Instant Ramen Upgrade
The noodles stay, the little packet gets tossed out. Four ingredients turn this into a real bowl of food.
- Preparation
- 5 min
- Cook/bake time
- 8 min
- Total
- 13 min
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Calories
The noodles stay, the little packet gets tossed out. Four ingredients turn this into a real bowl of food. Instant ramen has good noodles with bad broth. If you build the broth yourself and add an egg, some greens, and a little fat, you will have something on the table in ten minutes that has nothing to do with instant soup.
Why this works
The seasoning packet of instant noodles consists almost entirely of salt and flavor enhancers. It delivers intensity but no depth. Depth comes from three sources that can be built up in minutes: miso brings fermented soy protein and therefore glutamate, sautéed garlic and ginger provide roasted aromas, and a spoonful of fat carries the fat-soluble flavor compounds to the tongue in the first place. This is why a fat-free broth always tastes flat, no matter how well seasoned it is. The soft-boiled egg is the fourth building block. Its liquid yolk emulsifies into the hot broth when cut open and makes it creamy, playing the same role that bone marrow boiled for hours plays in a classic ramen broth.
Step-by-step instructions
- 1
Boil the egg
Slip the egg into boiling water and cook it for exactly seven minutes, then immediately transfer it to cold water. The yolk will then be firm on the outside and creamy in the middle, and exactly this creamy yolk makes the broth rich later on.
- 2
Sauté the flavor base
Heat the sesame oil in a pot and sauté the garlic and ginger for thirty seconds until fragrant. Do not cook it any longer: grated garlic burns quickly, and you can taste burnt garlic throughout the whole bowl.
- 3
Prepare the broth
Pour in the broth, stir in the miso and soy sauce, and let everything get hot once without boiling. Miso contains live cultures and flavor compounds that are lost during a rolling boil, so getting it hot is perfectly sufficient.
- 4
Noodles and greens
Add the noodle block to the broth and let it steep for two to three minutes until it loosens. Add the spinach and half of the scallions in the last half minute. Pour into a bowl, top with the halved egg, and sprinkle the rest of the scallions over it.
Our best tips
- Really leave out the seasoning packet. It is just salt with flavor enhancers and works against everything you have just built.
