I still remember my first ramen. It was in London at one of the Wagamama restaurants. They brought a big bowl, filled with soup, noodles, chicken breast, vegetables and chilli aroma. For those who don’t know; Ramen is a Japanese dish, a noodle soup with toppings and spices. The base is the stock or the broth that could be chicken, pork, fish, vegetable or a mix of it. Each ramen has plenty of varieties that are different in seasonings and flavours. There are unlimited variations. Therefore I chose to show you how to make an amazing veggie ramen.
The second important thing in ramen are the noodles. You can use all the shapes and sizes that you like; I like rice noodles (large and thin ones) because they don’t need so much time to be digested and I also like egg noodles. Now you can find the instant ramen noodles everywhere (this Japanese “invention” is almost 60 years old). If you really want a ramen and you don’t have any noodles or any shop near you, just use spaghetti. As an emergency plan, it’s fine.
And the last but not least important things are the toppings. You can go crazy with this. Just pick 3 or 4 different toppings and it will be great.
Because you can’t find restaurants that make ramen everywhere, I decided to try doing it myself. It works. All you need is some organisation in the kitchen because everything is made quickly, once you have the broth done.
For the delicious veggie ramen you need:
- 100 g noodles (egg noodles)
- 500 ml vegetable broth (further on the recipe how to make the stock)
- 1 red onion
- 2 spring onions
- 300 g broccoli
- 1 sweet potato
- 6 mini corns (in a glass)
- 2 eggs
- lime
This recipe is good for 2 portions. The first step is the vegetable broth. Making the broth takes like 40 minutes. You can make it in advance and freeze it, for the next time you will need it.
The ingredients for the veggie ramen broth are really basic and simple:
- 2 Tsp of olive oil
- 1 celery rib
- 1 big onion
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 1 carrot
- 2 tsp curry paste
- 700 ml water
- salt and pepper
- a couple of parsley branches
First chop the garlic, onion, celery and carrot. Preheat the olive oil in a deep pot or stock pot and add all the chopped vegetables. Cook for 5 minutes with continuous stirring, until softened. Before pouring in the water, add 2 tsp of curry paste (only if you like it picante) and stir. Add the water, salt, pepper and the parsley (whole branches). When the water starts boiling, reduce the heat and simmer for 40 minutes, leaving it half covered. At the end, you just pour it through a fine mesh sieve and you will get a clear broth. As I have said, you can freeze it in small portions for the future use.
Now back to the ramen. Peel the potato, cut in slices (0,5 cm) and cook until tender. Usually, it doesn’t take long; ca 5 minutes. Then discard the water. Cut the broccoli into small pieces, like little trees and simmer them, covered in 1 cm of water, for 5 minutes. After that remove the water from the pan. As a result, the broccoli will keep the green colour and stay a little crunchy.
Take 500 ml of the stock and put in the noodles. Bring it to boil and cook for 5 minutes until the noodles become soft. In the mean time chop the onion and the spring onions. When it comes to eggs you can boil it or make it in a pan. I like to boil it for 4 minutes.
Ok, time to fill up the plates. Take deep plates because ramen is a soup dish. Divide the ingredients (chopped onion, noodles, sweet potato, broccoli and mini corns) between the two plates, since this recipe is for 2. With a ladle pour the broth on top of everything. How much broth you like is up to you. I usually cover 2/3 of the plate with the broth. Finally, add the egg and sprinkle over everything the spring onions. To make it even more delicious take half of a lime and squeeze it in the ramen.
I still go to Wagamama at every chance I get. However, in the time in between, I do it at home. In conclusion, this delicious veggie ramen looks good and it tastes even better. Try it and you could proudly say you can cook Japanese.
Enjoy!
