This ginger beef soup is a simple and comforting recipe, designed for home cooking with natural and accessible ingredients, without additives or flavor enhancers.
Recipe inspired by Japanese cuisine
The goal is not to reproduce a fixed traditional recipe, but to offer a balanced, sincere preparation adapted to everyday cooking regardless of your country of residence.
The recipe is based on a simple dashi, combined with vegetables, beef, ginger, and miso. No industrial products are used, except for one tablespoon of rice alcohol, which is entirely optional and whose use is explained later in the article, as well as a light addition of soy sauce.
Marbled beef: my personal choice
For this ginger beef soup, I chose a nice piece of well marbled beef. This type of meat is particularly suited to preparations that require long or gentle cooking, such as simmered soups or broth based dishes.
Contrary to common belief, long cooking does not make marbled meat tough. Thanks to its marbling, meaning the presence of fine streaks of fat within the muscle fibers, the meat remains tender, soft, and moist, even after prolonged cooking. This marbling is a real asset in cooking, especially for long recipes like this ginger beef soup.
Ginger beef soup: the recipe
- for 2 people, if considered as a main dish served with rice
- for 4 people, if served as a starter in a meal composed of several dishes
The preparation time is approximately 1 hour to 1 hour 30 minutes, depending on your organization and ingredient preparation.
Ingredients:
For the dashi (soup base)
- 1 liter of cold water
- 2 dried shiitake mushrooms
- 20 g dried bonito flakes
For this recipe, I use 100% bonito flakes, without additives or preservatives, produced locally in Okinawa.
If you do not live in Japan, you can easily find bonito flakes in Asian or specialty stores.
For the beef broth
- 250 g marbled beef, cut into cubes or large chunks
- 1 piece of fresh ginger, sliced into thin rounds (quantity to be adjusted according to your preference)
For the soup
- The dashi prepared at the beginning of the recipe
- 1 tablespoon of rice alcohol (optional)
- 3/4 of a large carrot, or 1 whole carrot
- 1 slice of white radish about 2 cm thick
- 30 g of Miso
- salt (optional, according to your preference, to be adjusted at the end of cooking)
- green onion, scallion, or spring onion, finely chopped
Note: The Miso used for this recipe is made in Japan, in Hokkaido. It is composed only of soybeans, rice, and salt.
If you live in Japan, this miso is available in supermarkets, notably at “Aeon Style“.
Outside Japan, Miso is generally found in supermarkets in the “world foods” section, or in Asian grocery stores.
Preparation of the dashi, base of the ginger beef soup
Pour 1 liter of cold water into a saucepan, then add the dried shiitake mushrooms.
Heat over medium heat until boiling.
As soon as it reaches a boil, turn off the heat.
Add the bonito flakes off the heat, then let steep for about 8 minutes.
After steeping, strain the broth to obtain a clear dashi.
Set aside the strained dashi in its saucepan.
Preparation of the marbled beef
Bring 1 liter of water to a boil in another saucepan.
Once boiling, add the beef and the ginger.
Boil for at least 10 minutes, regularly removing the foam that forms on the surface with a spoon. This foam adds bitterness, so it is preferable to remove it.
Meanwhile
- Cut the carrot and the white radish into pieces about 0.5 cm thick.
After 10 minutes of cooking, remove the beef and the ginger.
Take a large bowl of the beef cooking liquid, then discard the rest or keep it for another preparation.
Here, I deliberately refer to cooking liquid or, if you prefer, blanching water, because this is a short cooking step intended to clean the meat, not a broth extracted over a long time.
Rice alcohol why and when to use it?
Before resuming the cooking of the ginger beef soup, the dashi has had time to cool down. This is the precise moment when one tablespoon of rice alcohol can be added.
- This is not a drinking alcohol but a cooking alcohol, odorless and tasteless, which leaves no alcoholic flavor after cooking. Adding it to a dish helps limit strong meat or fish odors, balance flavors, and prevent one ingredient from overpowering the others.
Its use is entirely optional.
Assembly and cooking of the ingredients
Take the saucepan of dashi again.
- Add the rice alcohol to the dashi, if you choose to use it, then bring to a boil.
Once boiling, add:
- the carrots
- the white radish
- the marbled beef
- the ginger
- green onion or scallion
- the large bowl of beef cooking liquid
Let the ginger beef soup cook for 20 minutes over medium heat.
Adding the miso and end of cooking
After 20 minutes, add the miso, carefully dissolving it into the soup.
Let it heat for another 10 additional minutes.
The ginger beef soup is now ready.
Taste and adjust the seasoning if necessary. As miso is naturally salty, adding salt remains optional.
Plating and serving the ginger beef soup
For serving, start by placing the solid ingredients into the bowls.
Then pour the broth up to three quarters, so that the ingredients remain visible on the surface.
Just before serving, finely slice the green onion and sprinkle it over the soup.
To go further
A video published on my YouTube channel shows all the steps of this ginger beef soup, in a visual and detailed way, to make it easier to reproduce at home.
Feel free to also browse the other recipes available on this blog. You will find everyday Japanese and Okinawan cuisine, accessible, balanced, and designed to be cooked at home.
This ginger beef soup requires a bit of preparation time, but it remains simple, warm, and deeply comforting. A family recipe, without artifice, that takes the time to do things properly.
Click to watch the recipe on YouTube
Texts, images and videos © Japan Okinawa Daily Life
Copying, downloading and reuse prohibited without permission
