Vegan Ramen Burger!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's the first day of Vegan Mofo (Month of Food)! In case you're not familiar, Mofo is an annual month-long blog-o-thon when vegans take over the web with daily posts. Some bloggers take on daily themes. Others just aim to blog everyday.

There are some bloggers who ONLY blog during Mofo and not the rest of the year. And there are others who blog once or twice a week but really it step it up during Mofo. Since I already blog daily, Mofo isn't much out of the ordinary here on Vegan Crunk. I briefly considered going with themed posts this year, but the very idea stressed me out so much that I nixed that idea. But I do hope to bring you a few more original recipes and maybe a giveaway or two throughout the month.

That being said, I'm starting this Mofo off with a BANG! You wanna know why? Cause I veganized the Ramen Burger!!!

The Ramen Burger is all the rage on the internetz these days. Some chef in New York came out with it, and it straight up stole the spotlight from the once-adored cronut. HuffPo posted a video tutorial on making ramen burgers, but of course, the original recipe contains eggs. What's a ramen-obsessed vegan to do?

I turned to Facebook and asked my friends their suggestions for an egg replacer here. MeShell had already successfully used flax goop, but I didn't want to steal her recipe. A few people suggested Vegg powder, and Stephanie told me to go with pureed silken tofu. In the end, I used a combo of silken tofu and Vegg as the binder to hold the fried noodles together. You could probably leave Vegg out and just use tofu, but the Vegg does seem to add an extra binding factor.

The ramen makes the bun, but you can stuff whatever you want inside. I used a Match Stuffed Mushroom Burger, lettuce, pickles, sriracha ketchup, and mustard. You can definitely pick this sandwich up with your hands, but because the noodle bun is fried, it's kind of messy. I ended using a fork halfway through.

And I'm sure someone will ask me how it tastes, but I mean, duh, it's a RAMEN BURGER!!! Of course, it's amazing. 

Here's the recipe!


Vegan Ramen Burger
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Yields 1 burger

1 pkg. vegan ramen noodles & seasoning packet
1/2 cup crumbled silken tofu
1 Tbsp. Vegg powder
2 tsp. olive oil
1 vegan hamburger patty
Lettuce, tomato, pickles, condiments, vegan cheese, whatever fixins you desire

Boil the noodles according to package instructions. Drain off the liquid and stir in the seasoning packet. Set aside.

Crumble the tofu into a food processor. Add the Vegg powder. Process until very smooth and creamy, stopping at least once to scrape down the sides of the processor.

Put the tofu mixture in a bowl, and stir in the noodles with a fork, making sure to coat evenly.

Spray two bun-size ramekins with non-stick cooking spray. Use the fork to lift out half of the noodles, and place them into one ramekin. Place the remaining noodles in the other ramekin. Press the noodles down into the bottom of the ramekin, spreading as necessary to fill the entire bottom of the bowl. Place a sheet of plastic wrap over each ramekin and press down so the plastic is touching all of the noodles and no air can get in. Set a heavy 28-ounce can (or a smaller can if you're using smaller ramekins) on top of the plastic in each ramekin. This will weight the noodles down so they will form a tight bun. Place the ramekins into the fridge for 15 minutes.

Heat 1 tsp. oil in a small non-stick skillet. Remove one ramekin from the fridge, and remove the heavy can and plastic. Using your finger or a butter knife, lightly go around the edges of the ramekin to loosen noodles from the side of the dish. Then carefully turn the ramekin upside down into the skillet and tap on the backside of the ramekin so the noodle bun falls out in a perfect circle.

Fry on one side for 5 to 7 minutes or until noodles are crispy and browned. Flip and brown on the other side. Remove cooked bun from the skillet and place on a paper towel-lined plate to drain.

Heat the other tsp. oil in the skillet. Repeat the process with the other ramekin and fry the noodle bun on both sides. Drain on paper towels.

Once the bun is cooked and cooling, heat your veggie burger. Prepare burger with whatever fixins you desire.

Sound complicated? This video tutorial from PopSugar should help. Just pretend like the egg in the video is actually tofu!