Original Recipe:
To say that I was raised on instant ramen would be an understatement. Being the self-proclaimed cup noodle connaisseur that I am, I had never been more excited to come across a recipe for soy sauce ramen on my TikTok feed.
Would it live up to the late night meals that defined my early childhood? I sure hoped so.
Here is an overview of the ingredients and instructions I followed as well as a link to the original recipe. I recommend giving the video a watch to scope out how much of each ingredient to use, as the majority of the measurements are unspecified.
- 1 pack of instant ramen noodles*
- Sesame oil
- Butter
- 2 cloves garlic
- Soy sauce
- Crushed red pepper flakes
- 5g (1¼ tsp) brown sugar
- 1-2 eggs
- Spring onion**
- Bagel seasoning**
*Any Asian noodles would suffice.
**Optional, but recommended.
- Boil the noodles according to package instructions. Drain and set aside.
- Add butter and sesame oil into pan on low-medium heat, then add garlic.
- Stir in soy sauce.
- Add pepper flakes and brown sugar. Mix.
- Transfer drained noodles into pan and coat with sauce.
- Push noodles to one side of pan and crack egg into other side, slowly stirring as egg cooks. Mix cooked eggs into noodles.
- Garnish with spring onion and top with bagel seasoning.
Video by Emma Lucas
To arrive at the final verdict, I will be assessing the recipe based on three different aspects: accessibility, difficulty and taste.
Living in an Asian household, all the ingredients were right in my pantry. However, if you find that you are missing a few ingredients, no worries.
If you don’t have sesame oil, using butter is just fine. That being said, you may miss out on this dish’s full potential, as the nuttiness of the sesame is what brought it to the next level. If you don’t have a packet of instant noodles, you can use any other type of noodles or even rice.
If you’re looking for a vegan recipe, it can be easily modified by omitting the butter and the eggs – both of which will not drastically alter the taste.
I made this dish in one saucepan, including the one I used to boil the ramen. Not only was it easier to make, but it also made clean-up far less tedious.
The dish’s overall flexibility in ingredients and appliances would have to rank it among the most accessible dishes I have tried thus far.
This dish was almost effortless to execute. Essentially, all the recipe consisted of was dumping things into a pan and then praying it would all miraculously come together.
Essentially, all the recipe consisted of was dumping things into a pan and then praying it would all miraculously come together.
The final product took less than 10 minutes, which I would’ve never guessed from the photo – a big improvement from last week’s visual. My tip for maximum speed is to have all the ingredients lined up beforehand to make it easier when cooking.
After last week’s flop, this ramen was held to even higher expectations. I winced as I took the first bite, expecting a pungent kick in the throat. But instead, I was met with Gordon Ramsey himself, which, for some, is still considered a pungent kick in the throat.
Hints of sweetness from the brown sugar cut through the umami flavours of soy sauce and sesame oil, all of which were beautifully complimented by the freshness of the spring onions. I absolutely refuse to believe this came from a packet of instant ramen noodles – a glow-up if I’ve ever seen one.
Next time, I may experiment with using a tiny bit of soy sauce, or I even might try using a low-sodium version, as it was on the saltier side.
The next time 10 p.m. rolls around and you find yourself with an empty stomach, you know what to do.
If it wasn’t obvious enough…
Final verdict: Feast.
