By Martha Rose Shulman
- Total Time
- About 25 minutes
- Rating
- 4(199)
- Notes
- Read community notes
This simple Japanese soup can be served as a meal or as a starter. As the sweet potatoes and cabbage simmer in the broth of your choice, they infuse it with sweetness. Spinach is added at the last minute, and the soup is served with cooked soba noodles.
Featured in: Sweet Potatoes: Nutrition Wrapped in Vivid Flavors
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Ingredients
Yield:Serves four as a main dish, six as a starter
- 6cups kombu dashi, chicken stock or vegetable stock
- Salt to taste
- 6ounces Japanese soba noodles, cooked and tossed with 1 tablespoon sesame oil
- 1large or 2 small sweet potatoes about ¾ pound, peeled and sliced about ¼ inch thick cut in half lengthwise first if fat
- 2cups shredded cabbage
- 16-ounce bag baby spinach, rinsed
- 2tablespoons minced chives
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (4 servings)
183 calories; 1 gram fat; 0 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 0 grams monounsaturated fat; 0 grams polyunsaturated fat; 40 grams carbohydrates; 3 grams dietary fiber; 2 grams sugars; 8 grams protein; 1165 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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Preparation
Step
1
Bring the stock to a simmer. Taste and adjust seasoning, adding salt if desired. Add the sweet potatoes and cabbage, and simmer 15 minutes until the vegetables are tender.
Step
2
If the noodles have been refrigerated, warm them by placing them in a strainer and dipping the strainer into the simmering broth. Then distribute the noodles among four to six soup bowls. Add the spinach to the stock. Cover, and turn off the heat. Leave for three minutes. Ladle the soup into the bowls, taking care to distribute the vegetables evenly. Sprinkle the chives over each serving, and serve.
- Sweet potatoes may be labeled as yams. Look for dark orange flesh.
- Advance preparation: The noodles can be cooked ahead of serving and kept in the refrigerator for a couple of days. The stock can also be made a day or two ahead.
Ratings
4
out of 5
199
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Cooking Notes
Ute
Was very tasty ! I added a little soy sauce to the finished meal . Just do not over cook any of the ingredients, especially the soba noodles .
e
A few recommendations: Sauté about a cup of sliced mushrooms with soy sauce in the pot before adding the broth. Drop in some silken tofu with the spinach at the end and just let it heat through/break up as you stir.
protein
Dumplings (frozen)
Mel B
made it with Dashi. Probably would've been better with chicken stock.
terra-bite
Added a 3 tbsp of minced ginger, some mirin and soy sauce to the broth. Added silken tofu and the spinach at the very end. Toasted sesame seeds and momof*cku chili crisp oil on top. Yummy.
e
A few recommendations: Sauté about a cup of sliced mushrooms with soy sauce in the pot before adding the broth. Drop in some silken tofu with the spinach at the end and just let it heat through/break up as you stir.
so versatile
and quick for a nourishing lunch. I made it with dried shiitake mushrooms and brocolli, and used soba noodles. Added some ponzu and tamari at the end. I agree with other comments, would add an egg or tofu for some added protein next time. Yummy!
Lars Watson
I improvised on this and used nettles instead of spinach and it was great. I also used buckwheat noodles made with sweet potatoes and finished the soup with fresh pea shoots.
Alex
Add salt and few splashes of soy sauce to broth
Annie K
We loved this for a nourishing midwinter lunch. It's very low key, not a flavor bomb, but very satisfying. Will make again!Made the Just One Cookbook dashi others mentioned, and added plenty of salt and soy sauce to the broth. Next time may add a boiled egg or silken tofu to up the protein factor, or togarashi for some spice.
Hart
Nice lunch using leftover soba noodles and 1 cup Asian flavored broth. The A. broth was well flavored so no additional seasoning was needed.
Jennifer
I've made this twice. Excellent. I used kombu dashi recipe from Just One Cookbook, a Japanese food/recipe/blog which expands the simple dashi recipe from Nancy Harmon Jenkins NYT which is just kombu and bonito. This other recipe adds mirin, sake, soy sauce and salt so the stock is much richer, tastes just like soba noodles soups I get at Japanese restaurants. Check it out. Oh, you can freeze portions of the stock for up to 3 months! https://www.justonecookbook.com/soba-noodle-soup/
Allison
This was the starter of our meal ‘shared’ with friends via FaceTime- we are in Isolation. Very tasty soup. It was a hit in both households (we pick 2 NYT recipes and cook them for our FaceTime dinners!) I used boxed chicken broth because it is what was in the pantry. I needed to cook the sweet potatoes for 30 minutes before they were cooked through. The other household didn’t and we decided it was because mine were 1/4” and theirs were sliced thinner. Excellent recipe. Thank you.
Rae
Loved this dish. I added a bit of chicken breast that I poached in the broth, for extra protein. I love buckwheat, and soba noodles are a new discovery. We used fish sauce at the table for extra seasoning.
Marlee
I'm pleased with my roundabout version of this! I'm sure someone will think it's a travesty, but I actually used the salted water from cooking the soba noodles to begin my broth (after having removed the noodles from the pot and setting them aside.) I then added one packet of miso soup and one packet of vegetable broth and completed the recipe as written.I do wish I had tested my sweet potatoes more often - I think I cut them too thin so they cooked fast. I also added some red pepper flakes.
jil
Nice ingredients. I made it with Dashi from the recipe by Nancy Harmon Jenkins. The Dashi, which I salted, had beautiful flavor, but after adding all the vegetables, it was very bland, even after more salt. I finally added some soy sauce, but it felt like the vegetable addition killed the flavor. I wonder if we are missing some preparation instructions, as suggested in the note by Nihonjin. Perhaps some extra salting of the vegetables somehow?
Nihonjin
Most of the ingredients here are Japanese but the lack of precision/explanation on preparation, which is the soul of Japanese cuisine would make this receipe not-so Japanese :( Japanese cooking looks simple but needs tons of details to nail it really...I'm a native Japanese person, born, raised, fed with real Japanese foods in Japan, who would like to differentiate authentic vs. Americanized; that said, if you enjoy this as a fusion dish like many foods in US, it would be totally fine :)
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