Ramen is something everyone deserves to enjoy; so if you don't eat meat, here's the recipe for you. It has all the depth and richness from a perfect bowl of spicy miso, just without any of the meat product. It's delicious as is, and I think everyone can be happy about it. Mushrooms provide the backbone to both the dashi and the finished broth. The dried shiitake do double duty as the flavoring and texture; it's a beautiful thing.
Prep Time: Cook Time: Serves:
10 Minutes 40 Minutes 2 Servings
Ingredients
2 servings of ramen noodles (dry or fresh) https://amzn.to/3sR3blf
800mils water
24g kombu
24g dried mushroom (shiitake)
Cooking Oil
Dried mushrooms from dashi
Spring onion or green onion (1 large or multiple smaller pieces)
2 cloves garlic
1 knob ginger (roughly the same amount as garlic)
25g Doubanjiang https://amzn.to/46W3vx7
Sake to deglaze
75g red miso at end
Soy
Mirin
Toppings
100g fresh shiitake mushrooms
Corn
Nori
Tons of green onion tops
Step 1: Make Dashi
To keep this vegan, we won’t use katsuobushi or dried bonito flakes. In lieu of the fish product, we’ll use dried shitake. These pack a ton of flavor and will help boost the kombu. Bring 800 mils of water to a simmer and add your dried mushrooms. Let this simmer for around 10 minutes and then shut off the heat. At this point, add your kombu and cover the pot. Boiling kombu creates a ton of bitter flavors, so keep this below boiling. As long as you do that, you’ll end up with a dashi full of delicate fragrance and a huge backbone of umami. After another 10 minutes, the kombu should be softened which is a telltale sign that it’s given all of its goodness. Remove the mushrooms and set those aside for later. Pour this dashi through a sieve with a paper towel or coffee filter to create a makeshift filter. Any bits of mushroom or kombu that have broken off will just catch on the paper. You'll be left with a golden dashi and the reconstituted shiitake. Keep them both handy.
Step 2: Make Broth
For the oniony backbone, we’ll use one large spring onion, or a handful of your standard green onion. It’s spring in Seattle so there are tons of fun onion varietals, but use what you can find. Separate the top green portion from the white portion and set aside large chunks of the greens. Finely mince the whites and set those into a bowl. Mince 2 cloves of garlic along with the ginger; both can be added to the onion whites. The garlic and ginger bring a bunch of fragrance that really makes a difference here.
Now remember those dried mushrooms we used for the dashi? Cooking them in the dashi has given them a beautiful meaty texture we can use in lieu of ground pork. Slice these mushrooms into matchsticks and then turn those into a dice. Run your knife through the pieces so you end up with something that will integrate into the soup well. If the pieces are too large, they can end up chewy.
For this, you need a pot over medium heat, one that’s large enough to hold all your broth. It’s also not a bad idea to get a pot of water boiling now, as you’ll need it for the noodles later. Add in a big squeeze of cooking oil, probably like 15 mils or so and then add the green parts from the onions. Cook these until they take on a little dark brown color, this is going to flavor the oil and create these soft subtle sweet oniony notes. Once deeply browned, remove the greens and add in your chopped mushrooms. These will have a ton of liquid that needs to be cooked out before they begin to brown, so give them the right amount of time. If you need a little more oil, feel free to add a little more. Move these around as they cook and you’ll notice the smell change once the browning starts. As those begin to really deepen, add your onion whites, garlic and ginger so those can cook out as well. After a minute or two, the pot should be smelling amazing, so add 25g of doubanjiang and fry that slightly before adding a splash of sake, just enough to deglaze the pan. Once the brown bits have all been scraped, add in your dashi. Mix this to combine and set this over medium low to hang out while we make the toppings.
Step 3: Prep Toppings
Sauté a little frozen corn with salt and oil just till it's warmed through and lightly browned in spots. Take your 100g of fresh shiitake and slice them into pieces much larger than you'd want them in the bowl. They will shrink a ton as they cook, so keep that in mind. For those sliced mushrooms, get a sauté pan over medium high and add in a touch of oil. Drop in your mushrooms and season with salt now to help draw out the moisture. They will need a good amount of time for the water trapped inside the mushrooms to escape and cook away. Once that happens, the browning can begin. There’s pretty much no way to overcook a mushroom, so cook these until they are really deeply browned and crunchy, this usually takes like 7-10 minutes. Remove them from the pan once they’ve browned to your liking, Although these aren’t required, I think it’s a nice touch to have a different texture with this bowl. Lastly, finely slice a bunch of green onion and split your sheets of nori into smaller squares.
Step 4: Finish Soup And Noodles
Back at the broth, take your 75g of red miso and mix it with just a splash of water to create a paste that more easily incorporates into the broth. The miso is what makes this broth super creamy and flavorful, so use a good tasting one. I tried it with white miso and that worked well, but I definitely prefer red miso for this. Season this with a splash of mirin and soy sauce for that final hit of sweetness and umami. Taste this for seasoning and let it rest on low. At the same time, we can add our noodles to the boiling water and set a 4 minute timer. If your using a different noodle, just go to the directions on the package. Once the 4 minutes is up, drain your noodles and run them under cold water to stop the cooking process. To plate this up, split your noodles between 2 bowls and then top each one with half of the broth. Be sure to get all of the chopped mushrooms distributed evenly. Lastly, top the bowls with the nori, crispy mushrooms, corn and green onions. Dive into this tasty vegan bowl however you like. I tend to eat all my noodles first and then slowly sip the satisfying broth, but my wife prefers evenly eating the noodles and broth. The choice is up to you!
Cheers!
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