Gordon Ramsay’s miso soup is a 10-minute noodle broth built by dissolving miso paste into boiling water with fresh ginger, shiitake mushrooms and soy sauce, then poaching an egg directly in the broth and serving it over noodles and spinach with chopped spring onions on top.
This is from his YouTube video where he calls miso “a wonderful deep savoury richness” that’s “brilliant in soups.” The whole thing comes together in one pan: the broth infuses while the egg poaches inside it, so by the time the egg is done the soup is ready. No stock needed, no simmering for hours.
The reason it works with just water and miso is that miso paste is already a concentrated source of umami from months of fermentation. Adding stock on top would double up and make it too salty. The ginger and shiitake add fragrance and body, and the soy sauce ties it together without the broth tasting one-dimensional.
Gordon Ramsay Miso Soup
Course: Soup, Lunch1
5
minutes5
minutes340
kcal10
minutesEasy
Ten-minute miso broth from Gordon Ramsay’s YouTube series. Miso paste dissolved in boiling water with ginger, shiitake mushrooms and soy sauce. Egg poached directly in the broth. Served over noodles and spinach with spring onions. His miso salmon variation uses fish stock and poaches salmon fillets in the broth instead.
Ingredients
1 tbsp white miso paste
400ml (1⅔ cups) boiling water
10g fresh ginger, grated
2-3 dried shiitake mushrooms, soaked and sliced
1 tsp soy sauce
1 large egg
1 nest of medium egg noodles
Handful of spinach
1 portobello mushroom, sliced
2 spring onions, finely chopped
Directions
- Build the broth: Add the miso paste to the boiling water in a saucepan and whisk until dissolved. Add the grated ginger, sliced shiitake mushrooms and soy sauce. Let it simmer gently for 2 minutes to infuse.
- Poach the egg: Crack the egg into the broth and poach for 2 to 3 minutes until the white is set but the yolk is still soft.
- Assemble the bowl: Place the sliced portobello mushroom in a serving bowl. Add the egg noodles and spinach. The hot broth will heat the noodles through and wilt the spinach.
- Serve: Spoon the broth into the bowl over everything. Lift the poached egg on top. Scatter with chopped spring onions.
FAQs
Can you make this with salmon instead?
Yes, and Ramsay has a separate video showing exactly how. Use fish stock instead of water, whisk in the miso, then add kaffir lime leaves, sliced chilli and ginger to infuse. Slide a salmon fillet in skin side down and poach it gently, ladling broth over the top every couple of minutes.
Once cooked, peel the skin off and flake the salmon into long shards. Serve over tenderstem broccoli, bok choy and enoki mushrooms with toasted sesame oil.
Why boiling water instead of stock?
Miso paste is already packed with umami from months of fermenting soybeans. Adding chicken or vegetable stock on top of that just makes the broth too salty and muddy. Plain boiling water lets the miso speak for itself, and the ginger, shiitake and soy layer in enough complexity without competing.
The miso salmon version is the exception: fish stock works there because the broth needs to carry enough flavour to poach the salmon through.
What type of miso should you use?
White or sweet miso for this soup. Ramsay specifies in his MasterClass: “Use sweet miso, dark miso would overpower.” Dark or red miso is more intense and saltier, which works for marinades like his miso cod in Ultimate Fit Food, but in a light broth it takes over everything else.
Does the egg have to be poached in the broth?
That’s what makes this a one-pan recipe. The egg cooks in the same liquid it’s served in, so it absorbs the miso and ginger flavour as it poaches. A separately poached egg dropped in at the end would taste like a plain egg sitting in soup.
What else works in this broth?
Ramsay uses this same miso base across several dishes. In Ultimate Fit Food he steams mussels in miso and sake with shallot, ginger and garlic, then serves them over soba noodles. You could also add firm tofu, pak choi or prawns.
For a bigger meal, serve it with teriyaki salmon on the side. The sweet soy glaze and the savoury miso broth are from the same flavour family so they work together without clashing.
