6 Simple Ramen Recipes to Make at Home

Ramen is a noodle soup from Japan that features wheat noodles in a flavorful meat or vegetable-based broth with a series of additions and toppings. Ramen originated in China, but it became very popular in Japan after World War II, surpassing the popularity of other Japanese noodles such as soba and udon. Fresh ramen noodles are springy, yellow, wheat-flour noodles cooked with kansui (alkaline water). In addition to the noodles, some popular add-ons to ramen soup include chashu (fatty pork belly), green onions, bean sprouts, shiitake mushrooms, bok choy, soy sauce eggs, and seaweed.

There are a variety of different hot and cold ramen recipes. Ramen restaurants typically categorize ramen noodle dishes based on the tare (seasoning) that the soup is flavored with: shio ramen (salt ramen), shoyu ramen (soy sauce ramen), or miso ramen (fermented bean paste ramen). Many people opt to make instant ramen for a quick meal, but homemade ramen recipes can allow you to customize your seasonings to your palette. Here are six classic ramen recipes that you can try at home.

1. 1. Shoyu ramen: Shoyu ramen is served in a soup base, typically chicken broth or dashi stock, flavored with soy sauce. It is the most common type of ramen in Japan. Shoyu, the Japanese word for “soy sauce,” adds a more complex, umami flavor to the broth. To make shoyu ramen, you mix together dashi or chicken stock with shoyu “tare” (a flavoring agent), made from sesame oil, ginger, garlic, shoyu, and mirin. Add your noodles and toppings and enjoy.
2. 2. Miso ramen: Miso ramen is served in a broth such as chicken stock and seasoned with miso (fermented soybean) paste. Miso has a strong umami flavor—the thick paste is deeply savory, with toasty, funky salty-sweet richness. It is a popular additive for vegetarian and vegan ramen broths since it adds umami flavor without animal products. To make miso ramen broth, whisk together soy sauce and miso paste, then add chicken stock. Cook your vegetables and noodles, add to the broth, and enjoy.
3. 3. Tonkotsu ramen: Tonkotsu ramen is a Japanese noodle soup made with a pork bone broth—ton means pork and kotsu means bone. When collagen-rich pig parts like pork trotters and neck bones are cooked in water over high heat, the collagen in the connective tissue transforms into gelatin, which gives bone broth its silky texture. Fat, marrow, and minerals also get released, yielding an opaque broth. Start by making your pork broth with split pork trotters boiled in cold water, then add aromatics like yellow onion, green onion, and ginger. Boil your broth for six hours, then strain and refrigerate overnight. The next day, heat up your broth and season it. Add your noodles and toppings.
4. 4. Shio ramen: Shio ramen is ramen noodle soup that has been seasoned primarily with salt, or shio in Japanese. Japanese ramen starts with a soup base made from chicken or pork bones, seafood, or dashi; the tare (flavoring agent) is typically added later so that one stock can yield multiple flavors. This also allows the chefs at ramen shops to control the seasoning for each bowl of ramen. Start making your shio ramen by assembling your shio tare. In a small saucepan, combine 1 cup of water with salt. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat and stir to dissolve. Add the mirin and kombu, remove from the heat, and cover. Let steep for 5 minutes, then remove the kombu and return the mixture to the heat. Add the katsuobushi and bring it to a simmer. Remove from the heat, cover, and let steep for 3 minutes. From there, add your stock, cook your ingredients, and serve.
5. 5. Chicken ramen: Chicken ramen is a Japanese chicken noodle soup that features a chicken stock base. The stock for ramen noodles is often flavored with bonito flakes, soy sauce, salt, and miso paste. Ramen can be topped with a variety of ingredients, such as eggs, nori, scallions, bell peppers, red pepper flakes, cilantro, and sriracha. To make chicken ramen stock, heat up the chicken stock and add in miso paste, soy sauce, and mirin. Simmer the broth to cook chicken breast and your other ingredients, then add your noodles.
6. 6. Tsukemen ramen: Tsukemen, or dipping ramen noodles, is a popular offering at ramen shops all over the world. Instead of the customary noodles in hot soup, tsukemen features cold noodles served with a separate bowl of hot dipping broth; a few ramen noodles are plucked up with chopsticks, given a quick dunk in the sauce, and slurped up. First, cook your noodles, drain them, and let them cool. Build your dipping broth out of chicken stock, mirin, soy sauce, and miso paste. Simmer everything together for five minutes. When it is done, serve the noodles next to a small bowl of the dipping sauce alongside your toppings.

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