homemade veggie ramen

homemade veggie ramen

• 2.25.2018

The weather today screamed for soup - and so I made ramen. Saturday was a completely gorgeous day. I checked out two trails, had a turkey sandwich picnic, and cleaned out the garden. Home run of a day. But today I woke up to gross sleet hitting the windows followed by copious amounts of rain. 

So a nice hot meal was just what the weather ordered. I ended up making ramen for a few reasons. One of which was it seemed like a good use for my leftover mushrooms, spinach and carrots. The second was my friend Meghan had made ramen recently and I could not get it out of my head. She totally knocked it out of the park.

A few takeaways on this recipe:

• It is a phenomenal dumping ground for all the vegetables in your fridge or freezer. I could have made nearly this entire meal from my cabinets. All I needed was the actual ramen noodles.
• There is a difference between "easy ramen" and "ramen". I went with easy and while it was delicious it was just not as salty as ramen normally is. You need miso.
• I'm curious how this will be for leftovers. See this meal was for 2 people, but I am just 1. Let's see how that goes tomorrow night.
• Super fast! I think I had this pulled together in less than 20 minutes. 

Here's how it goes.

1. Heat the sesame oil in a large skillet over medium low heat. Add the garlic and ginger; stir fry for 2 minutes or until soft and fragrant. Add the broth and the water. Bring to a simmer; add the mushrooms and simmer for 5 minutes or until the mushrooms have softened and the broth is flavorful.
2. Add the instant noodles to the hot liquid and simmer for an additional 5 minutes or until the noodles have softened. Add the scallions and stir to combine. 
3. Remove from heat, stir in the spinach and carrots
4. In a skillet, drizzle sesame oil and toss in some panko flakes. Saute until the panko flakes toast to a light brown.
5. Portion the ramen into bowls and top with crunchy panko crumbs and pea shoots.

Shopping List

sesame oil
3 teaspoons grated ginger
4 teaspoons grated garlic
2 cups chicken broth
2 cups water
handful of mushrooms

1 package instant ramen noodles only
1/2 cup chopped scallions or chives
2 cup chopped spinach
1 cup grated carrots

handful of pea shoots
crunchy golden panko flakes