My Favorite Miso Soup

I woke up this morning tired, with a mild sore throat and runny nose.  The window was open last night and there is a lot of tree and grass pollen floating around these days.  For breakfast (yes breakfast), I made this easy miso soup.  It takes 15 minutes and always makes me feel better when I feel like I might be coming down with something.  It probably makes my house and me smell like garlic breath, but that's ok.  It would really be ideal for our health if everybody had garlic breath all the time rather than artifically sweetened minty breath-garlic is sooooo good for us and our immune systems.  Another ingredient I use in this soup is wakame flakes. Wakame is a type of seaweed.  For this soup, I use it for flavor, but seaweed is also very good for us and is a great source of iodine.  You can find it at your local natural foods store.  This recipe was inspired by many different recipes of Miso soup, a little book by Natural Health Magazine called Secret Natural Remedies, and the back of the Pacific Wakame package.

My Favorite Miso Soup
1 1/4 c water
1 clove chopped garlic
2 t wakame flakes and about a half a cup of soaking water
3 t yellow miso

Bring the 1 1/4 cup of water and garlic to a boil in a small pot, and reduce the heat to simmer for 10 minutes.  While the water and garlic cook, add the wakame flakes to a small bowl of water and soak.  Remove the garlic broth from the heat and disolve the miso into the broth.  Drain the wakame and add to the broth and it's done!  When you are eating this soup, be sure to stir up the miso and garlic that settle to the bottom.