Umami My Ramen
It’s time to make Umami Ramen! In this recipe I show you how to make fantastically awesome vegan Umami Ramen! It’s sure to comfort you over the winter months!
Ingredients:
- 22 pcs of shiitake mushroom
- 1 knob ginger
- 1 whole head of garlic
- 1 medium-size onion
- 1 Apply (any type)
- 1 vegetable cube
- 1/8 tsp whole peppercorns
- 1 star anise
- 7 cups of water
- 1 tsp grapeseed oil
- 4 tbsp gluten-free Tamari soy sauce
- 2 Tbsp rice vinegar
- Sea salt to taste
- Lotus millet and brown rice ramen
- 1 bunch Yuchoy or bok choy
- A handful of sugar snap peas
- Handful of beansprout
- 1 stick of green onion
- 1/4 tsp chilli or sesame oil (optional)
- Few thin strips of carrots
- Parsley and white roasted sesame seeds for finishing touch
Method
For the Umami Broth:
Clean the garlic, onion, apple and ginger. Cut the onion into 4 parts, slice the garlic into halves, slice the apple into half, remove the seeds in the middle, and slice the ginger however you like. Put a big pot on the stovetop turn the heat into med-high temperature. Heat the pot, add the grapeseed oil. Once the pot is hot, put onion and garlic, sauté for a few seconds before adding ginger, star anise and peppercorns and sauté for 2 mins. Keep mixing to avoid burning. Add the shiitake mushroom and cook for 10 minutes to bring the umami flavor out. Keep mixing in between to prevent burning. Add 7 cups of water. Add apple, vegetable cube and about half a teaspoon of sea salt. When not using the veggie cube, you can replace water with liquid vegetable broth. Bring the pot to boil with a pot lid on it. Once boiling, bring the heat down to med-low temperature and let it cook for 30 mins to an hour. The longer it simmers, the tastier your broth comes out to be. When done, remove the apple. Add rice vinegar and soy sauce, and sea salt if needed. After adjusting the flavor, remove everything leaving only the broth in the pot and put it aside.
Preparing the Vegetables:
Clean the yu choy, sugar snap peas, carrots, bean sprout, parsley and green onion. I also like taking out some of the cook shiitake mushrooms and slicing them into thin pieces. Cut the yu choy to your preferred size, slice the carrots into thin strips, chop the parsley and slice the green onion thinly. You can either quickly blanch the yu choy and peas in boiling water or steam them. While doing so, boil water in a separate pot for the ramen. Cook the ramen according to its package instruction. I use one sheet of ramen per person. Now you have the yu choy, peas and ramen cooked. It’s time to assemble to serve.
In a deep bowl, add ramen, arrange the cook yu choy and peas on top together with the bean sprout, sliced shiitake mushroom and strip of carrots for some color. Drizzle it with chilli or sesame oil. Reboil the broth before adding it to the beautiful ramen/vegetable bowl arrangement, sprinkle green onion, parsley, and toasted sesame seed to finish and serve while it is still hot. You’ll likely have a leftover broth. Store it in a mason jar with a tight lid and put it in the fridge or freezer for future use.
Happy cooking!