For the Best Vegetarian Ramen, Roast Your Squash With Miso
On a weeknight—well, especially on a weeknight—I want each ingredient that I use for dinner to do the most it possibly can. That’s why if I’m using tomato paste, I caramelize it. If I’m frying bacon, I use the rendered fat for a salad dressing. And that’s why the next time I make pumpkin soup, I’m coming back to this brilliant new recipe from Epi contributor Hetty McKinnon.
Hetty says she “loves a big-flavored broth.” To get there—without any meat involved—she starts by roasting kabocha squash to concentrate its flavor and caramelize its natural sugars. To add even more dimension, she coats the raw kabocha (before roasting) in a maple glaze that’s been given a one-two savory, umami-rich punch of soy sauce and miso. “In my flavor world,” she tells us, “sweet loves salt, so I love the addition of miso.”
Once the roasted, glazed squash is out of the oven, it could already be considered an excellent side dish. Go ahead and eat it just as is, if you’d like. Or, take McKinnon’s next step: Purée a portion of the roasted squash with more miso and a ginger-and-garlic enhanced vegetable broth. Store-bought is fine here, but check the label first: You’re not looking for one with a ton of honey or sugar in the mix, since the squash and maple syrup adds all the sweetness you need. The final broth is thinner than your average puréed pumpkin soup, but silkier, with a bit more body than the usual miso ramen broth. The underlying sweetness is earthy, not candied.
You’ll need to boil some salted water to briefly cook some bouncy fresh ramen noodles. But that pasta water also does double duty: McKinnon blanches quick-cooking broccolini in the salty bath before the noodles go in.
To finish the bowls, she arranges the tender broccolini on top of the noodles, along with a few wedges of reserved squash, which gives the soup a satisfying bite. A final flourish of cilantro and dinner is done.
It’s a highly autumnal noodle soup that happens to be vegan and could even be gluten-free if you want it to be: just swap out the ramen for all-buckwheat soba noodles. (If using dried noodles instead of fresh, you’ll only need about 12 ounces here.) It’s also easy to blanch extra broccolini (to toss with a spicy vinaigrette), roast extra squash (for a fall-favorite sandwich), or both (to make quick work of a seedy hummus bowl) for later in the week. And if you just want to make this soup a second time (spoiler alert: you will) you won’t mind having a few extra vegetables on hand—especially when they taste this good.
Miso-Squash Ramen
Originally Appeared on Epicurious
