Tofu skin (also called yuba) is a great vegetarian ingredient and source of good protein. Dried Tofu Skin Soup in Clear Soup is very easy to make. Add some colours to the soup and make this delicate yuba soup visually attractive.
Use konbu dashi to make this soup vegetarian (see note 5).
Total Time does not include time to rehydrate dried tofu skin.
- 3 dried tofu skin (yuba) sticks (note 1)
- Hot water
- A pinch of baking soda (note 2)
- 4 slices of thin carrot (3mm/⅛" thick, note 3)
- 2 small daikon leaves (note 4)
- 400ml/0.8pt dashi stock (note 5)
- 1 tsp light soy sauce
- 1 tsp sake
- ⅓ tsp salt
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Add hot water and a pinch of baking soda to a bowl and soak the dried yuba sticks for 2-10 minutes (note 6) until the yuba sticks become soft.
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Remove the yuba from the hot water, pat dry and cut each stick into 4 equal size pieces.
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Bring a pot of the dashi stock to a boil and add the remaining clear soup ingredients.
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Add carrots and cook for 30 seconds, then add yuba and cook for about 1 minute.
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Add daikon leaves and turn the heat off. Serve immediately.
1. It is also called dried bean curd. Yuba is the collection of skin formed on the surface of heated soy milk. Skins are dried in different shapes and sold in a pack at Japanese/Asian grocery stores. Please read more about tofu skin (yuba) in my post.
2. Baking soda gives the rehydrated yuba a plump texture, but you can omit this if you want.
3. You don’t need to shape the carrots into flowers but if you want to, please visit my recipe Sanshoku Bento (Tri-coloured Rice Bowl), note 1.
4. My daikon came with leaves attached. In the centre of the leaves are tiny leaves that are tender. I picked a couple of them for the soup. You can add other green vegetables such as julienned shallots/scallions, or snow peas.
5. If you are using an instant dashi pack or granular dashi powder, you need to reduce the amount of salt slightly as the dashi already contains salt. You may even omit it.
To make this soup vegetarian, use konbu dashi (see Varieties of Dashi Stock).
6. Depending on the brand of dried tofu skin, the time required to rehydrate varies. If the entire stick becomes soft and sloppy, it is ready to use.