiety. Your memory could be stronger too!
May Lower Your Type 2 Diabetes Risk
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or CDC, in the United States, up to 34 million people have diabetes. The overwhelming majority, somewhere between 90 and 95 percent, have been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes specifically.
Some data has found that soybean fermentation could stop the development of type 2 diabetes. This 2010 report from the journal Nutrition Research is one such piece of data. Admittedly, experts believe more research must be done before drawing such a conclusion.
Might Help with Blood Pressure Control
A healthy blood pressure wards off stroke and heart disease, so it’s worth taking care of yourself. Several studies have shown that in animals, eating miso can lower their blood pressure. One such study was this 2013 report from the Journal of Toxicologic Pathology and another is from Nutrition.
Whether those benefits translate to humans, experts aren’t quite sure, but it could be possible!
Could Reduce Bad Cholesterol
Also proven in animals is miso’s ability to lower blood LDL cholesterol, says this Journal of Food and Nutrition Research report from 2015.
May Strengthen Your Immune System
A healthy immune system allows your body to fight off viruses before they become illnesses like the cold and flu. Probiotics can bolster the flora in the gut so it’s even stronger, and you know how miso is very rich in probiotics.
Further, a 2011 publication from the Cochran Database discovered that probiotics could lessen your need to take medication by an astounding rate: 33 percent! To come to that conclusion, the researchers looked through Cochran Library data between 1950 and 2011.
What if it’s too late and you’re already sick? Actually, it’s never too late for probiotics! Miso and other probiotic foods might help you get over your cold faster, notes this 2015 publication of Expert Opinion on Biological Therapy.
Could Lower Cancer Risk
Miso has been proven capable of combatting a variety of cancer types, including breast and liver cancer. Studies such as this one from the Kurume Medical Journal in 2004 and other bodies of research have found that these cancer risks could be reduced by as much as 54 percent. As a caveat, the breast cancer risks were lowest in women who already went through menopause.
Experts believe there’s a link between the amount of time the soybeans ferment and how powerful miso can be in fighting off cancer.
How Can You Be Sure Whether Your Miso Soup Is Vegan?
You’re about to go out to eat at an Asian restaurant with some friends or family and you’re worried about what’s in the restaurant’s miso soup. Broth is not always easily detectable by color, so you can’t rely on that. We recommend you do the following instead.
Research the Restaurant
Today, restaurants publish more information about their menu than ever, including nutritional data. The best place to find this kind of information is on the restaurant’s website or social media profiles. You can also read reviews, but do keep in mind these may not always be 100 percent accurate.
Check the Menu
You can also wait until you arrive at the restaurant and look through the menu in person. You might have to flip to the back of the menu to find more detailed info on the restaurant’s appetizers, entrees, and desserts.
When in Doubt, Ask!
If you’re just not sure whether the miso soup is vegan, contact the restaurant directly. You can send a message on social media or an email, but it could be hours or days before you get a response. You can also call ahead or wait until you get to the restaurant to ask what’s in the soup.
Conclusion
Miso soup comes from miso paste, a fermented soybean seasoning from Japan. Miso itself is vegan, but the stock in miso soup might not be. Always ask questions of any restaurant you’re going to dine at that serves miso soup so you can be sure whether what you’re eating is plant-based!