Vegetarian ramen 🍜

We love making ramen in this house. It’s our easy, healthy go-to for nights when we are craving that satisfying salty, umami goodness you can only get from ramen. This is in no way a traditional recipe. We basically put different things together that we enjoy the taste of and hope for the best.
This recipe calls for making your own dashi, but in a pinch you can simply use vegetable or mushroom stock/bouillon cubes, or buy dashi soup stock from an Asian supermarket.
The marinated ramen eggs (Ajitsuke Tamago) are also optional – traditional soft boiled eggs are delicious too!
You can certainly mix up the veggies you put in – we rotate between baby corn, sugar snap peas, baby pak choi, broccolini, cabbage, spinach, etc. can all be used. We usually do 2-3 different vegetables per batch.

Kombu (dried kelp sheets)

Makes 4 servings
Ingredients:
For the dashi:

• 1 sheet of kombu
• 1 cup dried shiitake, roughly chopped
• 1 litre water

For the eggs:

• 4 eggs
• 1 cup soy sauce
• 2 cups water
• 2 tsps raw sugar
• 1 tsp 7 spice

For the ramen:

• 2 bundles of ramen noodles (about 90g per person)
• 100g sugar snap peas
• 100g baby corn
• 100g broccolini
• 100g shiitake mushrooms, sliced (dried works too if you soak them for a couple hours)
• 2 tbsps miso paste (or more to taste)
• (optional) 2 slices vegetarian duck or pork per person (from the frozen section at the Asian supermarket)
• (optional) 1-2 spring onions for topping
• (optional) black sesame seeds for topping

Dried shiitake mushrooms

Method

• If making your own dashi, I highly recommend doing it the night before and letting the kombu and dried shiitake mushrooms soak overnight in boiled water, but you can also simply boil it for 10 minutes and strain for a similar (but less flavourful) effect.
• Marinating the eggs overnight also makes for a delicious addition. To make the eggs boil them for 5 minutes, shock in ice water, then peel. Heat the soy sauce, water, sugar and 7 spices in a small sauce pan and add the eggs, making sure to coat them well in the sauce. Set the pan aside, or into the fridge overnight, turning the eggs over a couple times if they aren’t completely covered by the sauce.
• Strain the dashi then boil it on the Boiling Plate. Add all your veggies and move the pot over to the Simmering Plate for just a few minutes. We like our veggies still a bit crunchy so 3-5 mins is enough for us.
• Add the miso paste after you’ve removed the pan from the hot plate, you don’t want to boil it again once you’ve added the miso, as that kills off all of it’s natural probiotics.
• In the meantime, boil another pot of water for the ramen noodles. Cook according to the package – usually 3-6 minutes – and strain.
• Add the noodles to your ramen bowls or any deep bowls, ladle out the veggies and soup.
• Slice your ramen eggs in half and place on top.
• Top with some spring onions, black sesame seeds and vegetarian duck or pork if you are using it and you’re done!
• Enjoy 🍜

Pro tip: mix it up! Use different vegetables, silken tofu, vegetarian meat-replacement options, spinach, kale, whatever you want!