While ramen noodles originated in China, ramen as a dish was adopted by Japan and became an iconic Japanese dish. It is pronounced ‘rah-men’ and the style and presentation of ramen is like a Chinese noodle soup. Ramen is the ultimate comfort food. There are 4 traditional flavours ranging from miso, sho-yu which means soy sauce, shio which means salt and they are all chicken-based broth as opposed to tonkotsu which is a pork-based broth. Typically egg noodles are used for making a Ramen.

I have created a Vegetarian Ramen recipe that will teach you Japanese cooking techniques including marinating eggs, cooking broth from scratch and the perfect ramen presentation. This dish is a great example of umami, a Japanese word meaning depth of flavour. The ramen broth is slow cooked with a selection of vegetables, konbu seaweed and dried shiitake mushrooms to create the umami. ‘Ajitsuke Tamago’ is the Japanese term for marinated egg, it literally translates to egg coated in flavour. A soy marinated egg with a slightly gelatinous centre sits just above the broth to bring colour and texture to the dish.

Ramen is served in a donburi bowl which is a deep Japanese bowl perfect for filling with steaming broth and noodles. When plating a ramen, the centre should always be the highest point, so I usually create a small pile with the noodles and then layer the toppings in a fan shape around the edge of the bowl. It has been frowned upon to slurp noodles in the west, but it is a common way to enjoy hot soup noodles in Japan.