Umami Packed Gluten-Free Faux Ramen Soup

A gluten-free & vegan ramen that is rich in flavours? It is definitely possible, and super easy to make at home!

While I was an exchange student in Korea, I ate my way through Seoul. One of my favorite dishes was a hot packed ramen, which he has been on the hunt ever since.

While several restaurants in my city, Budapest offer a great bowl of ramen, most of them are not vegan-friendly and honestly, I never came across a gluten-free version.

So I wanted to try my hand at this somewhat complicated, soul-warming soup.

Spoiler alert? It turned out to be not that complicated at all!

Why I call this dish fake ramen? Because ramen noodles are naturally not gluten-free and honestly, I never came across GF ramen noodles in real life (yet), though I know you can order them online, but I just never get there.

Feel free to replace it with GF ramen noodles, if you aren’t intolerant or allergic. As for the rest of us, glass noodles it is.

The secret of this recipe is the broth.

Ramen broth can be made many different ways, but to keep mine vegan-friendly I went with vegetable broth infused with ginger, onion, garlic and dried shiitake mushrooms (which you can find at most  Asian stores).

To add that “umami” flavor, I also added a bit of gluten free soy sauce.

• 1 L veggie broth
• 3 cloves of garlic, minced
• 4 tbs GF soy sauce
• thumb size knob of ginger, peeled and sliced
• 2 small chilies, sliced
• 1 ts brown sugar
• 200 g firm smoked tofu
• 200 g glass noodles
• 100 g kimchi
• 2 green onion
• 2 pieces of dried shitakee mushrooms
• 2 ts sesame seed oil
• 100 g baby spinach
• 1 ts sesame seed

1. In a large bowl mix together the veggie brothm garlic, ginger, soy sauce, 1 ts of sesame oil, chili, sliced green onions, mushrooms and sugar.
2. Let the soup base boil, then take back the heat to minimum and let it cook until you get a thick base.
3. In a pan heat up the remaining sesame oil and cut the tofu cube in half, so you get two even slices. Fry them in the pan on both sides until they become crispy and golden. Once done, slice them up.
4. You can prepare the noodles separately but I like to simply place it in the broth so it cooks with the flavors. Once the noodles are ready, transfer them to bowls along with the baby spinach, kimchi, tofu, and as many soup as you like.
5. Toss sesame seed on top.

You can use additional veggies, too such as baby cor, bok choi, or add miso paste to the soup base. For vegetarian version, you can add a a 7 minute egg as well.