We are making a soy milk kimchi soup that will warm you up especially on cold days. The garlic-seasoned pork and kimchi are doing a great job! You will enjoy plenty of ingredients.
First, let's prepare the niboshi, dried baby sardines.
Remove the head of niboshi, split the stomach in half lengthwise, and remove the black innards.
Put the niboshi in a measuring cup. When using small niboshi, you don't need to take the innards out so that you can save time.
Pour 300 ml (1.27 cups) of hot water into the cup. Soaking the niboshi in hot water will help to make the dashi broth quickly.
Here are the ingredients for the soy milk soup. Cut the onion into 1 cm (0.4") slices along the grain.
Cut the broccoli head into small clusters. As for the stem, peel off the skin thickly and cut into bite-sized pieces 5 mm 0.2" thick.
Tear the shimeji mushrooms into smaller pieces.
Cut off the root end of the enoki mushrooms, halve the length, and tear the lower half into smaller pieces.
As for the meat, season the pork slices with the grated garlic and sake.
Lightly toss to coat. We recommend working on plastic wrap since this will make it easier to wash the tray and your hands.
Cut the potato into 1 to 1.5 cm (0.4"~0.6") cubes and place it in a bowl.
Cover the potato with a damp paper towel and loosely cover the bowl with plastic wrap.
Heat it in a 600 watt microwave oven for 2.5 minutes. After that, let it sit for about 5 minutes to soften with residual heat.
Let's make the pork kimchi soy milk soup. Add 1 tablespoon of sesame oil to a pot.
Add the sliced onion and broccoli stems. Saute on medium-low heat until the edges of the onion begin to brown slightly.
Now, the onion is starting to turn a nice color.
Add the pork slices. This is pork thigh for a shabu shabu hotpot but you can also use pork belly.
Break up the pork slices well and stir-fry thoroughly.
When all of the redness in the meat has disappeared, add the kimchi and stir-fry lightly.
Even if kimchi has become sour due to lactic acid fermentation, stir-frying will soften the sourness and make it tastier. If you do not like sourness, stir-fry the kimchi thoroughly.
Add the niboshi dashi broth.
Then, add the shimeji mushrooms, enoki mushrooms, and broccoli.
Submerge all the ingredients in the broth with a ladle and cover with a lid.
Heat slowly so that the thick niboshi broth and the umami flavor of the mushrooms soak into the ingredients.
In our family, niboshi is not only used to make dashi stock, but also eaten as an ingredient, but if you do not like it, you can leave it out in the soup.
When the broccoli is tender, add the potato, salt and soy milk.
Soy milk and kimchi go excellent together. For those who are not fans of soy milk or for children, you can replace about 20% of the soy milk with regular milk for a richer, more delicious taste.
Mix lightly.
Cover and heat slowly on low heat.
Gently stir the broth from time to time to prevent the soy milk from separating. If the soy milk keeps boiling on high heat, it will quickly separate.
When it begins to simmer on the surface, it is ready to serve. If the taste is too weak, add salt to adjust it.
Ladle the piping-hot soup into a bowl, top with the spring onion leaves and enjoy!
Recipe Notes
Soy milk tends to separate easily, but even if it does, it still tastes good, so don't be too nervous.