Whole30 Ramen

[SunshineBell]

During my 2nd time around doing the Whole30, I found myself really missing RAMEN! I'm Asian and the no soy sauce or noodles was difficult the 1st time .... less so the 2nd time. But still, I wanted Ramen.

I searched the internet for a Whole30 Ramen recipe and couldn't find one. So here it is. My Whole30 Ramen recipe. The soft enoiki mushroom and the crunchy bean sprouts are just enough of the right texture that good ramen noodles give. But its the unami stock (tofu/miso) taste that I was searching for and I think I found it with this recipe.

Starting with THE STOCK. You can use a store bought compliant chicken or vegetable stock, but I made my own. My source was my mom, who makes everything from scratch. Her basic Chinese Soup stock recipe is so easy to whip up and super delicious, no one should ever go back to using canned won-ton soup stock ever again or even miso soup. This Chinese Chicken stock recipe makes about 6 cups of stock:

• 1 chicken carcass (you can get one from your butcher or an oven roasted chicken carcass)
• Enough water to cover the carcass plus an extra inch approx. 8-10 cups
• 1 Celery Stalk
• 5 shiitake mushroom (fresh) (you can used the dehydrated ones, but they should be reconstituted before putting it into the stock)
• 1/2 peeled white onion (no need to chop up - just place in whole
• A small chunk (approx 1inch) of ginger peeled and smashed
• 1/2 tsp Rice Wine Vinegar (non-seasoned)
• 2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp white pepper
• Coconut Amino (optional - mostly for colouring) (mom uses soy sauce ... but we are doing whole30)

In a large pot with fitted lid, bring everything to a boil and then turn down to simmer for about 3 hours (lid on). Taste to adjust seasoning - if you feel that it needs more time then simmer some more, with the lid slightly off so that the stock can reduce slightly. Once its good to your taste, strain your stock - discard the bits that are in the stock (or keep the chicken pieces in a separate container for other recipes). You can store the liquid stock in an airtight container in fridge for about 1 week or in the freezer for a month or two.

Ajitsuke Tamago (RAMEN EGG)

I made about 4 eggs with this recipe as the eggs can be stored for a few days and these are delicious on its own for breakfast or over a salad!

• 4 eggs (HINT: the older the egg the better they will peel)
• enough water to cover 2/3 of the eggs in a small pot - (they crack less if they are not fully covered in water)
• 1 Tbsp Rice Wine Vinegar (if they do crack it keeps the eggwhite from spilling out)

Marinade:

In an airtight container mix:

• 1/2 cup Coconut Amino (I know this seems like alot of expensive sauce to waste, but trust me, its worth it - plus you can keep the marinade for a 2nd set of eggs if you make it within a week)
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 Tbsp Rice Wine Vinegar

Instructions:

• In a pot (with lid) that fits 4 eggs comfortably (but not so much room that they will move and jostle around), boil the water. Do not add eggs in until you have the timer set for 6 minutes and the water is boiling!
• Once the water is boiling add in the eggs carefully. Start the timer for 6 minutes
• After 6 minutes take the eggs out and plunge them into cold water. Then peel and place in the container of marinade. 
• Put in fridge overnight - no more than 12. 
• Move them around after a few hours so that they get evenly coloured.
• Take them out of the marinade within 12 hours (if you leave them in too long, they get a bit too salty). Dry them and wrap them up individually and store them in an airtight container. They should be eaten within 24 days.

RAMEN Recipe

If you have the stock and egg pre-prepared, putting the RAMEN bowl together takes only 15 minutes!

• 1/4 lb (or more if you want it meaty) Ground Pork
• 1 tsp Salt
• 1/4 tsp Sesame Oil
• 1 tsp grated fresh ginger (optional)
• 2-3 cups of Chinese Soup Stock
• 2 sliced Shiitake Mushroom (preferably fresh but can used the dehydrated ones, but they should be reconstituted and then rinsed before using)
• 3 inch round size bundle of Enoki Mushroom stemmed
• 1 cup of raw white bean sprouts
• Fresh Chinese Greens cleaned and stemmed (we like Yu Choy - but Bak Choi would also work)
• Ajitsuke Tamago (ramen egg) (garnish)
• 1 Tbs of chopped green onion (garnish)
• 1/4 tsp Sesame oil (garnish)

Instructions:

• In a bowl, mix ground meat with salt and sesame oil and optional grated ginger. Set aside.
• Bring chicken stock to boil in a medium size pot.
• Once boiling with a small spoon (I just use my clean hands), drop in pieces of the mixed ground meat in to stock (they don't have to be round, uniform or perfect).
• Once the meatballs float to top of stock, you may notice a film of protein foam that starts to form. This is just the proteins forming the "effluvium". Its harmless but if you don't like the look of it just skim it off.
• Add in shiitake mushroom boil for 1 minute.
• Add in enoki mushroom and white bean sprouts. Let boil for 30 seconds.
• Add chinese green and submerge them into the liquid.  Do not overcook the green - they should cook and wilt immediately in the hot liquid.
• Serve immediately in a big bowl. Top with the Ajitsuke Tamago egg cut in half, chopped green onion and a few drops of sesame oil.

Enjoy!!

 

 

[Amura]

Wow, that's an impressive recipe!

Your mom's stock recipe looks very much like the good ol' stock I make (just different veggies, but hey, in each country people have used whatever the soil gave them, so I'm considering them perfectly interchangeable) but the vinegar surprised me. Now that's something I must try!

Also the eggs marinade sounds great. 
I like soft-boiled eggs and that marinade sounds delicious with them, so this is something I'm gonna try too.

To be honest I've never eaten ramen, but this looks awesome on many levels.
I'll give a try to the first sections of the recipe first, if I like them separately I'll make sure to try a complete Whole30 ramen according to your recipe.
Thank you very much for sharing!
 

[SunshineBell]

Thank you Amura. There are other Whole30 Ramen recipes out there, but none that mimicks the slurp of noodles. I know it's a bit of a SWYPO situation, but it's not actually creating noodles with the compliant ingredients.

Yes, every culture has their own chicken stock. This one you can use for all sorts of base for Chinese soups, including egg drop, hot and sour. 

Real Japanese ramen is amazing. I have one more week on this Whole30 journey. I don't think I will have real Ramen for awhile after my 30 days are done. The noodles just have too much refined flour in them.

The egg is really special. It's the best part of this recipe.

I hope you enjoy the soup. Stay tuned to my posts, I'm working on other Whole30 asian recipes.

[SunshineBell]

On 10/1/2019 at 3:44 PM, SunshineBell said:

1/4

Note that its 1/4 tsp sesame oil

[SugarcubeOD]

16 hours ago, SunshineBell said:

Note that its 1/4 tsp sesame oil

I changed it in the body of the recipe as well so that if people don't read further or they print it, the directions are clear

[Saber89]

I made your ramen soup tonight. It was delicious. I would have never thought of sprouts as a substitute for noodles but it was delicious.

[SunshineBell]

19 hours ago, Saber89 said:

I made your ramen soup tonight. It was delicious. I would have never thought of sprouts as a substitute for noodles but it was delicious.

Hi Saber89.  Thanks so much for trying this recipe. It looks like a long process but its really not that bad.

I'm so glad you liked this recipe. I made this 3 times during my Whole30. Yes, the sprouts + enoki mushrooms are a perfect replacement for the noodles. Stay tuned as I'll be putting up more Whole30 Asian food recipe.

[SunshineBell]

I made this again today and did not have any chicken stock on hand. So I decided to use the water that I used to reconstitute my dried Shiitake mushroom as the base.

Once my dried Shiitake mushrooms were nice and soft, I carefully poured the water it was in into a pot, leaving the bit of dirt at the bottom out.

Sliced up the mushrooms mushroom and placed in pot with some coconut amino, salt and 3 cups of water ... got it to a slow boil. 

For the pork, I changed it up a bit:

• 1/2 lb (or more if you want it meaty) Ground Pork
• 2 tsp Salt
• 1 tsp white pepper
• 1/4 cup of each Chopped cilantro and Chopped parsley
• 1/4 tsp Sesame Oil
• 2 tsp ground ginger
• 2 cloves of minced garlic
• 3 tbs Coconut Amino
• 1 egg

I mixed this up and used a spoon to drop chunks of meat mixture into the boiling water. Bring to boil.  Once meat is cooked, taste to season it with more Coconut Amnio or pour some of the Ajitsuke Tamago (RAMEN EGG) marinade into the soup. Add white pepper.Then add bean sprouts, enoki mushroom and any other vegetables you want in your soup. topped it with a ramen egg and a drizzle of sesame oil.  Enjoy!