Who doesn’t love a nice comforting bowl of ramen on a chilly day- or any day, really?
There’s nothing like some milky broth, noodles, fresh veggies, and an egg to top it off. All of that being said, my favorite part about ramen is that it is so easy to make at home- especially if you know all the right shortcuts to take. Time may be spared when making this ramen, but none of the flavor will be.
This recipe is based on my dietary preferences (pescatarian) and my personal favorite fixings, but yet another great trait of homemade ramen is that you can make it any way you like. You may opt to add pork loin instead of shrimp, or spinach instead of bok choy. Whatever floats your boat, whatever you have on hand, and whatever is in season will work great!
Ingredients
- Store bought ramen broth. This is the first key to shortcut ramen- none of the hassle of making broth from scratch, but all of the taste as if you did. I personally love Ocean’s Halo boxed ramen broth. It’s milky, just like a ramen restaurant would serve, and the taste is seasoned extremely well but still manages to go with virtually any ingredients.
- Store bought ramen noodles. This is the second key to shortcut ramen. No need to make noodles from scratch to achieve yummy ramen noodles with a great bite to them. I usually use HakuBaku Organic Ramen Noodles.
- 1 lb of large frozen shrimp
- 1/4-1/2 lb of baby bok choy
- 8 oz baby bella mushrooms
- 1/2 bunch green onions
- Large eggs (number of eggs depends on how many servings of ramen you plan to plate)
- (Optional) Red pepper flakes, salt, and pepper to taste
Recipe
- Begin by prepping your shrimp. Quick thaw by placing shrimp in a colander under cold running water for 5-10 minutes. Once thawed, peel and keep in a large bowl in the refrigerator for now.
- Pour your ramen broth into a small pot. Choose a size that will be big enough to hold all ingredients except the eggs, but small enough that ingredients will be submerged in broth. Begin to warm broth on low-medium heat.
- Prep your baby bok choy. Cut off the white base about 1/2 and inch to an inch from the end. At this point I usually just do a couple more rough chops to make the bok choy a little bit more manageable. Set aside.
- Prep your sliced baby bellas by placing in a strainer and thoroughly rinsing. Set aside.
- Chop your green onions, sans the white base, before setting aside.
- Turn up heat on broth. Bring to a boil.
- Remove ramen from packaging and gently place into broth. Boil for about 1 minute before adding in mushrooms, bok choy, green onions (reserving a couple of Tbsp for garnish later), and optional red pepper flakes to taste.
- Boil for another two minutes before turning heat down to low-medium. Broth should be simmering.
- Remove shrimp from refrigerator; salt and pepper to taste. Gently toss shrimp into the pot with the rest of the soup mixture. Simmer for 5 minutes or until shrimp are opaque.
- While shrimp is cooking, fry up your egg(s) in a separate oiled or buttered frying pan. In traditional ramen, the norm is a soft boiled egg. However, it’s much easier and quicker to just fry up an egg like you would do for breakfast! Once eggs are cracked into the pan, season each side of the eggs with salt, pepper, and garlic powder to taste. To achieve that creamy eggy texture, I fry mine over-easy. Cook 1 egg to your desired temperate for every dish you plan on serving up. Once eggs are finished, turn off heat on ramen mixture.
- Serve it up! Start by ladling a couple of heaping spoonfuls of veggie and shrimp mixture into a soup bowl, before spooning in your desired amount of extra broth. Finish it off by gently placing an egg over the top, taking care not to break the yolk prematurely.
- Garnish with leftover green onions, and extra red pepper flakes if you prefer even more of a kick.