Confession time: sometimes I actually like instant ramen. You know, those cheap little packets of salty noodles that only cost 30¢? I don’t eat them often, maybe once per year, but when I get the craving I love grabbing a packet of instant noodles and going to town with all sorts of add-ins and toppings. Over the years I’ve found 6 easy ways to upgrade my instant ramen, to the point where it feels like fancy ramen and can qualify as a legit meal. Plus, I get to use up the leftovers in my kitchen at the same time! So I’m going to share what I add to instant ramen to make it better because it’s a total win-win.
Can you believe that’s instant ramen in that bowl in that photo?? And those upgrades were pretty inexpensive.
Now it’s obvious that the best way to make instant ramen better is to just get real ramen noodles from a restaurant or from an Asian grocery store, but that’s not what we’re talking about today.
We’re talking about what you can add to those inexpensive little ramen packets to make them better. Ingredients that you can find in your fridge or just about any grocery or convenience store. So, when cheap ramen packets are what you’ve got, here’s how you can spice up your instant ramen and turn it into a bowl of fancy ramen!
What to Add to Ramen
Instant ramen is a blank slate for all sorts of flavors and ingredients, so you can really have fun when customizing your bowl! Here is a summary of some of the ingredients that I like to add to a bowl of instant ramen to really spice it up:
- Broth: experiment with using your own broth and different flavors of broth (vegetable, coconut, curry, shrimp base, etc.)
- Aromatics: Adding a few fresh aromatics, like garlic, ginger, or scallions, can really add a lot of depth to the flavor of your broth.
- Sauces: scour your fridge for sauces that you can stir into the bowl, like sriracha, chili crisp, oyster sauce, hoisin sauce, fish sauce, or even peanut butter.
- Vegetables: Instant ramen is a great way to use up leftover vegetables in your fridge. They add color, flavor, and texture to every bite!
- Protein: Make your bowl a little heartier by adding in some rotisserie chicken, cooked shrimp, a soft-boiled egg, or some tofu.
- Toppers: I like to add a little flair at the end, whether it be something for texture like sesame seeds or furikake, or something fresh like cilantro. It’s just another layer of delicious that takes the ramen over the top!
how to Make Ramen Better – Step by Step
1. Use Your Own Broth
Skip the flavoring packet and use your own broth, whatever kind you prefer. I like to use either vegetable or chicken-flavored Better Than Bouillon (I do half broth, half water to keep the salt down), but you could also use a homemade bone broth, dashi, or even just some miso mixed with water. Not only does this give you more control over the salt and other ingredients, but it offers you a lot of flavor options!
2. Add Aromatics
Upgrading instant ramen is all about the add-ins, and that begins with adding fresh aromatics to your broth to really give the flavor some oomph. I like to add fresh garlic, ginger, and green onion. I usually have all three of these on hand (I keep my ginger in the freezer), so it’s a no-brainer. Plus, fresh ginger gives the soup a pleasant medicinal quality that is great when you’re under the weather.
TIP: Mince the garlic and grate the ginger. Sauté both in a little oil for a minute or so before adding your broth to the pot. The green onion can either be sprinkled over top at the end, sautéed with the ginger and garlic, or both!
3. Sauce it Up
If you’re like me, you have no less than 20 half-used bottles of sauces in your fridge. Well, Instant ramen is a great way to use up some of those sauces. You can stir sambal, chili garlic sauce, sriracha, oyster sauce, hoisin sauce, fish sauce, gochujang, soy sauce, or any number of other sauces into your broth for more flavor. Or add them to the finished bowl as a sort of table seasoning.
TIP: Adding sauces usually comes with added salt, so keep this in mind when choosing your broth. That is one reason I like to do half broth and half water—it gives me more wiggle room to add sauces later.
4. Add Vegetables
I looooove my bowl of ramen packed full of vegetables. This is where spicing up instant ramen gets really fun and useful. Browse your fridge for any vegetable that might need to be used up, like carrots, bell peppers, mushrooms, cabbage, and more. You can also toss in frozen vegetables, like broccoli florets, peas, or corn.
TIP: If you don’t have any vegetables in your fridge, stop by the salad bar at your local grocery and grab a small handful or two of your favorite vegetables. That way you don’t have to buy a whole package of each one. You can also score proteins like tofu (see photo above) or rotisserie chicken to toss in there.
5. Add a Protein
My favorite protein to add to my ramen is an egg because it’s just so easy and I always have them (soft boiled egg or hard boiled egg). But there are so many more options! Tofu cubes, sliced tempeh, rotisserie chicken, ground pork (browned), shelled edamame, pulled pork, shrimp, you name it!
TIP: You can crack a raw egg straight into your simmering broth and let it cook for about 6 minutes. Make sure the broth is not vigorously boiling or the egg will break apart into a million pieces and just make the broth cloudy. For the egg in the photo above, I cooked it separately, using my easy 6-minute Soft Boiled Egg method, and then added it to the finished bowl.
6. Top it Off
Time to go wild! Top off your ramen with lots of fun goodies to give your bowl flavor, color, and texture. Here are some things to add to ramen:
- Sriracha
- Kimchi
- Sesame seeds
- Crumbled bacon
- Nori (dried seaweed)
- Fresh herbs (cilantro, Thai basil, chives)
- Sesame oil
- Crushed chiles
- Furikake
- Fresh lime
And that’s it! That’s all it takes to turn a sad little packet of instant noodles into a truly epic bowl of fancy ramen that I’m sure I’d probably pay at least $8 for in a restaurant.
My Favorite Instant Ramen Recipe:
The bowl of instant ramen shown in the photos here is the ultimate representation of how to make ramen better, but on a regular run-of-the-mill day, I kind of go halfway between plain and the ultimate version. Here is my favorite upgraded ramen recipe:
Upgraded Instant Ramen
Servings 1 to 2Ingredients
- 1/2 Tbsp cooking oil
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1/2 tsp grated fresh ginger
- 1 handful sliced mushrooms
- 1 cup vegetable broth
- 1 cup water
- 1 package instant ramen (seasoning discarded)
- 1 handful fresh spinach
- 1 large egg
- 1 green onion, sliced
- sriracha to taste
Instructions
- Add the oil, garlic, and ginger to a small sauce pot and sauté over medium for about one minute.
- Add the sliced mushrooms and sauté for about a minute more.
- Add the broth and water, and bring to a boil.
- Once boiling, add the uncooked ramen noodles. Boil for about 3 minutes, or just until they are tender. Do not overcook the noodles.
- Stir in the spinach until wilted. Turn the heat down to low, crack the egg into the broth, and let sit for about six minutes, or until the egg whites are cooked and the yolk is still runny.
- Transfer the soup to one or two bowls, then top with sriracha and sliced green onion.
See how we calculate recipe costs here.
Nutrition
And then depending on whatever else I have in my kitchen, I might add some other fun stuff in, like in the photos. :) Want to meal prep it? Check out our Meal Prep Noodle Soup Jars!
Try These Other Instant Ramen Recipes:
What About You?
Share your favorite ways to spice up instant ramen in the comments below! I love reading all the unique and creative ingredient combinations people come up with for their ramen!
We love eggs in our instant ramen, and scallions if we have them. We usually chop some scallions and add while soup and noodles are cooking. After noodles have cooked for 3 minutes, slowly stir in a lightly-beaten egg and boil just until done. Comes out like egg drop soup style, and adds flavor and protein. Yum!
If feeling decadent, serve with shredded cheese (usually cheddar or swiss) on top too.
What a lovely idea for Christmas. But, unfortunately I’m on sugar-free diet. I have found this website http://gowithoutsugar.com/
They have some great sugar free lunch ideas…I’ve tried that green bean salad and my kids loved it!
My family always keeps a few packets of Shin Ramyun in the pantry for lazy days…it’s a bit more expensive than Mr Noodles or the store brand, but the flavour difference is totally worth it to me. Plus I can usually get 2 servings out of one package. I usually add spinach, some sesame seeds and oil, and a scrambled egg (a la egg drop soup). My dad usually also adds rice and some dried seaweed. When I was living abroad (I’m from Canada but lived in Scotland for a semester), I was so happy to find Shin in the grocery stores there – it tasted like home!
Great tip, just found out that my usual grocery store carries ‘Nongshim Shin Ramyun Black’.
Great suggestions! I also like to add a couple of tablespoons of lime juice (or packets of trulime) to the water.
I’ve been on a ramen kick all week so this post was perfectly timed :)
How I cook mine:
Cook all the ramen noodles first (without the soup base) then drain the water and rinse with cold water. This gets all the unhealthy fried oilyness of the noodles out. Set aside.
Boil some water and add the soup packet. Here’s where you throw in all the other veggies etc. I like to add frozen dumplings into mine. Frozen peas and corn is good too. I can’t have my noodles without a poached egg.
Put your cooked noodles back into the soup, stir, add some chopped green onions and bon appetit :)
All of these additions sound fantastic! I also like it with chopped cilantro and a squeeze of lime if I have them. If not, I usually opt for frozen peas & an egg that I poach right in the broth at a minimum. If I’m feeling really fancy, I’ll throw in ginger, rice vinegar, soy sauce, sliced mushrooms, greens (pretty much any kind), sesame oil, and scallion too.
I’ll often throw in frozen peas to cook with the noodles. If I have more than three minutes, I’ll take out the peas and noodles, then poach an egg in the broth and pour it all over the noodles when it’s done. And definitely needs the sriracha!
I love Alton Brown’s ramen noodles with peanut sauce recipe:
4 cloves minced garlic
2 tablespoon fresh grated ginger
2 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon black Chinese vinegar or Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
1 tablespoon chili oil
1 tablespoon dark brown sugar
1/3 cup creamy peanut butter
1/4 cup chicken broth
1/4 cup chopped scallions
1/4 cup chopped peanuts
4 packages ramen noodles, minus seasoning packets
Step 1 In medium saucepan, bring to a boil 2 quarts salted water.
Step 2 In the meantime, in a food processor or blender, blend first 7 ingredients, then add peanut butter, blend in and while mixing, slowly drizzle in the chicken broth till smooth
Step 3 Boil noodles according to directions. Drain well.
Step 4 Toss in a serving bowl with the sauce and garnish with scallions and peanuts.
I love garlic, coconut milk, kurkuma, finely chopped nori, chili or some milk in my ramen. And of course ingwer.
My partner makes his ramen with an egg cracked in for protein, and a scoop of frozen mixed veggies (corn kernels, green beans, and carrots). It doesn’t add extra time or effort, but it seriously bulks the ramen up into something a bit more substantial. I’ll have to see about some of these new suggestions, though, just for variety.
Hi Beth,
I think you missed #4.
:)
Oh man, I’m a mess! The first time I hit publish, I actually had two #5’s, so that means it went 1,2,3,5,5. Wow. Ha! Thanks for catching that. :P
I make a poached egg in the same ramen water instead of a soft-boiled egg. I’ll also add nori, broccoli, scallions, sriracha, and a slice of cheddar cheese. Only a little of the ramen water is poured in the bowl, just enough to melt the cheese.
Before I really tried cooking, I liked making fancy Ramen. I even made Egg Drop(ish) Ramen. Now I will sometimes make it to use up tiny bits of things I have left over from other meals. Turnip goes oddly well with Ramen.
I drain most of the water from the ramen and use cheese slices or shredded cheese to make cheesy ramen. I sometimes use part of the flavor packet if I want more than just the cheese flavor! It’s like instant Mac and cheese!
I know it’s not an original ramen upgrade but I always use your dragon noodles recipe with ramen noodles. I make it like once a week for lunch. Mmmm.
I do too!
That’s a GREAT IDEA! Thanks for sharing!