What to Add to Ramen
You can really have fun creating your own bowl of instant ramen because it’s a blank canvas for all kinds of flavors and ingredients! Here’s a list of some of my favorite toppings for an elevated bowl of instant ramen:
- Try making your own broth and experimenting with different flavors (vegetable, coconut, curry, shrimp base, etc.). ).
- Aromatics: Including a few fresh aromatics, such as scallions, ginger, or garlic, can significantly deepen the flavor of your broth.
- Sauces: Look through your refrigerator for sauces such as peanut butter, sriracha, chili crisp, oyster sauce, hoisin sauce, and fish sauce that you can mix into the bowl.
- Vegetables: You can use up leftover vegetables in your refrigerator by making instant ramen. They add color, flavor, and texture to every bite!.
- Protein: You can add cooked shrimp, rotisserie chicken, a soft-boiled egg, or tofu to your bowl to make it a little heartier.
- Toppers: I enjoy adding a little flair at the end, like some fresh cilantro or sesame seeds for texture or furikake for texture. It elevates the ramen to a whole new level of deliciousness!
1. Use Your Own Broth
Instead of using the flavoring packet, make your own broth, any kind will do. To keep the salt content low, I prefer to use Better Than Bouillon flavored chicken or vegetable broth, but you could also use homemade bone broth, dashi, or even just some miso diluted with water. This offers you a multitude of flavor options in addition to greater control over the salt and other ingredients!
Adding fresh aromatics to your broth is the first step towards upgrading your instant ramen and giving it a more robust flavor. I like to add fresh garlic, ginger, and green onion. It’s a no-brainer because I typically have all three of these on hand (I freeze my ginger). Additionally, the soup has a nice medicinal quality from the fresh ginger, which is perfect for colds and flus.
TIP: Mince the garlic and grate the ginger. Before adding your broth to the pot, sauté both of them for about a minute in a little oil. You can sauté the green onion with the ginger and garlic, sprinkle it on top at the end, or do both!
6. Top it Off
It’s time to get crazy! Add tons of interesting toppings to your ramen bowl to give it taste, color, and texture. Here are some things to add to ramen:
- Sriracha
- Kimchi
- Sesame seeds
- Crumbled bacon
- Nori (dried seaweed)
- Fresh herbs (cilantro, Thai basil, chives)
- Sesame oil
- Crushed chiles
- Furikake
- Fresh lime
That’s all it takes to transform a depressing little packet of instant noodles into an amazing bowl that, in a restaurant, I’m sure I would pay at least $8 for.
