Shoyu ramen is super savory and comforting! The best dish to relax at the end of a day.
ABOUT SHOYU RAMEN (醤油ラーメン)
Shoyu ramen is a type of ramen with a soy sauce based broth. In fact, shoyu (醤油) means soy sauce in Japanese. It is one of the most popular types of ramen in Japan. The broth is rich with umami and definitely has a comforting taste. Shoyu ramen is my eldest sister’s favorite kind of ramen, so I often think of her when I eat this. Typically, the broth is made by boiling bones for a few hours, but I wanted to make a version that is both quick to prepare and easy to adjust to your taste! One of the beauties of ramen is that you can customize it to suit your taste. It can be as simple or complex as you like. With this recipe, you can quickly put together a delicious bowl of ramen with just a few pantry staples! I hope you give it a try!
COMPONENTS OF SHOYU RAMEN (醤油ラーメン)
- ☆ Broth: Typically shoyu ramen uses some type of bone broth, but that is often quite tedious to make at home. Instead, you can use equal parts chicken stock and dashi. I wanted to make this recipe vegetarian, so I only used konbu dashi. The broth is seasoned with soy sauce, mirin, and sesame oil. The good thing about making ramen at home is that you can adjust the sodium level for yourself. The ingredient amounts listed in this recipe aren’t set in stone, so feel free to adjust as needed.
- ☆ Noodles: The ramen noodles are a super important factor of this dish. It’s important to get noodles you know you will like. Whenever possible, I prefer to get fresh or frozen noodles over dried ones, but dried works as well. Additionally, there’s a hack where you boil spaghetti pasta with baking soda and the texture becomes chewy like ramen noodles. As long as the noodles are chewy, they will work.
- ☆ Toppings: As stated earlier, you can make your ramen as simple or complex as you like. One way to do so is by customizing your toppings. common toppings are marinated soft boiled eggs, green onion, uzumaki kamaboko, seasoned bamboo shoots, chashu, and nori. You can add, substitute, or leave out any toppings as you please. As mentioned before, I wanted to make this recipe vegetarian, so I made tofu that’s flavored like chashu to substitute the chashu and kamaboko (recipe instructions are also written below). Whatever you want to add is completely up to you! What’s important is that you get to enjoy the ramen how you like it.
INGREDIENTS (+ SUBSTITUTIONS)
This is a basic list and explanation of the key ingredients. For full list and measurements, please scroll down to the recipe below!
- ☆ Konbu dashi
- Typically, the soup base is made by boiling down bones for a long time. I wanted to make this recipe vegetarian, so I used konbu dashi stock instead. Konbu dashi is a savory kelp broth that is rich in umami. It’s a great way to add umami to a dish and keep it vegetarian. I used it as the base for the soup, but you can use hondashi powder or any other kind of stock you prefer.
- ☆ Shoyu
- Soy sauce is a must! it’s in the name of the dish. It adds saltiness and savoriness to the dish. If you can’t have soy, though, I’m sure you can use whatever soy sauce alternative you like to use! When I made this shoyu ramen, I only used 1 tablespoon because I didn’t want it too salty, but you can adjust the amount you add to make it a suitable saltiness for you.
- ☆ Mirin
- Mirin adds a slight sweetness to balance out the dish as well as some umami due to the fermentation process. If you can’t have alcohol, there are some halal mirin in markets, or you can omit it and add a pinch of sugar to make up for the sweetness.
- ☆ Sesame oil
- Sesame oil gives the soup a slightly nutty, roasted aroma and flavor. If you use chili oil for ramen for topping, then you can omit this when making the base.
- ☆ Ramen noodles
- The ramen noodles are the star of this dish. There are a variety of ramen you can buy, but I prefer to use refrigerated fresh ramen or frozen ramen. It’s quick to prepare and has the best texture in my opinion. However, you can use spaghetti and baking soda or dried ramen noodles as well. You can also make ramen noodles from scratch, but it’s quite tedious work.
TIPS FOR MAKING SHOYU RAMEN (醤油ラーメン)
- ☆ You can prepare the toppings beforehand and store in your fridge until you’re ready to prepare a bowl of ramen. This makes it convenient for you to be able to prepare a serving of ramen whenever you have the craving for if!
MORE SAVORY JAPANESE RECIPES! ♡
- ☆ Aji Fry
- ☆ Wakame Soup
- ☆ Spaghetti Napolitan
- ☆ Sushi Bento
- ☆ Onigiri
- ☆ Omurice
- ☆ New Year’s Noodles
If you recreate this Shoyu Ramen recipe, please let me know by tagging me or leaving a comment on Instagram @maruryouri or TikTok @atsuryouri. I’d love to see your creations and hear your feedback!
Shoyu Ramen
Shoyu ramen is super savory and comforting! The best dish to relax at the end of a day.
Ingredients
Chashu Tofu
- 1/4 c soy sauce
- 1/4 c water
- 2 clove garlic sliced
- 2 T sugar
- 1 package medium firm tofu
- potato starch
- neutral oil
Shoyu Ramen
- 400 ml water
- 4 g konbu dashi powder
- 1-2 T soy sauce
- 1 T mirin
- 1/2 t sesame oil
- 1 serving noodles 200g
- seasoned bamboo shoots (味付けメンマ), optional
- marinated soft boiled egg (味付け卵), optional
- nori optional
- green onion optional
Instructions
Chashu Tofu
- Cut tofu into 1cm thick slices and cut each slice to create a more square shape. Lay the pieces flat on a layer of paper towels, then lay another layer of paper towels on top. Allow the paper towels to absorb the excess liquid for about 30 minutes. Meanwhile, prepare the sauce.
- In a small saucepan, combine the water, soy sauce, sugar, and garlic slices. heat over medium low heat and let it come to a simmer until reduced. The sauce should be slightly thick, but keep in mind it will thicken more once cool. This should take about 10 minutes.
- After the tofu has drained a bit, lightly coat in potato starch and shallow fry in oil until crispy. Place the cooked tofu on a rack or paper towel to drain excess oil.
- Right before adding to the ramen, dip the fried tofu in the sauce from step 2 and use a torch to char the surface. This helps the tofu have the smoky taste of chashu, so I highly recommend it. If you don’t have a torch, you can use the flame of a gas stove, but be very careful! Once charred to your liking, they’re ready to add to the ramen.
Shoyu Ramen
- Prepare a pot of water to boil your noodles. While that pot of water comes to a boil, prepare the broth.
- Add the 400ml of water and konbu dashi to a saucepan and let come to a boil. add the soy sauce, mirin, and sesame oil to your bowl to create the base. Once the broth is boiling, remove from heat and pour into the bowl.
- Cook your noodles according to your package. If you use frozen noodles, this should only take a minute. Once cooked, drain the noodles completely and add to the bowl. You can use chopsticks to arrange the noodles so they aren’t too tangled up.
- Top with your desired toppings and the shoyu ramen is done! 完成です！