One easy way to make boiled or stir-fried vegetables more exciting is to drizzle soy sauce and sesame oil. To diversify the flavor, and while still taking inspiration from Korean and Japanese kitchens, I have attempted to dissolve/dilute a bit of:   Korean, light-colored, fermented soybean paste, Korean, dark-colored, fermented soybean paste, and Japanese soybean (miso) paste  in some water and add to various dishes such as:  boiled vegetables, stir-fried vegetables, and vegetable broth and (largely unseasoned) homemade chicken broth  but the outcome is far from exciting. It doesn't come close to the flavors of even the basic dishes served at Korean and Japanese restaurants. What is the correct way to use fermented (and unfermented) soybean paste? (Hint: a little of any of these goes a long way; beware of buying too much too soon and being unable to use it before expiration.) 
First of all, the Korean middle one is not soybean paste at all, but chunjang (춘장), a black bean paste.  This is used as a condiment for stir-fries, in particular the noodle dish jjajangmyeon; it's not suitable for soups. The leftmost one is Korean soybean paste aka doenjang (된장, you can spot the characters in the top left corner). Unlike miso, doenjang is not "diluted" with rice, so it tastes stronger.  The most popular way to eat this (and also my favorite) is as the base for doenjang-jjigae, a tasty stew. Finally, the Japanese one on the right is a "nothing added" (無添加 mutenka) plain miso, which means it's missing the other key ingredient for miso soup: dashi stock, which adds salt and umami flavors.  Dashi can be made from bonito (katsuo) or kelp and is easily purchased in "instant" powder form, just add a pinch (quarter tsp or so per bowl, it's strong stuff!) to the boiling water and mix in before adding the miso.  Many commercial brands of miso have dashi premixed (出汁入り dashi-iri), which eliminates this step. 