Don't Make This Miso Soup Mistake If You Want All The Nutritional Benefits

There's more to a miso soup than just a comforting umami flavor — it also contains a ton of potential health benefits for your gut. There's a caveat to this, however, because in order to actually get those benefits, the soup has to be prepared a certain way. One common cooking mistake often prevents this from happening, but luckily it's an easy one to avoid, and it's all about timing (and heat). To get the most out of your miso, don't add it too early to the soup.

Since miso paste is a fermented food, it has strains of live bacteria and probiotics in it, which can only survive in certain conditions. So as tempting as it might be to add in your miso paste right away, hold off a bit — the high temperature of the boiling soup will kill off the live strains of good bacteria in the miso. It's best to wait to add in your miso until the soup has been taken off the burner and is no longer being heated up. You want the soup to be slightly cooler but still warm enough for the miso to melt into the soup. By treating the ingredient more delicately this way, you'll still get all of those probiotics and potential gut health benefits.

Miso soup is good for more than just the gut — it's also good for hydration due to it being mostly broth. One easy way of incorporating it into your diet is making miso soup a part of your breakfast, giving the meal a Japanese spin by pairing it with eggs, vegetables, rice, and a protein. That said, miso isn't just for soup — it's a versatile ingredient that can also be used in marinades, dressings, smoothies, and more (as a bonus, such preparations won't expose miso to high heat either, so you don't have to worry about adding it too soon).

Like all soy-based products, miso may potentially help with lowering the risk of heart disease as well. In addition to this, miso also contains a bunch of important nutrients as well as antioxidants that can help to lower inflammation and potentially boost immune response. That said, some of the possible health benefits of miso come from the fermentation process itself. Fermentation lowers the amount of anti-nutrients in food products, and this helps the body absorb minerals better. However, as nutritious as miso is, it's important to remember that it's also very salty — if this is an issue for you, be sure to take into account miso's sodium content.