Reddit reviews Authentic Japanese Cuisine for Beginners: A Step-by-Step Guide

Boil 4 c. water, add veggies at the beginning (enokinotake, shiitake (these come dried too, just rehydrate before using or soak in the broth for 10-15 min or longer), negi, tamanegi, wakame (you can get dried 'cut wakame'), tofu, kabocha; pick from some of these kinds of veggies). Add 1.3 tsp dashi no moto. When veggies are cooked but still somewhat crisp (not completely limp and gross), turn off heat. Add 6 tbsp or 132 g awase miso paste (mixed red and white) in 1 c. of the liquid. Mix it into a thick mixture that is thinner than the miso and thicker than the broth; get all the clumps out. If you don't, there will be clumps in the final soup. Then mix this miso mixture into the main broth. You'll end up with a bit over 4 c. soup, and its delicious! You can add cooked meat at the end if desired (chicken etc) (or fresh clams when you're done boiling so they cook but aren't overcooked), but I like mostly veggies. Everybody has their own twist on the dish so I encourage you to experiment.

edit: I recommend this book for beginners as I found it to be pretty representative of Japanese home cooking, and pretty damned accurate in terms of taste and ingredients (based on my 6 host families in Saitama prefecture 2004-2005). One of my goals during my exchange was to learn home cooking from each of my host mothers. This turned out to be an excellent choice =D

edit2: you can mix 1/2 red and 1/2 white miso to get 'awase' miso (mixed miso).