Quick Veggie Ramen With Purple Sprouting Broccoli
A speedy recipe for flavourful veggie ramen. Chewy noodles, silky broth, crunchy broccoli – this recipe has it all.
I’m an absolute sucker for ramen. Nothing fills me with more joy then slurping a large bowl of salty noodles. It’s the perfect recipe whatever the weather, whatever the mood.
This recipe for quick veggie ramen takes about one tenth of the time of traditional ramen. No waiting 12 hours for your bone broth to come together, this recipe delivers maximum flavour in under 35 minutes.
The secret to the wonderful broth is a cunning mixture of tomato paste, miso, soy sauce and Gochujang. Gochujang is an amazing spicy and sweet fermented chilli paste. It delivers a wonderfully subtle heat to the broth which makes it slurpingly good.
And what better veggie to enjoy a silky smooth ramen broth than some gloriously crunchy purple sprouting broccoli. It’s not spring without me raving about purple sprouting broccoli and it’s wonders. This untidy looking brassica has long been a saviour in Britain’s hungry gap months. It’s crunchy, fresh and delicious, long live purple sprouting broccoli!
Looking for some other purple sprouting broccoli recipes, why not try my sticky broccoli stir fry recipe. We all need a more noodles in our life anyway!
When to eat this veggie ramen
Traditionally the British purple sprouting broccoli season spans from late February to the beginning of May. You can substitute tenderstem when the PSB season runs out. You can even use plain old of calabrese broccoli, be sure to slice it thin so it doesn’t overpower your ramen with its size.
Quick Veggie Ramen With Purple Sprouting Broccoli
This meal is around 83% less polluting than the average UK meal.
Eating this recipe will save around 2.43 KG CO2e per person.
That’s equivalent to the emissions produced driving 20.09 KM in a modern car.
How do I calculate this?Ingredients
- 300 g Pre-cooked Noodles (I've used udon noodles which isn't strictly in keeping with the ramen soup, but hey… it's non traditional anyway!)
- 1 Litre Vegetable Stock
- 1 Tablespoon Tomato Paste
- 2 Teaspoons Sugar
- 2 Tablespoons Soy Sauce
- 1 Tablespoon Miso Paste
- 1/2 Tablespoon Gochujang Chilli Paste (if you can't find Gochujang paste in the store you can substitute with Sriracha.)
- 10 Dried Whole Shiitake Mushrooms
- 2 Medium Onions (peeled and finely diced)
- 2 Cloves Garlic (peeled and finely diced)
- 1 1-inch piece Ginger
- 200 g Purple Sprouting Broccoli (halved lengthways. If you can't find purple sprouting broccoli tenderstem will also do.)
- 2 Medium Spring Onions (finely sliced)
- 1 Tablespoon Vegetable Oil
Instructions
- Place your 10 whole dried shiitake mushrooms into a bowl and cover with 150ml of water. Allow to soak for at least 10 minutes.
- Heat 1 tablespoon vegetable oil over a medium heat in a large saucepan. Toss in the onion, ginger and garlic and sweat for 2-4 minutes until the onions soften.
- Tip the soaking shiitake mushrooms with the accompanying water into the pan. Then add in the 1 tablespoon tomato paste, 1 tablespoon miso paste, 2 tablespoons soy sauce, 2 teaspoons sugar and 1/2 tablespoon chilli paste. Stir the pan to combine all the sauces with the cooking veggies. Fry for a further minute.
- Add the 1 litre of vegetable stock to the pan use a stick blender to blend the onion and mushroom mixture with the stock. (If you don't own a stick blender decanting the stock along with the rest of the veggies into a conventional blender will work just fine. Just be careful not to burn yourself!)
- Bring the vegetable broth to the boil, then turn down to a simmer, cover and cook for 20 minutes.
- Once your broth has simmered toss in your noodles. Your noodles will have come tightly pressed together in a packet. Gently prod and break them apart whilst heating them in the broth. Once they are nicely broken up and cooked through, remove the pan from the heat.
- Tip in your halved broccoli and stir into the vegetable broth. Keep gently stirring for about a 1/2 a minute and you will see the broccoli start to wilt and cook through.
- Once your broccoli is nice and tender serve your ramen immediately. Sprinkle each bowl of ramen with some chopped spring onions and a dusting of sesame seeds.