Tofu Soup (flower-shaped tofu with miso and vegetable broth)

This recipe teaches us how to cut a block of tofu into a flower, and make tofu soup with miso and vegetable broth within 20 minutes.

Cutting a block of tofu into a blossoming flower isn’t really that hard!

I have a really bad knife skill, but I was able to cut a chrysanthemum tofu on my first attempt a few years ago. By following the tips I listed below, I believe you can do it too!!

Chrysanthemum tofu

Chrysanthemum tofu is a top-grade dish that all Chinese chefs must practice. The chefs will make hundreds of parallel cuts on a piece of silken tofu without cutting through the bottom part to make it look like a blossoming chrysanthemum.

It’s said that a top chef should be able to cut a block of silken tofu 3600 times without breaking it apart. That will be 1800 cuts in each direction! 😮

Guess how many cuts did I make? About 80… I made 35 cuts on the shorter side, and 45 cuts on the longer side. 🤣

Anyway~ I think the 80-cuts-tofu flower turned out great! It does look like a chrysanthemum to me! I think we should call the top chef’s 3600-cuts-tofu a dandelion tofu instead. 😝

How to cut a flower-shaped tofu

This is my trick for cutting a flower-shaped tofu with my just so so knife skill: I placed the tofu on a plate with a ½”-thick-rim, and only cut down to the rim so that the bottom part of the tofu block was all linked together and the tofu wouldn’t fall apart. 

If you can’t find a proper plate, you can also cut a potato/carrot into ½”-thick slices, and place one slice on each side of the tofu lengthwise. Or fold two kitchen towels into ½”-thick blocks and use them to stop the knife from cutting to the bottom.

15 minute quick vegetable broth

Traditionally, Chinese chefs will use a 6 to 8 hour chicken stock to pair with the tofu. To make this dish easier and vegan friendly, I used a simple yet healthy and delicious vegetable broth instead. This is how I made the vegetable broth within 15 minutes:

• Add 1 ear of sweet corn (cut into 2 to 3 pieces; or ½ cup of corn kernels), ½ carrot (about 150g, peeled and cut into chunks), ¼ cabbage (about 150g, washed, no need to cut), 5 cilantros (about 5g), ½ cup of mushrooms of your choice (about 50g) and 4 cups of water to a pot.
• Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce the heat to low, simmer the broth for 15 minutes.
• Strain all the vegetables from the broth (you can eat these vegetables), add ½ tsp of salt to the broth. 

This vegetable broth seems to be super simple, right? But it is loaded with umami flavors from mushrooms, and subtle sweetness from corns and carrots.

Feel free to replace one or two vegetables in this broth recipe with anything available in your refridrator. For example, you can also add celeries, garlics, tomatoes, and thymes.

Since we would add miso paste to this vegetable broth later, I made this broth less salty than usual. You can add more salt to your taste if you are going to skip the miso or use this vegetable broth for other dishes. 

For this recipe, you can also use store-bought vegetable/chicken broth. Try to use low-salt broth, since there the miso paste is salty too.

Miso Tofu Soup

Miso soup could be the easiest soup on this planet. You just need to dissolve 1 tbsp of miso paste to 1 cup of hot broth. For the hot broth, you can use dashi stock, chicken/vegetable broth, or even just hot water.

Since tofu can be eaten raw, you can just toss a few pieces of tofu into your miso soup to get a bowl of miso tofu soup. Optionally, to make the tofu more flavorful, you can simmer the tofu in miso soup for 5 minutes.

You might have noticed that, in this recipe, we steam the tofu instead of simmering it. That is because the flower-shaped tofu is too fragile to be cooked in a pot. We’d better directly cook it in its serving bowl.

You can use any type of miso paste you like for makin this soup. I used white miso, because I like its milder and more delicate flavor. Also the color of white miso is lighter, so that we will be able to see the beautiful flower-shaped tofu through the soup. 

I put the Amazon link for the white miso I used here, just for showing you the type and the brand. You don’t need to buy it from Amazon!!

I can’t believe they charge $12 for a box of miso on Amazon. I am pretty sure you can find much cheaper miso (less than $6 per box) of the same brand at your local Asian market! 

How to steam without a steamer

If you don’t have a steamer at home, you can fill a pot with 1 inch of water, place a steamer rack (or three golf-ball-size aluminum foil balls) on the bottom, put bowl on top of the rack/balls, put the lid on, and bring the water to a boil to steam the tofu soup over medium high heat for 5 minutes.

EQUIPMENT you will need:

• Plate (About ½” thick)
• Chef’s knife
• Pot with lid (And 3 pieces of foil)
• Round cookie cutter (About 3” diameter)

INGREDIENTS list:

• 8 oz silken tofu (A box of tofu is about 17oz. We will only use the center part to carve the tofu flower. You can save rest part of the tofu, and use it to make this soup again tomorrow.)
• 1 cup vegetable broth (Homemade or store-bought. Use low-salt broth.)
• 1 tbsp miso
• ¼ tsp chili oil (Optional)
• 1 tsp green onion (Chopped)

Step-by-step INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Slide a small knife into the plastic cover of the tofu box, cut around, and peel off the cover. Flip the tofu box over a plate, use a knife to trim off the flour corners of the tofu box. Gently lift up the tofu box, then you will have an intact silken tofu on the plate.

2. Use a 3” round cookie cutter to cut a circle on the center of the tofu block. Gently lift and remove the cookie cutter.

3. Pour about 1 tbsp of cold water on the top surface of the tofu, and rinse a chef’s knife with cold tab water. With this step, the tofu will be less likely to stick to the knife when you cut it.

4. Cut the tofu block into 2mm thick slices from one end to the other. Once the knife’s blade is about to touch the rim of the plate, stop cutting down so that you do not cut through the tofu. (See Note 1)

5. Rotate the tofu 90°, cut the tofu into 2mm thick slices with a 90° angle to the previous cuts. Also, do not cut through the tofu, stop cutting once the knife’s blade is about to touch the rim of the plate.

6. Use a small knife to slide along the round cut (you made the round cut earlier with the cookie cutter). Use a scraper to transfer the center tofu piece to a soup bowl. You can keep the remainder in a food storage container in the fridge for next time use (use within 3 days).

7. In a small saucepan, bring 1 cup of vegetable/chicken broth (see Note 2) to a simmer over high heat. Reduce the heat to low, add 1 tbsp miso paste to the broth, stir until fully dissolved. (Ideally, place the miso paste in a fine-mesh sieve, lower it into the broth, and then stir the miso and broth within the sieve until all the miso particles are small enough to pass through the sieve.)

8. Carefully pour the miso soup over the flower-shaped tofu. Optionally, drizzle with ¼ tsp of chili oil and garnish with chopped green onions.

9. Steam the tofu soup over high heat for 5 minutes before serving. Serve hot.

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