I got a total wild hair yesterday and decided to make ramen for supper.  Mr. Smith and I had a couple of friends coming over for a dog play-date and it seemed like a perfect opportunity to try out a new recipe. These friends are adventurous types so they were willing to be guinea pigs!

I just googled ‘vegetarian ramen’ and the first 2 recipes that came up sounded pretty good. I basically pulled elements from both of these and cobbled together my own recipe based on those.

Here are links to the original recipes:

The first recipe is from The Minimalist Baker who has LOTS of delightful recipes.
https://minimalistbaker.com/easy-vegan-ramen/

The second recipe is from Umami Girl who I’ve only just discovered. This recipe for Peppermint Meringues is calling my name already.
https://umamigirl.com/easy-vegetarian-ramen/

Both of these very nice ladies live in places where it is easy to purchase things like dried shiitake mushrooms, chili oil, miso paste, and ramen noodles that cost more than ten cents a packet. I happen to live in a relatively rural area in North Carolina, and while I could certainly find the ingredients SOMEWHERE, I was not able to get them immediately enough to satisfy this wild hair I got.

That’s why I’m calling this Rural Ramen.

SOUP INGREDIENTS:

• 2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 5 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
• 1 2- inch piece ginger (peeled and diced)
• 1 medium yellow onion (coarsely chopped)
• 6 cups vegetable stock (I had 4 cups of store bought vegetable stock {comes in a 32 oz container}. I added 2 cups of water to make up the other 2 cups of liquid)
• 1 Tbsp soy sauce
• 1 Tbsp teriyaki marinade sauce
• 6 baby portabella mushrooms, very thinly sliced

INSTRUCTIONS:

Heat a large pot over medium-high heat.

Once hot, add oil, garlic, ginger, and onion. Sauté, stirring occasionally until the onion has started to soften and caramelize.

Add 1 cup of the vegetable broth to deglaze the bottom of the pan. Be sure to scrape up any bits that may have stuck to the bottom of the pan. You don’t want them to stick AND they make the flavor of the broth more delicious!

Add remaining 5 cups vegetable broth, soy sauce, teriyaki sauce, and mushrooms.

Bring to a simmer over medium heat, then reduce heat to low and cover. Simmer on low for at least 1 hour, up to 2-3, stirring occasionally. The longer it cooks, the more the flavor will deepen and develop. I let it simmer for about 2.5 hours–or just enough time for the dogs to play super hard until the sun went down!

Now for the toppings.

I had never soft boiled an egg before and I may have had beginners luck because they turned out PERFECT. Here is how I did it. (Let me know if you are able to replicate my success with this method!)

I used my electric tea kettle to boil water to 212 degrees F. If you do not have an electric tea kettle, I cannot express how much I recommend you get one. It makes so much food prep go so much faster. I use mine anytime I need to boil water because it does the job in about TWO MINUTES. So helpful. I digress.

I used a room temperature 2 quart sauce pan and approximately 1.5 quarts of boiling water. I put the eggs in straight from the refrigerator into the boiling water. It took the pot about 6 minutes to return to a rolling boil. Once the rolling boil started, I turned the heat off, put the pot in the sink, and let the cold tap run over the pot until the eggs were cool enough to handle. I then peeled the eggs and sliced them in half.

OTHER TOPPINGS:

• 8 chopped green onions (green and white)
• 1/2 head of cabbage, thinly sliced, pan seared with EVOO
• 1/2 head of cabbage lightly pickled (thinly sliced, sea salt, rice wine vinegar)
• 1 block firm tofu, sliced and pan seared with EVOO
• 6 thinly sliced portabella mushrooms
• chili garlic sauce (see below picture)

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER:

About 10 minutes before I served the soup I prepared the noodles. Again, remember I live in the country. I consider myself lucky that I was able to get the “Oriental” flavor of Maruchan, the only semi-vegetarian flavor (processed in a shellfish facility). I used two packets of noodles, didn’t use the flavor packets. I broke each noodle block in half, which made four portions. I then put these four chunks into a bowl of boiling water to ‘cook’ the noodles.

I divided the soup evenly in four bowls. Each bowl got a cooked chunk of noodles and two halves of soft boiled egg. I served all the other toppings on the table so everyone could add what they wanted.

Another note: I served the soup in metal bowls that we usually use for salads. I would definitely recommend using ceramic bowls instead. The metal seemed to cause the soup to cool faster than usual. I only used those bowls because I had four that matched! This is the price I payed for being too matchy-matchy!!

I can’t believe I only took one picture! I just went back and took a picture of the condiments so you can have something else to look at. Next time I will do better about my photography. Anyway, I hope this is helpful and I hope you enjoy it! Let me know in the comments if you have any questions or suggestions!