This post may include affiliate links; see our disclosure policy.
This quick and easy vegetarian ramen recipe is fun to make and oh so flavorful! Packed with umami, this noodle bowl makes a satisfying, slurpable meal.
How many ramen lovers do we have out there? Ramen is a de facto food trend. Being landlocked here in the Midwest, it takes a little more time for food trends to filter their way over. But Indianapolis’s food scene is growing (so says Bon Appetit) and with it, we can now get real ramen here in Indy! “Real” ramen being fresh noodle ramen with complex savory broth, not the 50-cent flavor-packet variety. This easy vegetarian ramen recipe is inspired by Alex and my trip to eat ramen at a local restaurant: and man is it good! While it can be difficult to harness savory meaty flavors in a meatless ramen broth, this vegetarian ramen delivers.
The inspiration behind this vegetarian ramen
How do Alex and I get inspiration for our recipes? One of our favorites is to go out to restaurants and taste new flavor combinations. We love travelling the globe to find inspiration, but often we find inspiration at restaurants here in Indianapolis. Mediterranean and Mexican cuisines are our comfort zone for creating recipes. But after grabbing ramen at a local restaurant (Rook) this weekend, we were inspired to up our ramen game.
Our restaurant ramen experience was fantastic. The savory broth was full of umami (that fifth savory sense), the curly noodles were fresh and chewy, and it was topped with a creamy poached egg. And if you’re me and Alex, it was all doused in spicy sriracha. Yes, to us it was the ultimate comfort food in a bowl. The ramen we had there had meat in it, but we decided it was time. We needed a good vegetarian ramen recipe to make at home.
How to make vegetarian ramen
Now, the big challenge making a vegetarian ramen is that ramen broth is intensely savory. How do you get big flavor using no meat? When Alex and I went to recreate our restaurant ramen it to our kitchen, we couldn’t quite create the savory broth flavor we were looking for. (But not for lack of trying.) We went through various iterations before we settled on a new theme. Instead of dark, meaty and savory, let’s got for light and fresh vegetarian ramen!
This vegetarian ramen is quick, easy and fresh, made with vegetable broth and aromatics like ginger and garlic. It’s heavy on the vegetables: greens, shiitake mushrooms, peppers, green onion, radishes. And to top it off, we were able to find fresh ramen noodles from our local Asian grocery.
Here are the basic steps for how to make vegetarian ramen (scroll down for the full recipe):
- Find fresh ramen noodles: not the 50 cent pack kind! Many grocery stores now have fresh ramen noodles; you can also check at Asian or international groceries.
- Soft boil the eggs. See the instructions below.
- Make the broth. Saute minced garlic and ginger, then add veggie broth, soy sauce and mirin. Then add the mushrooms, greens, peppers, and green onions to cook in the broth.
- Cook the noodles. Cook the ramen noodles in a separate pot by boiling them for 2 to 3 minutes.
- Garnish and serve. Add the noodles, veggies and broth to a bowl. Top with soft boiled egg, sliced radishes, and chili sauce.
And that’s it! Let us know if you try our vegetarian ramen recipe in the comments below. And if you’re looking for a vegan ramen recipe…keep reading!
Make it a vegan ramen recipe
If you’re looking for a vegan ramen recipe, might we recommend our tofu ramen? This one is full of savory veggies and protein packed tofu. Adding tofu is essential for a vegan ramen to make it filling enough. Or, you can use this recipe with a few modifications. Here’s what we’d recommend:
- Omit the soft-boiled egg.
- Add cubed tofu in the last 5 minutes of the simmer time. You’ll likely need more seasoning for the tofu, so season with salt until the flavor pops or add a splash of soy sauce.
- Some ramen noodles also contain eggs, so check the ingredients in your noodles to ensure they are vegan or replace with rice noodles.
Looking for vegetarian dinner recipes?
Outside of this easy vegetarian ramen recipe, here are a few vegetarian dinner recipes:
- Quick Dinner Idea: 5 Minute Tacos
- Tomato Coconut Cauliflower Curry
- Mexican Sweet Potatoes
- Moroccan Spiced Cauliflower Soup
- Classic Vegetarian Chili
- Best Veggie Burger Recipe
- Easy Calzone Recipe
- All our Healthy Dinner Recipes!
Easy Vegetarian Ramen
This quick and easy vegetarian ramen recipe is fun to make and oh so flavorful! Packed with umami, this noodle bowl makes a satisfying, slurpable meal.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 35 minutes
- Yield: 4 1x
- Category: Main Dish
- Method: Boiled
- Cuisine: Japanese
Ingredients
- 4 eggs
- 4 garlic cloves
- 1-inch nub ginger root (1 tablespoon minced ginger)
- 1 tablespoon sesame oil
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 quart vegetable broth
- 3 tablespoons reduced sodium soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon mirin
- 8 ounces shiitake mushrooms
- 4 cups young baby greens (we used a mix of young Asian greens and tatsoi)
- 3 sweet peppers (optional)
- 3 green onions
- 16 ounces ramen noodles (fresh if possible)*
- 4 radishes, for garnish
- Purchased garlic chili sauce, for garnish
Instructions
- Soft boil the eggs: Fill a medium pot of water and bring it to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Gently lower the eggs into the water with a spoon and simmer for 7 minutes. Meanwhile, prepare a bowl of ice water. When the eggs are done, place them in the ice bath and let them cool completely, then gently peel.
- Meanwhile, thinly slice the garlic. Peel and mince the ginger.
- In another large pot or Dutch oven, heat the sesame oil and olive oil over medium high heat. Add the garlic and ginger and saute for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Add the vegetable broth and bring to a simmer. Add the soy sauce and mirin.
- Remove the stems from the shiitake mushrooms and thinly slice them. If necessary, wash the greens. Thinly slice the peppers and slice the green onions (cut the green onions on the bias). Thinly slice the radishes for a garnish, and set aside. Place the mushrooms in the broth and cook 5 minutes. Add peppers, green onion and greens and cook for 1 minute. Taste the broth and season with salt until the flavor pops, adding a splash of soy sauce if needed.
- In the pot used for the eggs, bring fresh water to a boil and boil the ramen noodles until just tender, around 2 to 3 minutes, then drain.
- To serve, place noodles in a bowl and top with broth, vegetables, and soft-boiled eggs. Garnish with radishes and garlic chili sauce.
Notes
*We found our fresh ramen in the frozen section in our local Asian grocery. If you can’t find fresh ramen, you can use packaged ramen without the flavor packet. For a vegan ramen, omit egg and ensure pasta does not contain egg.
You say to use sweet peppers – which peppers do you suggest?
We like red or yellow bell peppers.
Sooo good. This was more of a base inspiration as I had to alter the recipe a little though as my green onions went brown.. oh winter in the north !! So I had some cilantro so used that instead. I also have issues with soy.. so I went very light on the soy sauce and used lemon ( think lime would have been better?) to pop it out. I also used my own veg broth.
It was cold and drizzly today hovering around freezing point so it really hit the spot. Thank you!!
I made this last night – my first time making homemade ramen – and aside from utterly failing the soft-boiled eggs multiple times (which is not a fault of your recipe, but of my ineptitude with boiling eggs), this was FABULOUS. I’ve been a vegetarian for years but my husband is a carnivore. He is also the chef in the house. He could not stop raving about how much he loved this dish. It’s going to be a staple in our house from now on. Thank you so much.
We love to hear this! Thank you for making it :)
So yummy. I’ve made this twice and my family loves it. It’s quick and easy. Definitely a keeper recipe. Thank you.
I’m so glad you enjoyed! :)