Sweet Potato Noodle Ramen
First of welcome to my blog. I am going to try and create simple, tasty vegan recipes here. I want wherever possible for my ingredients to be available in your local supermarket, proving that you don’t need to shop at fancy health food shops to be vegan. Most of my recipes will also be gluten free and contain little to no processed sugar as I’m diabetic. So now on with my ramen recipe.
Every so often I get a real craving for ramen, and this was one of those days, I woke up dreaming of warming spicy Japanese inspired goodness. I decided to go with sweet potato noodles as I already had sweet potatoes in. Sweet potatoes have to be one of my all time favourite vegetables, they contain more vitamin A and C than they’re unsweet cousins. In fact one sweet potato provides 400% of your recommended daily vitamin A requirement. And they contain less calories and overall carbohydrates than potatoes. Also they just taste damn good. I used a spiraliser my sister brought me a few Christmases back to make my noodles, but you could just use a grater, or I’ve seen sweet potato noodles being sold pre-packaged in a lot of bigger supermarkets. If grating or spiralising remember to peel the potato before hand.
The broth is the base of all ramen dishes and it’s really easy to create. From this base you can create all kinds of variations, using all kinds of vegetables, so feel free to get creative. To create the base I just fried onions, garlic, ginger and some fresh chilli in sesame oil. Then added vegetable stock, tamari (gluten free soy sauce), miso paste, a little more sesame groundnut oil, star anise and water and allowed to simmer for an hour. If you are cooking this to be gluten free make sure to check that your miso paste is gf, I found in Sainsbury’s the own brand one had wheat in but Yutaka organic one was gf. The minimum amount of time I would simmer for is half an hour if I was in a rush. You want to give those flavours time to infuse.
I topped my ramen with miso glazed carrots and tenderstem broccoli, and added shitake mushrooms, pak choi and beansprouts too the broth. I added slices spring onions and black sesame seeds just before serving. But it’s really up to you how you serve your ramen, get inventive with the vegetables you have in and see what you can rustle up.
I served the finished dish to my meat eating family and close friend and everyone loved it. No one missed the meat! So if you want a dish to win over the meat eaters in your life, or if you yourself still eat it but are looking to try something a little different give this recipe a go.
Sweet Potato noodle ramen serves 5
Ingredients
For the broth
1 White Onion
4 Cloves of Garlic
1 3 inch knob of ginger (grated)
1 fresh chilli
2 tablespoons of miso paste
2 tablespoons of sesame oil
2 Tablespoons of tamari
1 star of star anise
1 1/2 litre of water
vegetable stock
To top
a pack of shitake mushrooms
2 Pak choi
1/2 pack of bean sprouts 5 Sweet Potatoes (Skins removed, then spiralised or grated)
4 carrots 1 pack of tenderstem broccoli
spring onions
sesame seeds
For the Miso Glaze
3 tablespoons sesame oil
1 tablespoon miso paste
juice of 1 lime
2 teaspoons of tahini
Method
1) Fry the white onion, garlic, ginger and chilli in a large wok, in a small amount of sesame oil, untill the onion is translucent and golden.
2) Add your water and stock (if using fresh stock add less water, you need around 1 1/2 litres of liquid) and bring to the boil. Add the miso paste, sesame oil, tamiri and star anise. Turn down the heat and allow the broth to simmer for at least half an hour.
3) As that simmers slice your carrots and trim your tender stem broccoli.
4) Combine your sesame oil, miso paste, lime juice and tahini for the miso glaze in a large bowl.
6) Place your carrots and tender stem broccoli in the bowl of miso paste and make sure they are thoroughly coated. Now place the carrots and Broccoli On a baking tray and roast in the over at 200'c for around half hour, or until the vegetables are crispy.
7) Once your broth has simmered add in your bok choy, bean sprouts and shitake mushrooms and keep the broth on the heat so the vegetables have time to heat through.
8) Take another large frying pan or wok and heat a small amount of sesame oil, once the oil is hot place the sweet potato noodles in and stir fry them until they have softened. this shouldn't take too long between 5-10 minutes.
9) Remove the noodles from the pan and place into bowls, pour the broth over the noodles and top with the miso glazed vegetables, thinly sliced spring onions and a sprinkle of sesame seeds.