This soup begins at the market. Not with a list, but with your eyes. What greens are the farmers proud of today? Which mushrooms smell of the earth? The vegetables you choose become the soup, so choose well.

Miso soup is not a fixed recipe. It is a way of eating. In Japan, it appears at nearly every meal, different each time because the season is different, the market is different, the cook is different. A bowl in spring might hold tender pea shoots and the first asparagus. Winter calls for sturdy roots and dark leafy greens. The miso and the dashi stay constant; everything else responds to the moment.

The technique here is almost nothing. You warm vegetables in good broth, then stir in miso at the end. That is all. But the nothing is important. You do not boil the miso, because boiling destroys the living cultures that make it so nourishing. You do not overcook the vegetables, because their aliveness is the whole point. When you get out of the way, the ingredients speak for themselves.