I’m using the Nissin RAOH Umami Tonkotsu Ramen to make a Korean-influenced Kimchi Ramen. Only 15-minutes to restaurant-quality ramen at home. It’s a deep, fiery, and utterly delicious!
Why This Kimchi Ramen Is So Good
- Uses intant noodles to creat restaurant quality ramen at home.
- Easy to make – only 15 mins.
- A must for kimchi lovers.
- A rich, deep and fiery flavor.
Ingredients
- Egg
- Noodle soup pack (ramen)
- Mushrooms
- Tofu
- Asian chili powder
- Green onion
- Shredded seaweed
How To Make This Kimchi Ramen – Step By Step
In a small saucepan, add the egg and enough water to cover by 1-inch. Bring water to a boil, then lower heat for a gentle simmer and cook for 3 minutes.
While your egg cooks, prepare the rest of the ingredients:
- Chop green onions
- Cut tofu into cubes
- Empty Nissin RAOH Soup seasoning packets into a large serving bowl
- Measure out kimchi and mushrooms
Once the egg is done cooking, empty the saucepan and measure in 3 cups of water and bring to a boil. Add in the air-dried ramen noodles. Set your timer for 4 minutes, but don’t stop – continue on with the recipe and add in the remaining ingredients.
Add in the kimchi.
Mushrooms – I used enoki mushrooms, but feel free to substitute with your favorite fresh mushroom. I also love shiitake.
Tofu – I’m love using silken extra firm tofu, the type that is shelf-stable (no refrigeration needed until you open the package). For soups, I enjoy the delicate, silky-smooth texture.
Asian chili powder.
Let everything cook until the timer goes off. Then turn off the heat and grab a ladle.
You never want to add the soup seasoning into the saucepan to boil. The seasoning and flavor packet is meant to be added to your serving bowl. Hot water from the pan is ladled into the soup and stirred. Boiling the soup seasonings will cause your soup to become gritty.
Ladle in the hot water from cooking the noodles, kimchi and other ingredients. You’ll see the soup seasonings transform into thick, rich, pork flavored soup full of umami flavor!
Top with more kimchi, green onions and shredded seaweed.
Using Instant Noodles For Kimchi Ramen
There’s no shame in instant noodles. In fact, instant noodles in Asia are very popular, especially the brands that use top-quality ingredients and dry, instead of deep-fry the noodles.
You’ll find these brands at a higher price than the 20 cent cup-of-noodles, and they are worth seeking out. Usually priced between $2.50 to $3.50 per package, high-quality noodle and soup packages come pretty darn close to restaurant-quality flavors. It’s a shame to even put these brands in the same category as “instant” noodles.
I’m working with my client, Nissin to teach you about restaurant-quality ramen at home, and how to elevate the experience with three simple, 15-minute recipes. The first is my Kimchi Ramen recipe, a fiery comfort food that can be made in minutes.
Nissin RAOH is brand new to the U.S. and the lineup includes 3 flavors: Soy Sauce Ramen, Tonkotsu Ramen and Miso Ramen.
Dried, not fried
Good quality noodles are air dried, not deep-fried in fatty oils. Nissin RAOH’s noodles are triple-layered noodles that are air-dried.
- No trans fats
- No cholesterol
- Little saturated fat (about 93% less saturated fats than regular instant noodles!)
Noodle shape matters
Not all dried noodles are the same! Authentic Japanese ramen is made from water, flour, salt and potassium carbonite (kansui in Japanese) to raise the pH level. It’s this alkalinity level that gives ramen its characteristic bite, chew and golden color.
Ramen aficionados also know that the shape, thickness and size of the ramen noodle influences the mouthfeel, broth absorption and how much is flavor is “slurped” in each bite. That’s why Nissin differentiates the type of noodle in different ramen flavors.
A 15-Minute Kimchi Ramen Recipe
To make the Kimchi Ramen recipe, I’m starting with Nissin RAOH Umami Tonkotsu flavor, though you can make this same recipe with any flavor. Tonkotsu is the most popular ramen flavor in both Japan and the U.S. RAOH Umami Tonkotsu features additional layers of flavors (onion, garlic, ginger) in the soup, making it rich and robust.
To the ramen, I’m adding egg, enoki mushrooms, Asian chili powder, tofu, seaweed, green onion, and of course, kimchi.
The Perfect Boiled Egg
I prefer an egg that’s right in between a soft boiled and hard boiled egg. I like my white firm, but the yolks silky and velvety. True soft-boiled eggs are really hard to peel without breaking, and I find the whites just too soft for my taste.
Soft-boiling an egg is simple – put eggs into a saucepan, add cool water to submerge the eggs. Bring to a boil, then lower heat to a gentle simmer. Set your timer for 3 minutes. Remove eggs, rinse in cool water and peel. Slice each egg in half.
What’s The Best Chili Powder For This Kimchi Ramen?
The chili powder that I am using is called Ichimi Togaroshi in Japanese.
You can also use a Korean chili powder (left). These chili powders is just basically dried, ground chili pepper. You can substitute with red chili flakes or cayenne powder.
American “chili powder” is very different – this is actually a blend of herbs and spices that you will use to make American chili with ground meat and beans. Avoid this.
Seaweed Topping
Japanese shredded seaweed is called kizami nori. I love this stuff. It’s toasted nori, shredded very finely. I sprinkle it on eggs, Japanese style pasta, any noodle soup dish and sometimes even popcorn.
You can buy this online at Amazon.
Top Tips For This Kimchi Ramen
- Boil the egg for 3 mins, for the best egg!
- You can adjust the level of kimchi to your taste
- If possible, use fresh tofu.
- Top with shredded seaweed.
More Ramen Recipes!
- Ramen with Baby Bok Choy and Crispy Shallots Recipe
- Easy Beef Ramen Noodle Bowl
- Pressure Cooker Ramen
- 15 Minute Miso Ramen Recipe
- 30 Ramen Hacks
Have you tried this Kimchi Ramen? Feel free to leave a star rating and I’d love to hear from you in the comments below.
Kimchi Ramen Recipe - 15 Minute Recipe
purchase on Amazon. All flavors - Soy Sauce, Tonkatsu and Miso work in this recipe, though I prefer Tonkatsu the best with kimchi!
Ingredients
- 1 egg
- 1 package noodle soup I prefer Nissin RAOH Ramen
- 1/4 cup prepared kimchi or more, depending on taste
- 1 ounce fresh mushrooms enoki, shiitake
- 3 ounces fresh tofu
- 1/4 teaspoon Asian chili powder or cayenne powder
- 1 tablespoon chopped green onion
- 1 tablespoon shredded seaweed
Instructions
- In a small saucepan, add the egg and enough water to cover by 1-inch. Bring water to a boil, then lower heat for a gentle simmer and cook for 3 minutes.
- While egg is cooking, trim the mushroom stems, cube the tofu, chop the green onion. In a serving bowl, empty the soup seasoning packet and the flavoring packet. When egg is done, immediately drain water and remove egg. Peel egg and slice in half.
- Refill saucepan with 3 cups of water. Bring to a boil, then turn heat to medium. Set timer for 4 minutes and add in the dried noodles, kimchi, mushrooms, tofu and chili powder.
- When done, empty the ramen soup mix package(s) into a serving bowl. Ladle in the hot cooking water and stir with chopsticks until spices are dissolved. To the soup, add in the remaining ingredients from the pot. Top with green onion, shredded seaweed, and the egg. Add additional chili powder and additional kimchi, if desired.
Nutrition
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Did you try this recipe? Please leave a star rating in the recipe card below and leave a review in the comment section! I always appreciate your feedback and I know other readers do, too!
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Have you any experience with using pressure cooker for dishes like this ? For making a rich broth ?
looking delicious! I love it.
Looks awesome. I have eaten this soup about month a go and its going to be one of my favorite dishes!
Well, I feel silly now. I always wondered how ramen noodles were so high in calories (fat calories specifically), and why the bowl is always greasy after you eat them. I had no idea they were fried!
Yum, I’ve got to try this later. I just tried the Quick Kim chee recipe from your book ‘Healthy Asian Favorites’. WOW!!! So easy, it just goes from kitchen bowl to quart Mason Jar. For years, I’ve wanted to make Kim chee, finally I did. It was so easy, I needed just one Nappa Cabbage. I highly recommend making your own. I finally got over how big the bag of kim chee pepper was – I just bought it! Well worth it, I don’t know that anything could really replace it. Thanks for your great recipes – I love the new cook book.
Thanks so much Jackie!
amazing ramen!!! I love foods with kimchi
Jaden, looks great I’ll keep my eyes peeled for this one. Instant ramen gets a bum rap when there are some really well made ones at well stocked stores. My current fave is Myojo Chukazanmai brand the one in the green package. I love their noodles, the season pkgs a bit salty so I use half of the seasoning or don’t bother drinking the soup. Do you know of a good ramen that just sells the noodles and no seasoning pkg.? I find a lot of times I toss the seasonings and make my own broth and toppings. Looking forward to more ramen hacks!
I bought the Nissin RAOH ramen umami miso I cooked my first pack today . there is a real difference in the noodles. But I didn’t have a seasoning packet in my bag just a soup base. Was there something missing?
Different flavors have different packets. I think 2 out of 3 of the flavors have both soup and flavor packet. The other one only has soup.
I never thought of adding kimchi to ramen till I saw your recipe. This looks so good and I can’t wait to try making this. Your recipes are so creative, yet simple and easy. Have fun at BlogHer. I hope to attend one of the conferences you host someday soon. Thanks, Jaden!
I would love to see you!
Yet another amazing and easy-to-follow recipe! I cannot wait to try it. BTW, I think you meant to say Tonkotsu, not Tonkatsu. Tonkatsu is something else (Pork cutlet). 😉
Misty – ha! Thanks for picking up my typo!
This looks great. Do you know if the packets include MSG (or natural flavoring)?
Oooooo Jaden, shame on you!
I’ve got the kimchee and tofu…it’s almost 11pm and too late to grab the ramen….grrrrrr, now ya got me jonesin’.
If you’re ever in the Seattle area, I’d like to suggest going to Uwajimaya…one of the largest Asian groceries in the area, there’s three of them, all family owned…one in Chinatown, one in Bellevue and the third in Renton.
There is also one in Beaverton, OR.
Just about every thing under the sun from all Asian countries is there.
Also, the DK Market in Renton…biiiiiig old warehouse full of everything from all over the world.
There one whole wall way back in the store dedicated to ramen alone, dried/fried that is.
When you first enter the DK MArket bldg., you will see a barber shop and an Indian rest., Spice King, get yourself a snack or two before going into the market, as you will want to buy one of everything on an empty stomach…and then you’ll be broke in a heartbeat!
There is also a Chinese herbalist and Russian grocer in there as well.
Drop me a line if you come for a visit, I’d be more than happy to show you around.
P.S.
Thanks for your wonderful website! I don’t remember how I found it (3 yrs. ago I think), happy I did.
This is what I eat most mornings for breakfast – delish!
I had no idea that it was worth the time making ramen style noodle at home ~ it seems easier to go out! But you have convinced me =) Noodle shape matters. Got it. Air dried not deep fried. Got it. I’m sharing this post with my mom to see if she wants to do this together for a family meal night!
Looks delicious! Definitely on my kimchi to try list.
I’m on a kimchi run b/c of you!
It’s a versatile food!