Blender Ramen 🍜🔥

There’s a reason why instant ramen is a thing. It’s because we all want the deep, rich flavor of ramen without having to toil over a pot of broth for hours and hours to develop the flavors that make it so good. With this recipe, you can make ramen broth from scratch AND be done in less than 10 minutes! The resulting broth is creamy, savory, nutty, spicy, and so ridiculously tasty, as if you’d been working for hours to bring it together. This far exceeded my expectations, and now I get to share it with y’all. Let’s get into it:

FULL RECIPE

ramen ingredients

1/2 cup grapeseed oil

4 cloves grated garlic

1 tbsp grated ginger

2 scallions, whites and greens separated and thinly sliced

2 heaping tablespoons red miso paste

4 dried oyster mushrooms

1/2 teaspoon chili flakes

1 teaspoon coconut sugar

1/4 cup soy sauce

2 tbsp vegetable bouillon base

2 heaping tbsp peanut butter

5 cups boiling hot water (from either a water kettle or boiled in a pot on the stove)

cooked ramen noodles of your choosing (make sure to cook in advance, then strain out, rinse with cold water, and set aside)

toppings: peeled carrot, blanched bok choy, chili oil, sesame seeds

ramen preparation

heat the 1/2 cup grapeseed oil in a medium sauce pot over medium heat. while that warms, add your grated garlic and ginger, scallions, chili flakes, red miso paste, oyster mushrooms, and coconut sugar to a heat-proof mixing bowl. once the grapeseed oil starts to smoke slightly and appears shimmery in the pot, pour it over all the flavor base ingredients in the mixing bowl. allow to cool 15 seconds, then begin whisking everything together into a thick, liquid paste.

you can bring the 5 cups water to a boil by either heating in a water kettle or boiling over the stove in a sauce pot. go ahead and get that going. in the meantime, add the flavor base to your high-powered blender along with the vegetable bouillon and peanut butter. once your hot water is ready, pour into the blender and immediately blend, starting on low and slowly cranking up to high speed, until you get a creamy white broth, about 2-3 minutes.

pour the broth over your noodles alongside all the fixings above (or toppings of your choosing)

sticky glazed tofu ingredients

1 block extra firm tofu, drained, dried, and pressed.

salt, pepper, and oil, as specified in the preparation instructions

1/4 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup maple syrup

1 tablespoon sriracha

1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar

tofu preparation

for the tofu, halve your tofu block lengthwise to create two slabs, then cut each slab into thirds and score across the top of each piece. I do a cross scoring (diagonally both ways) as it creates more surface area. add a few teaspoons olive oil on top of each piece scored side up, then season with salt and pepper to your liking. make sure the surface is evenly coated with salt and pepper.

at this point, go ahead and whisk together the soy sauce, maple syrup, sriracha, and rice vinegar in a small bowl and set aside.

heat a nonstick or cast iron pan over medium heat and allow to warm 2 minutes at least. add about 2 tablespoons olive oil and then lay your tofu pieces scored side down in the pan. allow to sear on medium heat for at least 6 to 8 minutes. flip each piece over and continue to searing another 4 minutes. flip each piece on it’s sides to lock in a sear on all surfaces.

once fully seared, pour in the glaze mixture slowly so that it does not splash up like crazy. try to pour over all the tofu pieces. once in, allow it to reduce about 1 to 2 minutes, then begin flipping each piece and shaking the pan as the glaze thickens and reduces. this part should only take another 3 to 4 minutes, but may be shorter or longer in duration. basically, pay attention to the glaze as it thickens and move the tofu around in the pan to evenly coat all sides. you can remove the pan from the heat at times if the glaze is thickening or darkening too quickly.