Ditch the ramen packets and make your own using this easy recipe for Homemade Ramen Soup! Made with rich broth, crisp-tender vegetables, and ramen noodles, not only does Homemade Ramen taste better, but it is better for you!
Who else lived on packets of ramen soup as a broke college student? I tended to always have them on hand for a cheap and easy meal I could make in my dorm room in minutes.
Now I opt to make Homemade Ramen, which happens to still be a quick and easy meal. But the homemade version trumps those packets 100-fold in terms of flavor and nutrition. You are going to love this recipe for ramen!
Reasons To Love Homemade Ramen
- Quality Control. While tasty, those seasoning packets in store-bought ramen are incredibly high in sodium, filled with preservatives, and often contain MSG. You leave all those additives on the shelf when you make ramen yourself.
- Quick and Easy Recipe. Using a few key ingredients to develop rich flavor, this Ramen Soup comes together in less than 30 minutes, with little hands-on prep. While that is longer than it takes to make a packet of ramen, this homemade version rivals traditional Japanese Ramen or ramen you get at an expensive ramen shop.
- Fresh and Flavorful. Homemade Ramen is filled with fresh ginger, garlic, and veggies, which produces a soup that is filled with nutrients and flavor.
- Soul-Satisifying. Filled with rich broth and hearty noodles, I always feel comforted after a bowl of ramen, much like I do after a bowl of chicken soup. Not to mention the garlic and ginger in ramen soup help to clear up congestion.
- Customizable. You can make ramen the way you like it. Add veggies of choice, add some shredded chicken or leftover grilled shrimp, or swap out the vegetable broth for chicken stock, beef broth, or mushroom broth.
Ingredients Needed for Homemade Ramen
- Broth: Use mushroom, vegetable, or chicken broth as the base for the ramen. Mushroom broth will be incredibly flavorful, but is much harder to find and more expensive. I typically use homemade vegetable broth.
- Ginger: Be sure to use peeled, grated fresh gingerroot, not dried ginger powder. Store the peeled gingerroot in the freezer and grate directly from frozen for future use.
- Vinegar: Rice wine vinegar or mirin is best when making ramen.
- Miso Paste: Miso paste is made from fermented soybeans and adds a delicious, rich flavor. If you don't have it on hand, you may want to add a bit more soy sauce to duplicate the umami flavor miso adds to ramen.
- Mushrooms: I like to use shitake mushrooms, but baby portabella mushrooms or oyster mushrooms are good substitutes.
- Greens: I find the tops of bok choy to be perfect for this Ramen recipe, but you can use napa cabbage, kale, or spinach or omit the greens altogether.
- Ramen Noodles: For ramen noodles, use packaged ramen noodles or refrigerated ramen noodles. Just be sure to discard any flavor packets that may accompany the noodles.
- Toppings: The toppings for Ramen are up to you. I recommend adding something crunchy and something creamy for texture. Shredded carrots, diced green onions, diced red peppers, a soft-boiled egg, Sriracha, and/or dried seaweed are all great options.
recipe modifications
- Adding Meat: To make a heartier version of ramen, add cooked shredded chicken, shrimp, or cooked and diced pork chops to the ramen along with the noodles to warm the meat through.
- Lower-Sodium: I recommend using low-sodium broth and low-sodium soy sauce to help control the level of sodium in this ramen.
- More Broth: Feel free to double the broth, soy sauce, miso, garlic, ginger, and soy to create a ramen with a more broth-to-noodle ratio.
∗Tips for Making Homemade Ramen∗
The following tips are provided to help you achieve perfect results. You will find the detailed instructions in the recipe card at the bottom of this post.
- Simmer the Broth. To develop a rich, nuanced ramen, simmer the broth, garlic, ginger, soy sauce, vinegar, and miso together for at least 10 minutes.
- Add Veggies. While adding vegetables is optional, that is one way to amp up the nutrients and flavor in ramen. After simmering the broth, add in vegetables of your choice and simmer until just crisp-tender, which will vary between 5-10 minutes, depending on the vegetables you add.
- Follow Package Directions. There is a wide variety of ramen noodles on the market, so be sure to cook them according to the package instructions for best results.
- Add Toppings. I recommend adding something crunchy, like shredded raw carrots, something creamy, like a soft-boiled egg, and something spicy, like hot sauce, to make the best ramen.
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If you tried this recipe for Homemade Ramen, I would love for you to leave a comment and review below.
Easy Homemade Ramen
Made with rich broth, crisp-tender vegetables, and ramen noodles, not only does Homemade Ramen taste better, but it is better for you!
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Servings: 4
Calories: 227kcal
Ingredients
- 4 cups reduced-sodium mushroom, chicken, or vegetable broth
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 2 teaspoons peeled, grated fresh ginger root grated
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
- ½ cup shitake mushrooms sliced
- 2 tablespoons red pepper minced
- 9 ounces ramen noodles about 3 packages
- 1 tablespoon white miso paste optional
- 2 cups bok choy greens thinly sliced
Toppings for Ramen
- 4 soft boiled eggs
- 1 large carrot grated
- 2 green onions chopped
- 1 small red pepper diced
- Sriracha
- Dried Seaweed optional
Instructions
- Pour vegetable or mushroom stock into a large saucepan. Add in minced garlic, freshly grated ginger, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, and miso if using. Bring the broth to a boil and reduce to a simmer.
- Add in sliced mushrooms, red pepper, and bok choy into the broth, and simmer for 7-10 minutes, or until greens are wilted.
- Add in packaged ramen noodles (discard seasoning pack) and cook according to package directions. Typically this is 2-3 minutes.
- Dish up cooked ramen into serving bowls and top ramen as desired.
Notes
Nutrition is calculated without toppings.
Cabbage: Feel free to use sliced napa cabbage in place of bok choy greens.
Ginger: Only freshly grated ginger root is recommended, NOT ground ginger powder.
Adding Meat: To make a heartier version of ramen, add cooked shredded chicken, shrimp, or cooked and diced pork chops to the ramen along with the noodles to warm the meat through.
Lower-Sodium: Use low-sodium broth and low-sodium soy sauce to help control the level of sodium in this ramen.
More Broth: Feel free to double the broth, soy sauce, miso, garlic, ginger, and soy to create a ramen with a more broth-to-noodle ratio.
Leftovers: Store any leftover ramen soup in an airtight container for up to 3 days. Reheat with additional broth and top as desired.
Nutrition
Calories: 227kcal | Carbohydrates: 33g | Protein: 8g | Fat: 2g | Sodium: 1265mg | Potassium: 151mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 3g | Vitamin A: 2065IU | Vitamin C: 16.4mg | Calcium: 59mg | Iron: 3.1mg
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Stephanie
Kristen, my family loves this meal. I was wondering if you l, or anyone, has tried to do some of the steps in the Instant pot.
Kristen Chidsey
Hi Stephanie! I am so happy to hear your family enjoys this recipe! It is a bit harder to make this recipe in the Instant Pot and have the vegetables turn out with the same consistency, but it can be done. Add the broth, ginger, garlic, soy sauce, miso, vinegar, mushrooms, and red peppers and cook on high for 5 minutes with a natural pressure release, and then add the noodles and greens to the hot liquid, place the lid on the inner pot and let the greens wilt and noodles soften.
Stephanie
Thank you Kristen for responding. Everyone is under the weather and am trying the instant pot recipe you mentioned right now.
Kristen Chidsey
I hope you all feel better soon!
Emily key
Absolutely delicious, and I loved that it wasn’t so salty.
Kristen Chidsey
I love that too! Thanks for sharing, Emily!
David
I was trying to taste of ingredients. I don't have ginger root and shitake mushrooms. I use ingredients instead of the original ginger powder 2 tablespoons. I did taste ramen it too much ginger powder. I don't want to use ginger 2 tablespoons again.
Kristen Chidsey
Hi David. The recipe specifically indicates to not replace the gingerroot with ginger powder, as the flavor is overwhelming. I am sorry you missed that, but it would explain the off-putting taste.
Jill
Delicious! I will make this again!
Mother of Girls
My family is all sick with a stomach virus right now, and when we’re sick, we look for water based soup and teas to stay hydrated and keep something in our tummies. This fit the bill. We left out all toppings just because vomiting anything more than noodles and broth would feel awful. My husband made the broth to your specifications and included some sesame oil for that extra flavor. I had a box of Ocean’s Halo Organic ramen noodles specifically to make ramen bowls on our meal plan this week before this virus took over our family. The flavors are amazing! Being in the Chicago suburbs, I have a lot of trendy restaurants and pop-ups serving really good ramen among other things. So I think I can safely say this is on par with those establishments. Thanks for a great recipe. And when we are all feeling better, I will make this again with toppings! Can’t wait!
Kristen Chidsey
What a huge compliment for this ramen recipe to be compared to Chicago ramen restaurants. Thank you! That said, feel better soon!
Monica Weatherspoon
This was perfect and delicious! Thank you so much for the recipe. I feel much better giving this to my son than the packaged kind. I was so worried about finding a great broth recipe, but my son (and all of us) loved the broth! It was easy, and when I made some for my husband, it only took me 10-15 minutes once I knew what I was doing.
Kristen Chidsey
I am so glad you enjoyed---gotta love a fast, yet healthier recipe!
Four
Very tasty! Will definitely come back to the this ^^
Meghan
I’m so sorry! I was so excited to tried this and it smelled so good, but the broth tasted terrible! We followed the recipe, I’m wondering if we were expecting it to be more like Pho and it just wasn’t the same? 😰
Kristen Chidsey
Hi Meghan! I hate hearing you did not enjoy this soup. If you were expecting pho, this would be completely different. Pho is a really rich, yet light meat broth with less additional flavors.
Nicole
If I make ahead of time - will it keep in refrigerator and heat up as well? Wondering how the BokChoy and noodles hold up in broth overnight?
Kristen Chidsey
Hi Nicole. I have reheated with success. The noodles do get a bit softer and swell, but we still enjoy!
Lena
Tasted really good! But only served 2 people... I don't know why it said 4 (unless you're into REALLY small servings lol). Last minute I had to double the broth and the noodles and didn't have time to double the veggies... ended up feeling kind of empty 🙁 I'm excited to make it again though with double everything! I added mensa, a cup and a half of mushrooms, and half as much ginger and it tasted great!
Kristen Chidsey
Hi Lena! I am glad you enjoyed but sorry you did not feel the serving size was adequate.
Doris
Due to the pandemic, my hubs and mines plans of vacationing to Japan this summer got cancelled. I decided to make a Japan theme night at home, and of course we needed a ramen dish for dinner. I picked this one because it seemed easy enough for a beginner. (I only had made packaged ramen before) This was a hit! We finished the whole pot.
I opted to Japan ramen noodles instead of the instant kind. I wanted a more quality and authentic texture for the noodles. This recipe was so flavorful and fun to make. Quite elaborate, but well worth the time. I've also never had any other kind of ramen besides instant beef/chicken. This was a whole new experience for my taste buds. So glad I picked this one. I will be making it again!
Kristen Chidsey
Hi Doris! I am so sorry your vacation plans were cancelled. But I am glad you found this recipe, made the best of a disappointing situation and enjoyed! I hope you enjoy many times again and I hope you get to take that trip soon!