I was going through some of my photos and I came across this one that I had forgotten to post about. This is my typical work day breakfast (asagohan). It is a fairly traditional Japanese style of breakfast. It consists of green tea, umeboshi (a pickled plum), some yogurt, miso soup and nattou (fermented soy beans) on rice. The breakfast may look a bit large but I normally eat breakfast at about 6:30am and I normally have lunch at 12:30 so the breakfast needs to hold me over for a while.
Given that I eat this type of breakfast five days a week, I am constantly trying different types of miso soup. With summer here, there are a lot of fresh vegetables to use in miso soups. Here a few of the miso soups that I have been eating lately:
Asparagus and Aburage Miso Soup
Butternut Squash and Wakame Miso Soup
Corn and Milk Miso Soup
Kabocha and Spinach Miso Soup
Oven Roasted Eggplant and Mushroom Miso Soup
Shimeji and Aburage Miso Soup
Shitake and Spinach Miso Soup
Tofu and Sesame Miso Soup
Tofu and Wakame Miso Soup
Tomato and Shiitake Miso Soup
Zucchini and Onion Miso Soup
With so many fresh fruits and berries around I have been having plain yogurt with fruits and berries. Recently I have been enjoying the fresh local blueberries for in my yogurt for breakfast.
A Shot of the sticky nattou:
Take a look at the Weekend Breakfast Blogging roundup at A Fridge Full of Food.
Wow!!!That is a far cry from the “Breakfast Sundae” of fresh fruit, yogurt and granola I have every escond morning or the tomatoe and cottage cheese I have the rest of the time. On weekendsa it is a free for all!! I am most impressed!!!
I would eat Natto every morning if I could. I’m teaching a sushi class tomorrow and I forgot to pick some Natto up.
That breakfast looks like a treat! I am a little (actually, a lot) intimidated by Japanese cuisine, but your miso soups are so tempting…I might try and make them!
steamykitchen: You will have to tell me how you use nattou in sushi. I have been looking for ways to incorporate nattou in other dishes.
Wow! Kevin, everything looks wonderful. I really love all the miso soup recipes–thanks for participating!
The way I use Natto in Sushi is 1)pound natto into small pieces, it become sticky 2)chop SHISO leaves (one of the commonly used Japanese herbs) 3)add Shiso to natto 4)keep pounding until Natto and Shiso completely mixed.
Use Maki-zushi tequnique, (Rice on Nori, put filling and roll)roll Natto mixture.
This way, my friends from outside of Japan can eat this exotic Natto. My husband eat Natto every single morning, putting chopped green onion and soy sauce, and mustard comes with Natto package.
(Fortunately here in Chicago suburb has one big Japanese market where I can get almost everything needed for my diet.)
Many families including mine in Tokyo put one egg to one package of Natto. Here in the US, we cannot do this since law egg may contain Salmonerosis.
Misa: Thanks for the nattou sushi instructions! I think I have seen shiso at a local Japanese grocery store. I will have to pick some up the next time I am there to try this.
Natto was a common fixture in my mother's meals ever since I was young, so it's plain to see that I've grown up with natto.
Adding onto what Misa said (and what she said sounds delicious!), in order to accentuate the already slimy (but charming) texture, I also like to add okra! But it could be a bit of a step for people who haven't tried natto yet…
Not to mention — I'm quite jealous of your breakfasts!