Miso Soup

Dashi is made with kombu and dried shiitake mushrooms, one pack of good kombu (about $10) will last you ages. If you also dry out your own shiitake mushrooms by washing them in saline water, slicing them into small pieces, then putting them in an open oven of 100 degrees Celcius for about 2-4 hours you will save lots of money. All you do to make the dashi once you have done this is immerse about 2-3 shiitake mushrooms in 2 quarts of water with 2 large pieces of kombu and leave it in a container for about 12 hours and remove the mushrooms and kombu. Don't use wakame, you can use ingredients such as ginger but it isn't necessary. Bonito can be used but I am vegetarian so I have never tried and never will.

1. There are many types of dashi. You can make it from bonito flakes (look for katsuobushi flakes in red and clear packages -- you can even buy them on Amazon). You can make it from kombu kelp (vegan). You can make it from a mix of the two (awase -- pretty common in Japan).

2. You don't make dashi with wakame.

3. Don't use the powdered stuff, it's full of chemicals. Dashi from katsuobushi takes about 3 minutes to make. Boil water, throw in the fish flakes and lower the temp a bit, then skim them out after a few minutes.

Also, this recipe is super weird because it calls for "one piece" of wakame (which usually comes in lots of tiny pieces). Soak your wakame pieces before using and wring out the excess water. Or better yet, go to a real Japanese recipe site and follow a better recipe there!

This is not a vegan dish if you use Dashi stock, which is made from bonito fish.

I went into a grocery store selling Asian foods and they had no idea what the heck Dashi stock was

It's not a real Miso Soup at all!! You should make real Dashi, not Dashi stock! by a japanese woman