Vegetarian Ramen Noodle Soup
Hot, satisfying noodles, shiitake mushrooms, roasted tofu and vegetables in a savory, umami-rich broth. A delicious “everyday ramen” recipe from Twin Cities food blogger greens & chocolate.
When the weather is cool, not much is more comforting than a big bowl of soup. Especially a bowl of soup with long, slurpy noodles, right?
Ramen has been huge in the food scene for a while, and I’m finally hopping on the train. I see images of bowls full of noodles, vegetables and meat in rich broth in my Instagram feed daily, and it seems like there are constantly new noodle shops popping up around town. Now that I’ve had my share of ramen, I can understand why people love it so much!
Today I’m sharing a recipe for a Vegetarian Ramen Noodle Soup which is full of long ramen noodles, a semi-homemade broth, shiitake mushrooms and chewy roasted tofu.
I wanted to create a broth that was really flavorful, but also didn’t want to include a bunch of crazy ingredients or have it take a ton of time. Not many people have the time or patience for a time-intense broth. That said, while this is not a 100% authentic ramen, it’s a great “everyday ramen.”
So, let’s talk about what makes this ramen so good. The broth is a combination of onion, ginger, garlic, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar and white miso paste. Not super basic but not completely over the top, either. A true authentic ramen would have you make your own broth, but I cheat a little with vegetable broth. No shame in that!
While you can definitely use the ramen noodles that come in the packages we all ate in college (just discard the seasoning packet), these days it’s pretty easy to find some good quality ramen noodles at the grocery store. I had no trouble finding authentic ramen noodles at my local Lunds & Byerlys.
Lastly, ramen can be customized to include whatever vegetables you like. I kept things fairly simple with shiitake mushrooms, roasted tofu, baby bok choy and a good amount of green onions. Other ideas are baby spinach, carrots, roasted sweet potatoes and radishes.
Of course, I couldn’t make ramen without that soft-boiled egg. I am definitely one of those people who prefers a soft-boiled egg over hard boiled, but you can cook your egg to whatever doneness you like. My husband thought it was kind of weird seeing an egg on top of soup, but once he tried it, he was a believer.
We ate our soup with a healthy drizzle of Sriracha, which you could also add to the broth if you like, but since I was also feeding this to our toddlers (who devoured it, by the way), I left it out of the big batch. If you’re a Sriracha fan, definitely give it a try.
And that’s it! After about an hour of work, you’ll have your own pot of hot, slurpy ramen noodle soup. Enjoy!
4 servings
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 55 minutes
Ingredients
4 large eggs
14 ounces extra firm tofu, cut into cubes
4 tablespoons soy sauce, divided
1 tablespoon sesame oil
2 tablespoons olive oil
½ white onion, diced
8 ounces sliced shiitake mushrooms
2 tablespoons fresh ginger, minced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
2 tablespoons white miso paste
6 cups vegetable broth
8 ounces ramen noodles
2 baby bok choy, halved
4 green onions, chopped
Sesame seeds, for topping
Chili garlic sauce (such as Sriracha)
Directions
Boil the eggs:
- Bring a pot of water to boil.
- Carefully add eggs and boil for 6 minutes for soft boiled. For hard boiled, boil closer to 9 minutes.
- Remove from hot water and immediately place in ice water bath.
Bake the tofu:
- While water is heating up and eggs are cooking, you can prep the tofu.
- Heat oven to 400 F.
- Cut tofu into bite-sized cubes. Drizzle with 2 tablespoons of soy sauce and sesame oil; gently toss to combine.
- Spread tofu cubes onto a greased baking sheet.
- Bake tofu for 35-40 minutes until golden.
Make the broth and noodles:
- Heat olive oil in a large soup pot over medium-high heat.
- Add onion and cook until softened and translucent, about 5-7 minutes.
- Add mushrooms and cook until they have softened, about 5-7 minutes.
- Add ginger and garlic; cook one more minute.
- Add in rice wine vinegar, miso paste, remaining 2 tablespoons soy sauce and broth. Bring to a boil.
- Add ramen noodles and cook according to package directions, usually between 5-10 minutes.
- For the last 2 minutes, add bok choy and green onions.
- Ladle soup into bowls. Top with soft boiled eggs, sesame seeds and as much Sriracha as you can handle!