Super Simple Miso Hotpot with Home Made Chicken Meatballs

This is a hotpot that I make quite often as it's quick to prep and everyone in my family (including the kids) love it. The soup base is very simple to make and the rest is really up to your liking.  If you have some extra time, you can try making some home made meatballs.  Too much work? Just throw in some frozen gyoza and Vietnamese meatballs and your family will be just as happy.

There are a few staple veggies that will make this hotpot yummy but asides from that, find what's about to spoil in your fridge and dump it in!

Soup Base:

2 cups low sodium or regular chicken broth (sub with beef or veggie broth)
2 cups water
3 tablespoons miso paste
2 shiitake mushrooms (thinly sliced)
1 stalk green onion (minced)


Meatballs:

1 pound ground chicken or ground pork (see below for substitutions)
1 stalk green onion
1 tablespoon soy sauce
2 tablespoons corn starch
1 tablespoon ginger (finely minced)


Veggies & Stuff (optional-just suggestions):

Frozen gyoza/dumplings 
Vietnamese meatballs 
Carrots
Green veggies like Chinese Baby Bok Choy or Nappa, Hakusai
Tokyo Negi (large version of green onion)
Daikon (Japanese white radish)
Variety of mushrooms (King oyster mushrooms, enoki, shimeji)
Frozen Udon (2 bricks feeds our family of 4)
Korean rice cakes (Tteok)
Tofu 
Deep fried tofu puffs



How To - Meatballs:

1. Throw all the meatball ingredients together and mix/knead the meat with your hands until it is tender and mixed in well. The meat should feel tenderized and more fluffy to the touch.  This recipe will make approximately 20 meatballs. Voila, meatballs done!

Note: Ground chicken makes for a fluffier light meatball. If you wish for a more hearty texture, substitute with 1 pound of ground pork OR 1/2 pound chicken and 1/2 pound ground pork mixture.  I like the latter.



How To - Soup Base:

1. Add water and chicken stock in a large wide pot.
2. Throw in shiitake mushrooms and green onions.
3. Cover pot and bring to a boil on high heat.
4. Once the pot has boiled, add 3 tablespoons of miso paste.  Put the miso paste in a soup ladle and stir to dissolve with a chopstick. This  is a better way than just dumping it straight into the pot as miso tends to clump and takes time to dissolve and so someone might get a clumpy surprise.   Soup is ready!

Note: If you are using regular chicken broth rather than low sodium, decrease the amount of miso paste from 3 tablespoons to 2 tablespoons. If the soup tastes too bland, add more to your liking.



How To - Adding Everything Else:

How to roll meatballs

1. Shape the meatballs by taking two spoons and rolling the meat together. Drop directly into the boiling pot.  If you are adding frozen dumplings or Vietnamese meatballs, add them to the pot now and cook as per package instruction cooking time.

2.  Add the harder to cook veggies like daikon and carrots.  
3. Cover pot and bring back to a boil.
4. Once it's back to a boil, lower the heat to medium-high and add the softer veggies like the greens, tofu, and mushrooms. 

Note: You can add the udon noodles now but I tend to leave it for the second round as my kids will not eat the rest of the stuff (especially the veggies) if they get their hands on the udon. If you are going for a second round and the soup has depleted, you can top it up by adding more water and miso paste to your liking.

**Cold Defense Ingredients**
Ginger is said to have cold defense properties as well as warming up your body. Therefore, during the cold winter months when the flu season has begun, I add a tablespoon of minced ginger to the soup base to give it an extra kick.

Enjoy!