Editor’s note: In the Taste of Life series, cooking experts, chefs and others involved in the field of food introduce their special recipes intertwined with their paths in life.

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It was a small incident one morning that got Kaoru Ariga to start making soup.

Eleven years ago in December, the day after Christmas, she opened the refrigerator and found some mushrooms that she had forgotten to use when cooking the Christmas feast. Ariga sauteed them with onions and made a soup.

She checked the taste and discovered it was quite good.

“Tasty soup is ready!” she called out to her son, who was in his final year of high school and had a few months to go until his college exams.

Although he was not an early riser and took time to get up in the morning, he left his bed easily that day after hearing her call out.

Surprised by this a little, Ariga made soup the next day as well. It was also a gesture of wishing that his exams would go well.

She gave creative twists to the ingredients she had at home, made a different soup every morning and posted the photo on social media. She enjoyed the reactions from people who saw the posts and got hooked on making soup.

Until then, Ariga had worked as a freelance writer and none of her assignments were related to food. Yet the recipes she continued to create and the photos she shot of each continued to accumulate, and she started serializing them on web media calling herself a “soup creator.”

In 2016, she published her first book, “365-nichi no mezamashi supu” (Soup that will wake you up 365 days).

“I never imagined that cooking would become my vocation,” says Ariga.

Where does she get the ideas for her soups?

Ariga says she breaks down soup into components of “ingredients,” “oil,” “seasonings” and “stock” and keeps changing the combination a little to come up with recipes, such as switching the green onion she used the last time to carrots, or choosing a miso flavor instead of salt flavor, and so on.

“The relish changes even by changing the way you cut the ingredient,” she says.

Another memory from her childhood is associated with mushroom soup. Back then, mushrooms were usually sold in cans and fresh ones were hard to procure. Her mother would make mushroom soup by stirring in milk to the instant soup mix.

“My father loved soup, and I fondly remember how it would often appear on the dinner table,” says Ariga.

Although soup stock is not used in this week’s recipe, the umami of the mushrooms and the richness of milk go well together and turn out warming soup.

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Kaoru Ariga: Born in 1964 in Tokyo, Ariga is a soup creator who offers simple and easy-to-make soup recipes as well as lifestyle tips through various media. Her books include “Asa 10-pun de dekiru supu bento” (Packed soup lunch you can make in 10 minutes in the morning), published by Magazine House. At the end of September, “Raifu supu Kurashi ga totonou watashitachi no shin-teiban 48 pin” (Life soup: Our 48 new staple soup that sort out our lives) will be published by President Inc.

BASIC COOKING METHOD

Main Ingredients (Serves two)

1 pack mushroom, 1/4 onion, 1 clove garlic, 20 grams butter, 1 and 1/2 Tbsp flour, 1/2 tsp salt, bit of pepper, 100 ml milk

1. Finely chop onion. Crush garlic. Cut off base of mushroom’s stem, rinse briefly, pat dry and slice.

2. Add butter and garlic to pot and cook on low heat. When aroma rises, add onion and sautee. Add flour and cook for 1 to 2 minutes. Add 300 ml water and bring to a boil while mixing thoroughly.

3. Add mushroom and salt and simmer for 8 to 10 minutes. Add around 100 ml milk to get the preferred thickness. Check taste and add salt (not listed above) if necessary. Sprinkle with pepper.

4. Pour in bowl and serve with finely chopped parsley or toasted thinly sliced baguette bread if preferred.

About 150 kcal and 1.7 grams salt per portion
(Nutrient calculation by the Nutrition Clinic of Kagawa Nutrition University)

SHORT MEMOS

When adding water to the pot, do so in one go. If lumps form, dissolve them by mixing with a whisk. The soup will become smooth as it becomes heated.

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From The Asahi Shimbun’s Jinsei Reshipi (Life Recipe) column