Sarah’s ‘Everything but the kitchen sink’ vegan ramen

At last! Sarah from @bright_copper_kettles gave me her recipe a few weeks ago now and I’ve been dying to try it. So why the wait? Well…Sarah suggests Grape-Nuts as an optional ingredient. I haven’t had Grape-Nuts for over a decade so thought I’d give that option a go. Could I find them in my local supermarkets? No! I don’t know why they had sold out. I waited a week but still no joy so I carried on regardless. Sorry for the delay Sarah.b

If you check out her baking on Instagram, you’ll see that the ‘everything but the kitchen sink’ approach isn’t just for soup. What amazing cakes!

Sarah’s ‘Everything but the kitchen sink’ vegan ramen

Serves 2 (generous helpings)

Time 30 minutes

Difficulty Medium – it’s not difficult but you do have a few things on the go at the same time

Suitable for Vegan, Vegetarian and Gluten Free diets – just make sure you are careful with your choice of soy sauce, noodles etc.

As always, I’ve included Sarah’s recipe just as she gave it to me and added my own comments in brackets.

Ingredients

• 750ml vegetable stock cube and water (I used a Kallo very low salt organic vegetable cube, it’s gluten free, vegan and vegetarian friendly. You’re using soy sauce so I didn’t want to overdo the salt).
• 1 tbsp soy sauce (plus extra for roasting)
• 1 tbsp sweet chilli sauce
• 0.5 tsp Chilli powder (I used 1 level tsp as I wanted the extra heat)
• 0.5 tsp Ginger powder (I used 1 level tsp as I wanted the extra heat)
• 1 garlic glove or 0.5 tsp lazy garlic
• 20 sundried tomatoes
• 2 parsnips
• 1 carrot
• 1 aubergine
• 2 courgettes (I only had space for one as the pan was so full)
• ½ butternut squash
• 2 handfuls of spinach
• 2 spring onions
• 1 tbsp Golden syrup (I used Agave syrup as I hate golden syrup. I’m fussy, I know!)
• Optional: grapenuts cereal and chilli flakes. Can also add udon or rice noodles -preferably buckwheat)

Protein Source ideas

• Quorn BBQ chicken strips or plain vegan Quorn pieces.
• Pan fried seitan
• Pan fried tofu strips with desiccated coconut crumb (fry tofu in pan with a little oil and maple syrup and add desiccated coconut to coat)

Instructions (I’ve broken in down in stages)

Stage 1

1. Chop and cook the parsnips then puree along with half of the sun-dried tomatoes. (I had to add some water to the blender as it was too thick. When I make it again, I think I’ll add some of the made up stock when I blend).

Stage 2 (do the prep while the parsnips are cooking)

1. Finely slice the aubergine into finger sized pieces.
2. Chop butternut squash, rind removed, into small cubes.
3. Place butternut squash and aubergine on a baking tray and drizzle with some soy sauce and golden syrup. Place in oven at 220 Celsius until cooked and caramelized. Around 20mins.

Stage 3 (you can do this once stage 1 is complete and stage 2 is in the oven)

1. Add water to a large pan with the stock cube and all the spices, sweet chilli and soy sauce.
2. Add the pureed parsnips and whisk well. Taste and add seasoning/ more spices to suit
3. If using noodles, add them to the broth at this time to cook for time stated on packet.

Stage4

1. Spiralize or finely peel the carrot and courgettes into ribbons/ courgetti.
2. Cook your chosen protein source if it needs to be cooked.
3. Slice the remaining sun-dried tomatoes, spring onions. (I added most to the broth at this point but kept some aside for decor.
4. Add the vegetable ribbons to the boiling stock, cook for a few minutes then add the oven roasted vegetables and spinach.
5. Serve into deep bowls and top with the spring onions, your choice of protein, grapenuts – for some crunch – and a sprinkling of chilli flakes if you like It extra spicy.
6. Enjoy!

Sarah says, ‘This recipe is super easily adaptable to use up whatever you have left in your fridge or cupboard. The base doesn’t have to include pureerd parsnip and sundried tomatoes but I think it gives it more flavour and a bit more texture than traditional broth’.

I can’t recommend the parsnip and sun dried tomato base highly enough. Who knew puréed parsnip and tomato was so delicious! It definitely adds a greater depth of flavour and could easily act as a base for other flavour combinations too. Watch this space…

I do hope you enjoy this and try some ingredient combinations of your own – but don’t add your kitchen sink.

Val x