Vegetarian Ramen Recipe: How to Make Meatless Ramen

Vegetarian ramen is a Japanese noodle soup featuring wheat noodles, a plant-based broth, and vegetarian-friendly toppings like eggs and vegetables. Ramen has a long history with unclear origins. Some stories place the creation of ramen in the 1660s. In contrast, others say Chinese immigrants introduced Japan to ramen in the late nineteenth century, with the first ramen shop opening in Yokohama in 1910.

Most ramen recipes center around a meat- or seafood-based stock flavored with soy sauce, miso paste, or salt, but you can achieve the same depth of flavor and texture with plant-based ingredients.

Japanese ramen eggs (ajitsuke tamago)—with their caramel-colored edges and salty-sweet undertones—are a mainstay of ramen shops and bento boxes. They also happen to be vegetarian-friendly. Here’s how to prepare ramen eggs at home:

1. 1. Boil the eggs. Bring a saucepan of water to a boil and prepare an ice bath in a large bowl. Add four eggs to the boiling water, and reduce to a rolling simmer. Boil the eggs until the whites are set, but the yolk is still jammy, about seven minutes. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the eggs to the cold water bath.
2. 2. Marinate the eggs. In a resealable container or ziplock bag, combine a half-cup of soy sauce, a half-cup of mirin, and one cup of water. Peel the eggs, and discard the eggshells. Add the cooked eggs to the bag with the marinade. Marinate the eggs in the refrigerator for at least twenty-four hours and up to forty-eight hours.
3. 3. Add the eggs to the ramen. To serve, slice the eggs in half lengthwise and add them to a bowl of ramen.

Making ramen is a multistep process, so it may help to break it down over a few days. For example, make the broth one day, prepare the noodles and ramen eggs another day, and then assemble the ramen soup itself on the third day. Follow these tips for surefire success:

1. 1. Coax out flavors as best as you can. Ramen gets most of its flavor from the broth, or, in the case of vegetarian ramen, dashi. Dashi is a Japanese stock made by infusing umami-rich ingredients like kombu (kelp) and dried shiitake mushrooms in hot water. Allow the elements to steep long enough to create a flavorful broth.
2. 2. Customize the dish. Use any ingredients you’d like—from bamboo shoots, bean sprouts, greens, mushrooms, leeks, cabbage, Thai basil, and chives to specialty oils, chili oil, sesame seeds, and lemongrass—there is no end to the versatility of vegetarian ramen. You can even opt for other noodles, such as soba or udon noodles, or heavier toppings, like vegetarian tonkotsu, fried tofu, or even tempura fried vegetables.
3. 3. Make it meaty. If you choose to make ramen for a group, you can use a vegetarian base and provide some animal proteins for those who might want it. Soy-mirin chicken thighs, grilled lemongrass steak, crispy shrimp tempura, and pork tonkatsu are good options.