This vegan ramen will be the most delicious bowl of ramen you’ve ever tasted. A vegan version of tantanmen ramen, this soup features a creamy and spicy sesame broth, fresh bok choy, crispy fried tofu and frizzled scallions. Not only that, it’s quick and easy to make!
So a new all-vegan ramen joint opened up in my town last month and of course I had to try it immediately! We don’t have many options for ramen here, much less for vegan ramen.
Unfortunately, it would seem that ramen has not yet caught on in Barcelona as we were the only diners in the whole place on a Saturday night!
They served just three options: miso ramen, white sesame and black sesame ramen. It was amazingly good and I’d never had that kind of ramen in a creamy broth before.
A little investigating online taught me that they were simply doing a vegan version of tantanmen ramen, which is usually not vegan thanks to chicken stock and pork.
So I decided to make my own vegan ramen at home by adapting a tantanmen ramen recipe and it turned out to be super simple to make! The soup base is simply sesame paste (I used tahini), soy sauce, rice vinegar and chili oil.
To make it vegan I substituted the pork with crumbled tofu and the chicken stock for vegetable stock. Then topped it with some boiled bok choy, crispy fried green onion bottoms and thinly sliced green onion tops.
As for the ramen noodles, I used my recipe for homemade ramen noodles. I always make my ramen noodles from scratch because I’m aghast by the long list of chemicals in the packaged ramen and I can’t find fresh ramen noodles anywhere in my city (even the restaurant we went to used packaged ramen in their dishes!).
Ramen noodles are relatively easy to make from scratch when you have a pasta maker to do the hard work of rolling and cutting the dough. Don’t worry if you don’t want to make your own noodles though, you can use any packaged ramen noodle you want to make this vegan ramen recipe!
To put together this beautiful bowl of vegan ramen soup it’s as easy as frying up the tofu until crisp then seasoning it with soy sauce, miso paste and sake. Then frizzle the white parts of the green onion in some oil until golden brown and sweet.
In a pot boil the chopped bok choy until tender, and then use the same pot to cook your ramen noodles. In a bowl combine the ingredients for the soup base and stir in the hot vegetable stock. Pile in your noodles and top with the bok choy, frizzled onions, seasoned tofu, green onion tops and a few drops more of chili oil if you like it spicy.
This super easy vegan ramen soup is ready in less than 30 minutes and is the thing that all ramen dreams are made of!
This vegan ramen features a creamy and spicy sesame broth, fresh bok choy, crispy fried tofu and frizzled scallions. Delicious, quick and easy to make!
10 minPrep Time
20 minCook Time
30 minTotal Time
Save Recipe- 500 ml (2 cups) vegetable stock
- 100 grams (3.5 oz) extra-firm tofu
- 2 – 3 tablespoons neutral oil
- 2 teaspoons grated garlic
- 2 teaspoons grated ginger
- 1 teaspoon dark miso paste
- 3 tablespoons soy sauce, divided
- 2 teaspoons sake
- 1 green onion, white and light green parts sliced into very thin matchsticks for frying and dark green parts thinly sliced for garnish
- 4 – 6 leaves of bok choy, cut into bite-sized pieces
- 3 tablespoons tahini
- 2 teaspoons rice vinegar
- 1 tablespoon chili oil, plus more for garnish
- 2 servings of ramen noodles (packaged or fresh)
- Put the vegetable stock in a pot and leave it over low heat to warm up while you prepare the rest of the soup ingredients.
- Mash the tofu with a fork until it’s crumbled. Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a small pan over medium-high heat. Add the tofu and fry, stirring occasionally, until crispy and golden brown.
- Meanwhile, in a small bowl combine the miso paste with 1 tablespoon of the soy sauce and stir well to dissolve.
- Reduce the heat to medium, push the tofu to one side of the pan and add the garlic and ginger. Fry, stirring, until fragrant and cooked through then stir the tofu back in. Add the soy sauce-miso paste mixture and the sake. Allow the liquid to boil off and fry the tofu for a couple minutes more to allow it to crisp up again. Remove to a plate.
- Add 1 – 2 tablespoons more of oil to the pan (depends how big your pan is, you want a layer of oil deep enough to cover the matchstick green onions) and allow to heat up. Add the sliced white parts of the green onions and allow to gently fry for 5 – 10 minutes until they are golden brown. Remove to a paper towel-lined plate.
- Meanwhile, bring a pot of water to the boil.
- In a bowl combine the tahini, 2 tablespoons of soy sauce, rice vinegar and chili oil. Mix well.
- Cook the bok choy in the boiling water until the stems are tender. Remove to a plate. Now add the ramen noodles to the pot and cook according to the package directions (for fresh noodles they just need 30 – 60 seconds).
- Divide the tahini mixture between two bowls and ladle over the hot stock while stirring well to combine. Add the noodles and top with the bok choy, tofu, fried green onions and fresh green onions. Serve with additional chili oil for drizzling over top.
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11 Comments
Hannah
November 29, 2017 at 5:23 pm Mmmm, the way you cook the tofu sound so delicious. I can't wait to try this!diana patchett
December 25, 2017 at 12:25 am Trying tonight :) it looks so good ! Thanks For sharingSarah Houglum’
January 11, 2018 at 2:37 am I doubled the broth and it doesn’t have a lot of taste. What do you suggest?Lynn
January 13, 2018 at 11:38 am No worries. It very tasty. Very nice.Lisa
January 13, 2018 at 7:35 pm I went to Japan last year and have been craving the ramen from t's tan tan ever since. I just found this recipe yesterday and immediately bought all the ingredients so I could try this. and oooooh my god, it's SO good! thank you so much for sharing, I will definitely make this all the time now that I know how to make that perfect creamy broth! my whole family loved it and we can't wait to eat it again! I added some ground black sesame cause that was my favorite dish at t's tan tan!Melissa
January 17, 2018 at 12:49 pm So glad you enjoyed it!Serenity
January 21, 2018 at 1:55 am Thank you for this recipe. I live in Bcn as well and I'm also a vegetarian loving ramen..will try to make my own after seeing your post :)Grace
April 27, 2018 at 12:22 am Where is the sesame part in the title coming from? I don't see any listed in the ingredients. You list neutral oil, and I'm not really sure what that means. Should this be sesame oil? Looking forward to making this, but I just wanted to clarify. There is a delightful spicy sesame taste to the vegan ramen I get down the street, but for $20 a bowl after tip, I was hoping to find a recipe that had a similar taste. ;)Melissa
May 2, 2018 at 3:25 pm Tahini is made from sesame seeds. A neutral oil is one without a strong flavour, like canola, sunflower or vegetable oil (not olive oil).Raul
May 17, 2018 at 4:43 am This is hands down the best vegan ramen I've ever had. Thanks!Leah
June 5, 2018 at 1:08 pm Made this last night, it was so good! I couldn't get the tofu to crisp up, but was still very tasty. Next time I'll put it through a tofu press, it was the first time I wasn't trying to keep tofu from breaking up, haha!