Sunday, July 17, 2011

Rockin' Ramen

As you probably already know, I'm obsessed with ramen. Sitting down to a steamy bowl of noodles is a near-religious experience for me. I like the instant packages, but nothing beats a bowl of noodles with a lovingly-prepared, homemade broth.

So naturally, I freaked out when I saw the "Rockin' Ramen" feature by Melissa Feineman in the June issue of VegNews. The feature offers a recipe for homemade Veggie Ramen Stock, Shoyu Sauce, Sesame Ginger Seitan, and two types of ramen — Classic Shoyu Ramen and Comforting Miso Ramen.

I plan to try both types, but I opted to start with the Classic Shoyu Ramen:

The broth is combination of homemade stock (made from carrots, celery, kombu, and shitake mushrooms) and shoyu sauce (a ginger-garlic infused sesame soy sauce). I used plain ramen noodles from the Asian market, and I added the sesame seitan and extra dried shitakes for fun. The bowl is topped with nori and green onion.

I literally made myself sick on this stuff! It was so good that I ate way more than I should have, and then I was so full, I had to lay down for awhile. Tomorrow, when I eat the leftovers, I'll try a little better to stop when I'm full. But I'm not making any promises.

In the past when I've posted about ramen, I've had a few comments from people wondering where they can find vegan instant ramen. Try your local Asian market, if you've got one. The place by my house has hundreds of ramen flavors, and I'd say, nearly one-third are vegan. Many are artificial beef or artificial chicken, and some have lower-cal rice noodles over the traditional fried ramen. But if you can find plain noodles, try making your own broth free of MSG and other additives.

13 comments:

Dye-A-Graham said...

Yummmmm! What a good idea..off to make ramen :)

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i ma so hungry when i read your post after - -

Get Skinny, Go Vegan. said...

OMG. That looks SO good.

VeganLinda said...

This looks sooo good!

Scissors and Spice said...

Do you have any Indian grocers near you? Indian ramen is the best! I'll send you some if you can't find any.

The Health Sensei said...

you should have a series in this blog: "Bianca's Gushings About Ramen"

:)

Cassidy said...

Just a note about the ingredients list... many people know but some may not realize how many unfamiliar words there are on Asian ingredient lists that essentially mean "Fish". Bonito is the most common one that shows up but there are lots of others. If you have a smart phone it's a good idea to google unfamiliar words while you're looking at the ingredients list.

Anonymous said...

I am sooo hungry now! I love noodles in brothy things but they always come out wrong when I cook it for myself, sad times!

Jess of Midwest Vegan said...

I love dressing up ramen!!

I used to love the Nissan Chili flavor (so spicy!!), but when I was at the store the other day I noticed that they changed the outside of the packaging. When I read the ingredients they had changed the recipe and now shellfish and milk had been added. I was upset!!

Guess I'll have to stock up the next time I go to Whole Foods. That was the last of the vegan ramen in town!

James said...

Hey Bianca, have you tried somen? For those that don't know, it's a thinner member of the ramen family that is cooked similarly but then run under cold water and served over ice and dipped in a cup of "tsuyu" that is often mixed with scallions, ginger and wasabi paste. It's the Summer dish of choice here in Japan and a nice alternative to ramen when the weather is hot and sticky!

Prada handbags sale said...

wow............................it looks very delicious snack.........i cnat wait to have a try!

Sherri - PDX Yogini said...

Wow, looks fabulous and is making me hungry (why am I looking at food blogs before eating dinner)!

We found some great ramen at Food Fight that's organic. Koyo brand, comes in some nice flavors too (I like the lemongrass one especially)

Scissors and Spice: what is Indian ramen?! Next time I'm in a Desi shop I'll have to hunt that down!

I love James' summer somen dish description. Sounds like just the thing for summer.

operapixie said...

Oh maaaan...I can't locate that recipe and didn't subscribe to VegNews. Any chance you could either post the recipe or email it to me? It looks fantastic!!