27 Ways To Upgrade Your Instant Ramen
It's never a bad time for instant noodles.
But sometimes, you need to jazz them up with a little something extra — an egg, some peanut butter, or even a punch of powerful kimchi. It's time to spice up your instant noodle game with these easy hacks.
1.Bake your noodles.
2.Grate some Parmesan on top.
3.Add peanut butter.
You can add a scoop on its own for a delicious peanutty flavor, or make a delicious sesame-peanut butter sauce!
Get the recipe here.
4.Top it with chashu pork.
The most tender, melt-in-your-mouth pork ever — this is the classic pork you'll find in proper tonkotsu ramen. Make up a big batch, and freeze it so you can add a few slices to your ramen whenever you feel like it!
Get the recipe here.
5.Try your ramen without the broth.
If you want to try something different, you can make ramen yakisoba — boil your ramen for a few minutes, then drain it, and fry it up with veggies and meat! FYI, you can make a really good yakisoba umami sauce with ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, and Sriracha!
Get the recipe here.
6.Add a ramen egg.
Get the recipe here.
7.Spice things up with Sriracha sauce.
Pro tip: A little shrimp goes great with Sriracha, so whack some prawns in there, too!
Get the recipe here.
8.Don't put the seasoning packet in the water.
Cook the noodles in water, then drain off 99% of it, and then mix in the powder. It will actually flavor the noodles instead of the liquid.
9.Throw in some veggies.
If you want to eat healthier but don't want to kick your ramen habit, just add the veggies INTO THE RAMEN. You can wilt some spinach or cabbage in at the end, fry some broccoli, carrots, or cauliflower, and then cook the ramen on top of that, or add some frozen sweetcorn or peas to your hot water along with your noodles.
Get the recipe here.
10.Add sesame.
Sesame is God's gift to food. Drizzle some sesame oil on your ramen, and sprinkle sesame seeds on top to instantly make it taste 100x better.
Get the recipe here.
11.Add some coconut milk.
A little coconut milk will make a wonderfully creamy soup! Or, you can go the whole hog and make Thai coconut chicken ramen.
Get the recipe here.
12.Add Thai red curry paste, sliced bell pepper, and a splash of coconut milk.
I usually sprinkle some garlic and ginger powder in, then add some basil/scallion/peanuts on top if I have some.
13.Swap your flavor packet for miso paste.
The flavor packet is delicious, but quite unhealthy (you know it, I know it, we all know it), so swap it for a scoop of miso paste — which is less unhealthy but just as delicious. Or hey, fuck it, you could just have BOTH.
Get the recipe here.
14.Cook your noodles separate from your broth.
If you want to make a really good soup for your ramen, cook it separate from your noodles. Noodles cooked in the soup will add a lot of thickening starch into it, and cooking the noodles in the soup can make them go quite soggy.
Instead, fry up some meat in a pan, add boiling water, stock, and veggies, then while that simmers, boil your noodles separately, and add them in once the soup is cooked for a perfectly clear broth and noodles with a good amount of bite!
Get the recipe here.
15.Add beef.
Toss your beef in a little cornstarch before cooking: It'll thicken up your broth and make the meat extra tender!
Get the recipe here.
16.I always boil some canned soup on the stove and cook my ramen in that.
It works great with any Italian or vegetable soup.
17.Make faux pad Thai.
18.Add some stock.
Adding a stock cube or a little demi-glace to your broth will create amazing depth of flavor. You can still add the flavor packet if you want!
Get the recipe here.
19.For cheesy vegan ramen, mix in nutritional yeast and some nut cheese.
You won't even be able to tell that it's not real cheese.
20.Add bacon.
Some chopped fried bacon will add salty flavor, and a crunchy texture. You can also add in some egg and cheese for "breakfast ramen."
Get the recipe here.
21.Add ginger, garlic, and spring onions.
Chop up a little ginger and garlic, and fry it in a pan before you add your hot water and noodles for extra flavor. Or, you can chuck it into the broth! A little garlic powder added at the end is also ~delicious~, and so is topping your noodles with spring onions (scallions to you American folks).
Get the recipe here.
22.Add fresh green onion, black garlic oil, a soft boiled egg, some thin cuts of cooked chicken, a little miso paste, a splash of soy sauce, shiitake mushrooms, and bean sprouts.
I also add Sriracha and/or some szechuan chili oil on the side if I want to spice things up.
23.Throw in some fried tofu.
Want to beef up your ramen without, erm, adding any actual beef? Fried tofu is where it's at, my friends.
Get the recipe here.
24.Simmer some chicken in your soup.
Chicken makes everything taste better.
Get the recipe here.
25.Drop an egg in.
Egg drop soup is soup that's just had a whisked egg mixed into the broth, and it's DELICIOUS. You can also apply this to ramen — just mix up an egg and "drop" it in for instantly more filling ramen.
Get the recipe here.
26.Mix in some butter.
Specifically, garlic butter. Kylie Jenner does it, so that's got to mean it's good, right?
Get the recipe here.
27.Cut some sausage inside the bowl, and let it heat up along with the ramen.
The meat works to soak up those extra juices and add a hearty aspect to your ramen bowl.
This article contains content previously curated by Emma Cooke, Kristina Bornholtz, and Farrah Penn. It was compiled by Lavanya Narayanan.
