Ramen Revelation

My Ramen Dinner Tonight

I love ramen.

The little packs of $.50 Maruchuan ramen in high school and college were one of my favorite, go to meals. I think this was primarily because I could get vegetarian/vegan ones and it was easy to cook being I was far from being a Top Chef contestant back then. Considering it’s “broke college student” connotation, I haven’t made it much since then. Plus it’s not exactly health food. Way too much sodium.

I was reading my fave vegan blog, Vegansaurus, today and one of the writers posted about how much they loved this other blog, Vegan Crunk. What caught my eye in the post was this gorgeous, delicious looking bowl of ramen. It didn’t look like the crap ramen I had loved all through school but a more sophisticated, fancy ramen with fresh vegetables and soy protein. Can I say, YUM?!

Reading the Vegan Crunk post, I realized all these years I was doing it all wrong.

1. You can’t use crappy American ramen. You’ve got to get the real stuff imported from either Japan or Korea.
2. You don’t just dump the seasoning packet in and eat as is, you personalize your ramen by adding whatever veggies and proteins you like.

What a concept!

Inspired, I stopped at Kihm’s Millenium Grocery on my way home from work (First time there and it ended up being a vegan paradise! That’s material for another post though) and picked up some various, authentic Asian ramen they carried there. Then I got home and spent all of 8 minutes making the hubby and I dinner. It was beyond yummy and totally hit the spot.

Here’s my method to my ramen making madness. It’s so retardedly easy I’m pissed I didn’t think of this myself.

1. Make ramen of choice according to package instructions.
2. Throw in vegetables of choice. Could be whatever is leftover in your fridge or freezer. For me this evening it was frozen endamame and corn, and fresh baby spinach.
3. Throw in protein of choice. The ramen I chose had a piece of fried tofu in it, plus I upped my endamame. I dropped an egg in my hubby’s ramen (being the omni he is) and let it cook in the hot soup. Other ideas could include soy meat curls, seitan, tofu, or even if meat’s your thing some chicken, shrimp or beef. Just let it cook in the broth.
4. Top it off with some sriracha sauce to give it some kick.
5. Eat and enjoy the fact you used next to no dishes and dinner only took you around 10 minutes (tops) to make.

I now have absolutely no excuse to order out when I get home and I’m too tired to cook. Most of these items are either pantry items or clean out the fridge items. Under normal circumstances I’d say “Boo!” , especially when it comes to not wanting to do anything after a stressful day at work, but considering ramen is so yummy, it’s cool with me. At least for now.

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