I moved out of my last apartment with a plastic tub of miso; that tub is currently loitering in the back left corner of the fridge in my new apartment, commiserating with its neighbors, a pint of tahini and a bag of ground flaxseed that, similarly, I have not been giving the attention they deserve. How best to chip away at the miso? I asked the community for their ideas—and here's how they wisely use theirs:

Photo by James Ransom

Make miso soup, of course! And it can even be done without a recipe. Or make a heartier, slightly spicy squash-based miso soup.

Make a miso dressing for salads and roasted vegetables. Ivorygalny uses a combination of miso, soy sauce, rice vinegar, flavorless oil, garlic paste, and a tiny pinch of sugar in hers.

HalfPint uses miso as a marinade for fish (plus, she says, some marinades use as much as half a cup, which is good news if you're trying to clean out the fridge). She likes this recipe, and we like this one.

Miso adds a big punch to a batch of hummus.

And a salty, sultry richness to creamed greens.

Blend a bit of miso with some softened butter and slather it on everything—like toast soldiers, cooked vegetables or hot pasta or rice.

In fact, Niknud will add a bit of miso to the water in her rice cooker or pasta pot to pre-season her grains.

And AntoniaJames makes a peanut-y sauce of miso, peanut butter, soy sauce, and lime juice for tossing with noodles. She likes to save some of these noodles for breakfast, and tops them with a runny fried egg.

Miso also makes a good sweet-salty breakfast when stirred into oatmeal.

And it adds complexity to sweeter desserts, like these butterscotch-miso blondies, or this caramel sauce, which is perfect for vanilla ice cream.

What ingredients are lingering in your refrigerator? What do you need help using up? Tell us in the comments.