Miso Ramen Soup

WI Cheesehead's Note:

This is from About.com, their Japanese food section. It says, "Ramen noodle in miso based soup is called miso ramen. It's one of the popular flavors of ramen noodles in Japan. Lots of vegetables can be added in this miso ramen recipe." I used homemade chicken stock instead of the water and bouillon originally called for to lower sodium. I adjusted the recipe a bit. I also used an Italian sausage that I took out of the casing, which was about 4 oz. Interestingly, my Japanese loving teenager didn't like this, but my other two younger children loved it!

• Total Time: 20 mins
• Prep Time: 5 mins
• Cook Time: 15 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 5

• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 1 garlic clove , minced
• 1 teaspoon fresh ginger , minced
• 2 -4 ounces ground pork
• 5 ounces bean sprouts , rinsed
• 4 ounces cabbage , chopped
• 2 -4 ounces carrots , cut into thin strips
• 4 cups low sodium chicken broth
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 2 teaspoons light soy sauce
• 4 tablespoons miso
• 2 (3 ounce) packages ramen noodles (without the flavor packet)
• ½ teaspoon sesame oil

Directions:

1. Heat olive oil in a soup pot or a wok and cook minced ginger, garlic and pork on medium heat until pork is no longer pink.
2. Add carrots, bean sprouts and cabbage and saute for a few minutes, stirring.
3. Add the chicken broth, sugar and soy sauce and bring to boil.
4. Turn heat down to low and melt miso in the soup.
5. Add sesame oil and take off of heat.
6. Meanwhile, cook the ramen noodles (not the seasoning packets) in boiling water for 2 minutes; drain.
7. Add noodles to soup and serve.

Reviews

[Rinshinomori]

I grew up eating ramen and make my own from scratch often. I usually keep frozen charshiu pork handy for using it in ramen, yakisoba, and yakimeshi (Japanese style fried rice). What I did was use my own chicken stock from the freezer and instead of ground pork, I used charshiu pork, soft boiled egg, negi (Japanese long onion) and nori for the topping. Besides the topping, I used what the recipe called for ie cabbage, bean sprouts, and all other seasonings. The result was very good. Normally, ramen stock is made with many ingredients, but this simplified ramen using only chicken stock was very satisfying and very simple to make.

[shortstuff-in-yellow]

This tastes great! Though I didn't have bean sprouts and sesame oil. I did add shiitake mushrooms along with carrots. This dish is definitely something to try and eat over and over again.