Soup is good food. It makes a good meal.

A traditional Japanese meal has at least three cornerstones: rice, miso soup, and another food, such as grilled fish or simmered vegetables, known as “okazu” in Japanese. Rice acts as the backbone of the meal, while the okazu brings a little nutritional pizzazz, and miso soup serves a kind of nebulous role as both a liquid food and side dish that whets your whistle while also having a flavorful kick and health benefits of its own.

There’s also a lot that can be done with miso soup. It’s basic components are water, soup stock, and a fermented soybean paste known as miso. Beyond that, you’re free to toss in whatever else you want, with tofu, seaweed, and mushrooms among the common choices.

It’s exactly that freedom that led Tokyo-based startup Misovation to create what they call “the next evolution in miso soup”. This range of soups, also called Misovation, uses different kinds of miso from across Japan and combines it with a large amount of complementary ingredients. One thing all these hearty soups have in common is that there’s enough nutrition for each one to stand as a meal on its own.

▼ Step aside, rice! You’re the side dish now.

Misovation hopes their soups will catch on abroad as well as in Japan. Despite being a quintessential Japanese food, miso soup consumption is said to be on the decline, especially among younger people who opt for more convenient foods. Unfortunately, McDonald’s doesn’t offer miso soup, which is a shame because I think it would go really well with a Big Mac.

This change in trends, along with other problems like rising food prices, has been hitting miso breweries hard and around 400 have gone out of business in the past 35 years. That’s why Misovation works with several breweries to help showcase their unique flavors both at home and abroad. For example, their Sakura soup is made with Nanohana Miso made by Yamani Miso, the only surviving brewery in Sakura City, Chiba Prefecture, an area once called the “Miso Room” because of all the production that went on there.

▼ Production at Yamani Miso

In terms of convenience, even making miso soup the traditional way isn’t terribly hard, but Misovation makes it even easier by dumping the flash-frozen ingredients into a bowl, adding water, and popping it in the microwave for about six minutes. Each bowl is said to have all the protein, fiber, probiotics, and other good stuff the body needs in a single meal.

▼ Microwaving a traditional Japanese food like this might seem a little gauche, but miso soup requires gentler heating than usual to preserve the taste and nutrition and microwaves can be well suited to do that.

It is an amped-up form of the miso soup from days gone by, and some might not be as keen to eat such a filling version of it. For those people, Misovaton also has the Misobox, a subscription based miso soup delivery service in which instant versions of select regional “craft miso soups” are sent right to your doorstep.

Misovation can also be enjoyed on a subscription basis with new varieties being sent to you regularly, but however you do it, take the time to enjoy some miso soup to keep its healthy culture alive and support those who make it. After all, McMiso isn’t likely to come out anytime soon even if the marketing practically writes itself.

Source, images: PR Times 1, 2, 3
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