Creative instant ramen alterations.

[Bobtheduck]

Ramen is cheap nearly everywhere. That's why it makes a good meal for people in debt / college students / cheapskates, but if you eat it every day, it can get pretty galznerking boring. I've been experiementing a bit with my ramen (or "ramyeon" as they call it in Korea)

One of my favorite self-cooked meals is Curry Ramen, from a recipe I got out of "Addicted to Curry." It is a very involved meal that takes hours to cook, and would be impossible for me to cook in my extremely small kitchen. It involved onions, garlic, chicken, chicken bones for soup base, turmeric, oyster sauce, shrimp sauce, 2 types of noodles, hard boiled eggs, cream of celery soup (to replace coconut milk)... It was a very involved meal. I'm not expecting that level of involvement from anyone.

The first thing I did since coming to Korea, which I quite love, is add an egg or two to it. Now, I did this for a while but realized the cholesterol on that was through the roof, so I started removing the yolk, and it's still pretty good, because the egg white soaks up the flavoring.

The next thing I did as a mere act of desperation (because I was getting freebies from a local bakery I didn't want to waste) was take some coconut covered chocolate... things, and dump them in the ramen. I was expecting to throw it in the toilet when I was done, but it actually wasn't that bad. I certainly wouldn't eat it every day, and maybe I wouldn't put so MUCH of the chocolate coconut stuff in there, but it was edible and a nice change.

I've been thinking more about veggies I can add to my ramen, so I got two things I know go good in soups: carrots and cabbage. I got a head (?) of red (purple) cabbage and a huge honking carrot. I took one slice of the cabbage, and after dumping half the carrot because I didn't have a proper knife for peeling, I put about 4 or 5 slices of the carrot in the soup. Those things will last me a while. I ended up accidentally putting the whole seasoning pack into the soup at the end, which I try to avoid because of the high salt content, but at least with the full seasoning, it tasted pretty good. I'll see how it tastes on half a pack tomorrow. It was funny because it turned the water blue when i was cooking it.

Anyone else done anything interesting with instant ramen? What veggies would go great with it? What would you use in place of the seasoning that comes with it?

[Technomancer]

Ramen Nicoise. It's pretty quick to make, and fairly tasty.

Tomato Sauce for pasta
Hot sauce
anchovy fillets / anchovy paste
sliced black olives

for the fish add in either of:
herring fillets in hot sauce (or tomato sauce)
canned squid / octopus

[ChristianKitsune]

there's a book on fun things to do with Ramen haha! (Its called 101 Things to Do with Ramen Noodles)
My friend makes this really amazing Tilapia soup with Ramen!
She pan sears a tilapia fillet with seasonings and onions, and then adds the whole tilapia fillet into the ramen noodles with the stock, adds half the pouch, and some more veggies and voila!

The cool thing about Tilapia is its very flaky, so it really lasts throughout the entire soup... and you can taste it in every bite. DELICIOUS!

I also just add whatever I feel like adding to my ramen to give it more than just noodles with salty broth, lol. Sometimes I add chicken, or veggies (LOVE CABBAGE with ramen) sometimes I'll add eggs, or tuna.

there's plenty you can do with it...haha!

[That Dude]

You could add some beef, ginger, green onions, and teriyaki sauce.

[Mr. Rogers]

I keep my ramen simple. Ramen with most of the broth drained out with two fried eggs on top.

[Ante Bellum]

Egg. Just...crack an egg in while it's cooking.

[Ella Edric]

Add about a tbs of teriaki(if i spelled that right), some soy sauce, and maybe a few drips of sesame seed oil. YUM!!! and as Ante said, and egg is really good in it too. You can also add some veggies like celery or green onions. Carrots work too! 8D