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Turmeric Miso Soup With Ginger, Garlic and Tofu. Kick that cold with this soothing, anti inflammatory, brothy soup. Vegan Gluten-free Nut-free Recipe. Can be made soy-free.

I hit a cold bug this last weekend and wanted a bowl of soup that was hot, brothy, strong flavored. I decided to use elements from Mom’s tip for a cold – a peppery salty turmeric concoction to both gargle with and sip on, and the recent fave brothy miso soup to get the body ready to fight them bugs.
I went to the kitchen, chopped up stuff and kept adding to get the flavor I wanted. Ah. a bowl of goodness. And then trying to hold in the sneezes for a quick photo shoot.
The soup has liberal ginger, garlic, turmeric, miso and some shredded veggies. Add veggies of choice, some mushrooms and greens for variation. Make this healing soup your own. Amazingly simple and versatile. Between this soup and a sipping on my Golden Milk Spiced Latte, the cold seems to be on its way out.

More soups for the soul. A winter Minestrone, creamy Broccoli Slaw Soup, peppery Turkish lentil soup, Turmeric Laksa Curry Soup with fresh turmeric root, 15 min Indian Spiced Tomato Soup, Fall flavor Curried Butternut Squash Soup with toasted pepitas and brothy Mushroom chickpea greens soup.
If you don’t like turmeric, omit it. Don’t want the tofu, use more veggies and/or chickpeas, or mushrooms. To make it completely soy-free, use coconut aminos instead of soy sauce, and chickpea miso.
If you make this soup do leave me a comment, or tag me #veganricha on Instagram!

Turmeric Miso Soup With Ginger, Garlic and Tofu

Ingredients
- 1 tsp oil
- 7 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
- 1 to 1.5 inch piece of ginger, peeled and minced
- 1/2 hot green chile, optional
- 1/2 cup grated or shredded carrots
- 1/2 green or red bell pepper thinly sliced
- 7 oz 1/2 a block of tofu, cubed small
- 2 tsp tamari or soy sauce
- 2.5 cups water, or more, to preference
- 1/2 tsp or more turmeric
- 1 tsp apple cider , or distilled white vinegar
- 1 tsp or more sugar , or maple syrup
- 1/2 tsp salt, less or more to taste, depends on your miso
- 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper, divided
- 1 tbsp or more white mellow miso
- scallions for garnish
Instructions
- Heat oil in saucepan over medium heat. Add garlic, ginger and chile and cook until translucent. 4 mins.
- Add the carrots and peppers and cook for 3 minutes.
- Add tofu and mix in. At this point you can also add in chopped veggies(chopped small) such broccoli.
- Add water, 1/3 tsp black pepper and rest of the ingredients except miso and bring to a boil.
- Simmer for 4 minutes. Then add the miso and mix in. Taste and adjust salt, sweet and tang(vinegar). Simmer for another few minutes.
- Garnish with scallions and black pepper.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.











I’ve made this soup four times, all with slight tweaks and variations from the original recipe. It’s helped me combat not one, but two colds. Thank you so much for this recipe! I feel so much better after having this.
Kale is a really nice add, and so is spinach. I steam them before and put them in before the water. 🙂
Thats awesome! yes some greens definitely will work.
This soup is amazing!!
I added vermicelli noodles and mushrooms to make it more hearty. I could drink the broth alone for days!
Great additions!
I can’t believe how good this soup is, especially when you consider how easy it is to make!
Thank you for posting!
Thanks!
This is absolutely delicious! I used 2 1/2 cups of liquid but substituted 1 cup of water with vegetable stock and it worked wonderfully. Definitely will be making this again.
Awesome! I add the liquid depending on how brothy i want the soup to be. some days i just want to drink up all the broth 🙂
Thank you. I was thinking vegetable broth too. Now I will definitely use it. Low sodium as well. I’ve never cooked with miso but here it’s quite salty so low sodium broth it is.
This is delicious! I was fighting a bit of a cold and decided to give this recipe a try..I’m so glad I did! It has just enough kick to it and the broth tastes nice and rich. Love it!
Yay!
Our whole county’s schools have been closed due to illness. My solution? This is in the making for tonight! Thanks for the new ideas to add to my original miso soup, like the turmeric, bell pepper, and the vinegar! I feel a restoration to good health is coming after this deliciousness.
oh no. hope everyone feels better soon.
This looks amazing! can’t wait to try this!!
This looks like exactly what I need around this time. What firmness of tofu do you usually use? Thanks!
I use firm. Any would do.
I love turmeric! I’m gonna try this recipe, but I’m gonna use squash instead of tofu, since I don’t eat soy products. 🙂 <3
This is exactly what I’ve been looking for! I’ve been trying to up my intake of turmeric especially, but also ginger and anything anti-inflammatory/good for cold season…. but I’m not always sure where to. This screaammmss healing!
This definitely hits the spot.
As suggested at the end of the recipe, I had to add more sugar, salt, and miso to get rid of that sandy-raw-astringent turmeric taste. I’m not a natural or adjust by tastebud cook. I prefer to blindly follow a recipe and get something good at the end. It was quick and easy to make. A good everyday soup.
Maybe try a different brand of turmeric. Brands differ in flavor and some are more pleasing and less bitter or less astringent etc than others.
I did not know that. Would you care to recommend a brand?
I get the Organic brands from Indian store. I also have some homegrown turmeric my mom grows and powders and brings me some when she visits. Its a personal preference really as she loves the extra bitter while i prefer finer and lighter turmeric. So you should try small quantities of various brands ( the darker coarser powder seem to be more bitter). Also use lesser quantity. Taste buds adjust after a while and the astringent flavor you feel now might feel too mild after a while.
I’ve been using Frontier Herbs turmeric, from a bulk spice bin. It was a bit old. The little plastic bag I had it in was sticky. The Indian grocery stores in my area do not have organic products in them. In the health food stores I have seen spices in glass bottles with “Organic” as the literal brand name. The recipe is easy enough. I will try it with other types of turmeric. Thanks for the tip about lighter vs darker turmeric.
yes the stickyness means it has probably gone a bit rancid because of age or exposure to too much extreme conditions. those will definitely have a more astringent/rancid like flavor, some will kind of feel too thick on the tongue if you use it for turmeric milk. You can use that up in curries where its a much smaller quantity. For recipes where turmeric flavor is going to show, you really need the better brand.
Use stale turmeric, get a bad taste. Duh! LOL!
Thank you for the valuable information. That turmeric is going in the trash and I will try the recipe again next week .
Thank you!
I tried the recipe again this week.
This time I used turmeric I bought fresh
https://www.amazon.com/Simply-Organic-Turmeric-2-38-oz/dp/B000VK49YM/ref=sr_1_5?keywords=simply+organic+turmeric&qid=1569099462&sr=8-5
I wasn’t expecting it to make a difference, but WOW.
Much more mellow and even tasty.
Thanks for the tip.
The stores in my area are starting to sell whole turmeric root. If I wanted to experiment with that about how much would I use?
Awesome! so glad you liked it!
fresh turmeric has a stronger bitter flavor, grate or mince about a 1/4 inch and simmer for a few minutes and see if you like the flavor. you can build it up to a higher amount once you get used to it
What kind of tofu do I use for this? Recipe doesn’t specify.
firm