Easy Homemade Ramen Bowls {Best Ramen Recipe}

Looking for the best Ramen recipe to make at home? These Easy Homemade Ramen Bowls let you make restaurant-worthy soup in the comfort of your own kitchen. 

Ramen bowls at home—who doesn’t love that?

This easy and approachable homemade Ramen recipe remains a reader favorite after all these years. To be able to enjoy a big comforting bowl of your favorite Japanese soup in the comfort of your own home is some kind of bliss! We aren’t all fortunate enough to have access to restaurants that offer this good stuff. So having this simple recipe up your sleeve is awesome. The ingredients list includes accessible ingredients you can get at your local grocer and the process couldn’t be more simple.

But first—what is Ramen?

You’ve certainly heard people joke about Ramen being a food staple for broke college students. But today, Ramen joints are popping up in Western cities everywhere, attracting even the most haughty of food snobs. So, what the heck is it—a meal for cheapskates or nosh for the posh? Both, really. Traditionally, Ramen is a Japanese noodle soup made with a rich-flavored broth, then topped with an assortment of meats, vegetables, and a soft-boiled egg. In Japan, Ramen is dubbed a fast food and it’s made available in tiny restaurants and late night street carts. But no matter where you’re slurping your Ramen, whether it be in a shoddy college dorm or that chic new Ramen bar in town, comfort is the name of the game with this coveted soup. 

What are the different styles of Ramen?

If you’ve ever had the privilege of slurping up real-deal Ramen, then you’ve been exposed to the various types. The menus are always full of options and the differences in tastes and broth-textures are notable. When you decide to make your homemade Ramen bowls, you might want to check out different varieties for some inspiration! Here are some of the most popular types:

Shoyu

This is the most common style of Ramen. Shoyu is the Japanese word for soy sauce, and that’s exactly what’s simmered into the base of this broth. The result is a light-bodied broth that is brown and clear, unlike the more milky and opaque tonkatsu broth. Intrigued? Check out my recipe for Spicy Shoyu Ramen.

Shio

Another light broth—in both body and flavor—is shio, which means salt. This simple broth is golden in color and is made up of chicken or fish bones.

Miso

If you’ve had miso soup, then you’re familiar with this cloudy and complex broth. Made with fermented soy bean paste, miso can be white or red in color. The broth is packed with umami and feels thicker on the palate than the lighter broths used for shio or shoyu broths. If this sounds good to you, check out my Miso Ramen.

Tonkotsu

Full-bodied, fatty, and satisfying, the tonkotsu broth is the richest of them all. It’s made up of simmered pork bones which break down during the cooking process and release collagen, which makes a broth so thick it’ll coat the back of your spoon! The broth is often fortified with pork or chicken fat. So if you’re ordering yourself some Tonkotsu Ramen from a menu, know that you’re in for an indulgent treat.

Is Ramen healthy? Or is Ramen bad for you?

There are articles out there that label Instant Ramen as packaged death—but I’m not into fear mongering. Especially with food. With anything in life, moderation is key. My advice is to trash the flavor packet that comes with your Instant Ramen and make your own broth, like in this recipe. That way, you’re dodging shitty additives, preservatives, and you’re avoiding all of that unnecessary sodium. Instant Ramen noodles themselves are lacking in nutritional content, so building your homemade Ramen bowls with proteins and vegetables is important. To make your bowl even better, use homemade Ramen noodles if you have access to them. Sadly most of us don’t, but it’s cool. Just toss that squiggly brick into some boiling water and make up for it in other wholesome ingredients. 

Some ideas on what to put in your homemade Ramen bowls.

One of the most noticeable things about a big bowl of Ramen is the ingredients piled on top. Here’s a list of Ramen ingredients you can use to top your noodles:

• Soft-boiled egg with a jammy yolk
• Narutomaki (fish cakes; you’ve likely seen them. They’re the thinly-sliced rounds with pink spirals in the middle)
• Enoki mushrooms
• Nori (dried seaweed)
• Bamboo shoots
• Bean sprouts
• Corn kernels
• Scallions

Finally, here’s how to make yourself some tasty Ramen bowls!

As you can see, when it comes to at-home Ramen, you’ve got options. But you might be wondering, what are the best things to put in Ramen soup? I kept this recipe approachable. It’s great as is, and if you feel like getting creative, use this recipe as a base! A lot of readers have tweaked this recipe to make it their own and I think that’s fantastic. Feel free to share your creations in the comments below.

Ramen ingredients:

• Sesame oil
• Olive oil (or avocado oil)
• Garlic
• Fresh ginger
• Chicken or vegetable broth
• Rice vinegar
• Low sodium soy sauce
• Sriracha or hot chili garlic sauce, like Sambal Oelek
• Shredded carrots
• Shiitake mushrooms (optional)
• Scallions
• Sesame seeds
• Soft-boiled egg

Heat the oil in a medium-sized saucepan over medium heat. Once the oil is hot, you’ll add the garlic and ginger, and simmer until fragrant. Then, add the rest of the veggies you want to cook—in this recipe, the carrots and mushrooms—and cook them until they soften up. Transfer the broth to the pot and add the rice vinegar, soy sauce, and Sriracha. Give the broth a good stir to combine the ingredients. Let the soup simmer for about five minutes, then give it a taste and add more soy sauce or Sriracha if needed. (This depends on how salty and spicy you want it.) While the soup simmers, cook the Ramen noodles in a separate pot as per the packages instructions. When done, drain, rinse under cool water, place into your soup bowl, and set aside. Once the broth is ready, spoon it over the noodles, then garnish the bowl with whatever you please.

Equipment you’ll need:

• Saucepan
• Microplane, this is a great tool to grate your ginger and garlic to a nice paste!
• Sharp knife
• Cutting Board
• Wooden spoon
• Colander

Accessories you might consider for digging into your Ramen bowls:

• Japanese Style Ramen Bowl
• Chopsticks
• Wonton soup spoon, the best way to slurp up that homemade Ramen broth.

Is this a vegetarian Ramen?

As long as you use vegetable broth instead of chicken broth and ditch the egg, yes! In fact, since most brands of soy sauce are vegan friendly, this recipe could easily count as vegan Ramen bowls with those same changes.

How to make a Ramen egg to complete your ramen bowls.

Everybody loves that custardy soft-boiled egg sitting in their Ramen broth. It just might be the best part of the bowl. Luckily preparing it is very simple. Bring a small pot of water to a boil, add the egg, and time it for five minutes. While the egg is boiling, get an ice bath ready in a bowl big enough to cover the egg. When the egg is ready, carefully transfer it from the boiling water to the ice bath and let it cool for about a minute. (The ice bath prevents the egg from cooking further once removed from the hot pot.) Finally, lightly crack and roll the egg on a cutting board, peel it, and slice it in half. 

Get the Recipe:

Easy Homemade Ramen Bowls

Yield: 2

Prep Time: 5 mins

Cook Time: 20 mins

Total Time: 25 mins

Looking for the best Ramen recipe to make at home? These Easy Homemade Ramen Bowls let you make restaurant-worthy soup in the comfort of your own kitchen. 

5 from 9 votes

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Ingredients

• ▢ 1 tsp sesame oil
• ▢ 1 tsp olive oil
• ▢ 2 cloves garlic, minced
• ▢ 2 tsp freshly grated ginger
• ▢ 1/2 cup shredded carrots
• ▢ 1/2 cup shiitake mushrooms, sliced (optional)
• ▢ 4 cups Chicken or vegetable broth
• ▢ 1 TBSP rice vinegar
• ▢ 3 TBSP low-sodium soy sauce (more to taste)
• ▢ 1 TBSP Sriracha sauce (more or less, depending on your heat tolerance)
• ▢ 2 3 oz portions of Ramen (discard the flavor packets)

Toppings

• ▢ Sliced scallions
• ▢ Sesame seeds
• ▢ Shredded carrots
• ▢ Soft-boiled egg

Instructions 

• Heat sesame oil and olive oil in a medium-large saucepan over moderate heat (see notes). Add garlic and ginger, and simmer until fragrant, about 2-3 minutes. Do not brown the garlic, or else you'll get a bitter flavor.
• Add the carrots and mushrooms if you're using them, and simmer until they soften, about a minute, stirring frequently.
• Add the broth, Sriracha sauce, rice vinegar, and soy sauce. Stir, and bring to a simmer; let it go for about five minutes. Taste, and adjust heat and taste to your liking by adding more Sriracha and soy sauce if needed.
• While the broth simmers, cook the Ramen noodles in a separate pot as per the package's instructions. (You could cook the noodles in the broth directly, but that makes for a messy transfer to a bowl. It's much easier to transfer drained cooked noodles to a bowl and spoon the broth over top.) Once the noodles are tender, drain and rinse under cool water, place into a soup bowl, and set aside.
• When the soup is ready, spoon the broth over the noodles. Allow to cool. At this point, make your soft-boiled egg if you're garnishing with one, and add the rest of your toppings to serve.

Soft-Boiled Egg

• Bring water to a boil in a small saucepan. Add the egg(s), and let them boil for five minutes. In the meantime, prepare an ice bath in a bowl. Once five minutes are up, remove the egg(s) and dunk them into the ice bath for about a minute to cool them off enough to handle. Then, lightly crack and roll them on a flat surface, peel, slice in half, and place on top of your Ramen.

Notes

*In case you were wondering why I use the two oils, it's because using just sesame oil can bring a bit too much of a potent sesame taste to your broth, depending on what you're using. But it's nice to have that hint, so I decided to mix the two. You can definitely use one or the other if you prefer.

 

*Adapted from Fork Knife Swoon

Author: Dana Sandonato