Different Ways To Cook With Instant Ramen

[Jade]

I love using instant ramen noodles for different things. I think they have a very unique taste and texture to them, and the best thing is that there's a massively wide variety of them, each having some subtle differences over others. It's probably because I grew up with it and have grown to love it so much that sometimes I even prefer it to the more commonly used ones.

My personal favorite use of these is as fried noodles, but I always boil them first and then just fry them again myself because the texture isn't the same just using them right out of the package. As for the toppings and sauce, my two personal favorites to make that goes great with ramen noodles are tuna & mushroom cream sauce and an oyster sauce based sauce with vegetables - similar to chop suey but just a little more concentrated in flavor. The tuna cream sauce also goes well with just boiled noodles too.

How about you guys, do you ever use ramen noodles in your recipes? If not, do you put toppings on your ramen or do you just prefer to eat them plain?

 

[Andrea Swafford]

I personally love ramen noodles. I do not use any kind of spices, butter, or anything like that. I just boil some water, put the noodles in, and mix it with the beef packet. I only eat these ever so often, because I have found, I get burnt out on them when I cook them like that. I am thinking about maybe putting some different ingredients in them. I was thinking about mixing some butter, and maybe oil to give them some texture and flavor. I used to eat these all the time when I was in college.

 

[janineaa]

I used to always eat instant noodles when I was back in school because that was te easiest meal to prepare. I don't usually add anything to my noodles, but when I want to be more full, I mix an egg in it so the soup becomes more thick. I also add dumplings when I have some and a lot of chili paste! Feels like a Chinese dish from a restaurant! Haha!

 

[hispoiema]

Jade, it sounds good how you cook and then fry the noodles. I have not tried that before. I really enjoy the Cabbage sald that uses uses the Ramen noodles. I don't have a recipe myself but usually look online when I want to make it.
As far as eating like a soup, I like to put in scraps of left over meat and green onions. Yum!

 

[OhioTom76]

I would make them but leave out the seasoning packet and instead use some frozen stir fry mix and some splashes of soy sauce, then stir fry everything. Even better, I would marinate some boneless skinless chicken thighs in soy sauce or teryaki sauce and pan fry them in some vegetable oil until they become dark and caramelized, then chop them up and put those over the noodles and vegetables too.

A friend of mine would make a cold salad with the ramen noodles, breaking them up into some coleslaw mix, then tossing with the seasoning packet, some vegetable oil and rice vinegar, and perhaps some green onions and slivered almonds.

I've also heard of people making "hamburger buns" with them too for "ramen burgers", but honestly, those looked rather gross to me.

 

[Jessi]

This thread actually prompted me to have ramen for lunch yesterday for the first time in a long time and then I forgot to come post about it!

I grew up on eating it just plain with some water and the seasoning packet. When I moved to Vancouver, though, I discovered a whole new world of ramen and fell in love with some super spicy ones....and even "cheap package ramen" always seemed to come with little packets of dried onions, at the very least. I learned that it's quite yummy with egg, chicken, green onions, etc, so that's how I tend to spruce mine up at this point. It's a good way to use up leftover chicken and green onions especially, because the ramen juice will rehydrate both of them.