What To Add To Ramen Noodles At Home

Step One: Hit the Notes

You only need to hit a note in each of the following four categories to make your noodle bowl better: spicy, sweet, sour (and/or acidic), and salty (and/or umami). You definitely have some of the options in your pantry! I’ve included a ton of options in each category below!

Step Two: Choose Your Add-ins

Then, include items from the protein, vegetable, leafy greens, crunchy, and creamy categories to create a full and nutritious meal. It’s impossible to go wrong when you mix and match the add-ins to YOUR liking!

Check out this post: How to Make Instant Ramen: 37 Best Recipes Around the World if you’re not the mix-and-match type.

Every good ramen has a little kick of heat. Add to your preference!.

This can easily be overdone, so use a measured hand. However, a decent bowl of ramen will have a faintly sweet taste. My favorite? – #2 Kecap Manis!.

• Hoisin sauce
• Kecap Manis (Indonesian Soy Sauce)
• Brown Sugar
• Banchuns Original Japanese BBQ Sauce
• Mirin (Sweet Japanese Cooking Wine)

You might not have trained your sour palate if, like me, you’re an American. However, any Asian chef will tell you that a good dish must have sourness.

• Lime juice
• Rice wine vinegar
• Pickled vegetables
• Tamarind paste
• Lemongrass
• Plum powder
• Yuzu juice (or powder or paste)

Adding Vegetables to Instant Ramen

Lets face it: Ramen aint health food. However, adding a small amount of roughage to your starch is quite easy.

• Just before serving, add some quick-cooking veggies to the soup, such as baby spinach, romaine lettuce, bean sprouts, thinly sliced cabbage, watercress, and scallions. They should wilt in a matter of seconds.
• As the noodles cook, you can add longer-cooking veggies like broccoli, cauliflower, snap peas, snow peas, shredded carrots, and anything else you want. I have faith in you, young grasshopper, even though it might take some adjusting to get the timing exactly right.
• Vegetables from the freezer can be quite useful; in particular, frozen corn and peas freeze quite well, often tasting much better than when they were fresh! To defrost them, I prefer to run them under hot water directly from the faucet for about 30 seconds. Just before serving, they can be drained and immediately added to the hot soup.