Broccoli and Soy Milk Soup is a healthy soup and very easy to make. The tofu in the soup gives you a good amount of protein without meat in the soup. The soup is surprisingly tasty even if there is only a tiny amount of seasoning added to it. The green of the broccoli in the white colour of the Soy Milk Soup is appetising.

I found today’s recipe, Broccoli and Soy Milk Soup, in my online Japanese cooking magazine called ‘Okazu no Cooking’. I think I mentioned to you about this magazine in my post Fish Chawanmushi (Savoury Egg Custard).

Broccoli was cheap at Harris Farm Market, my local supermarket, so I bought quite a lot of it without planning to cook anything with it. Then I found this recipe!

To tell you the truth, I am not fan of soy milk as a beverage. I can drink it if I have to, but the specific flavour that comes from soybeans (beany/grassy) doesn’t agree with me. So, I was a bit sceptical about this dish. But to my surprise it turned out to be a very tasty soup. And I love it!

Since this was my first attempt to using soy milk in my cooking, I was curious as to what other people were cooking with soy milk as a main ingredient.

The interesting findings are that most Western recipes using soy milk are drinks and desserts, while there are quite few savoury dishes that originate from Japan and some other Asian countries.

It is not surprising that Japan has savoury soy milk dishes. There is a hot pot dish made with milk broth called ‘asuka nabe’ (飛鳥鍋), in Japan. It originated in Nara prefecture about 1300 years ago when Nara was the capital of Japan (prior to moving the capital to Kyoto, then subsequently to Edo, i.e. Tokyo).

Today’s soup is almost the simplest version of asuka nabe using soy milk instead of dairy milk.

What’s in My Broccoli and Soy Milk Soup

There are only 3 key ingredients in this recipe, with a few seasonings.

The tofu is cooked with the broccoli pieces, so, you don’t use silken tofu. Silken tofu is so soft that it will break into small pieces when mixed. Hard tofu is too firm to be added to this soup. I want the tofu pieces to be soft but not fragile. Momen tofu (firm tofu) is just right.

There are several varieties of soy milk available. Some are slightly sweetened with sugar, some with no sugar. Unless it is heavily sweetened, you can use either normal soy milk or non-sugar soy milk. I personally think that a touch of sweetness in this soup would enhance the flavour.

The addition of shiro dashi or granular dashi stock was my idea. The original recipe only uses salt and pepper to taste, so it is quite alright not to add dashi to it. I made both versions and both were delicious.

How to Make Broccoli and Soy Milk Soup

There is a specific way of preparing the broccoli in this recipe. I think that this method keeps the vivid green colour of the broccoli well even when it is cooked in the soup. The original recipe suggested rinsing the whole bunch of broccoli florets in the boiling water, then cutting them into pieces. But I find that my method is easier.

1. Cut broccoli into bite-size pieces.
2. Put the broccoli pieces in a bowl/pot and add enough boiling water to submerge broccoli pieces. Leave for 1 minute, then drain.
3. Put tofu in a pot and break it into bite-size pieces.
4. Add soy milk to the pan and bring it to a boil, then simmer.
5. Add broccoli pieces to the pot and cook.
6. Season to taste.

It takes less than 15 minutes to make this if you prepare the broccoli while simmering the soup. The combination of the ingredients is unique for a soup, but I like the delicate flavour.

If you use vegetarian dashi stock or omit it altogether, it becomes a vegan Broccoli and Soy Milk Soup.

Yumiko