Ramen lovers! Listen UP! Today’s featured recipe involves loads of your fave noodle plus a few unsuspected ingredients – which total up to something really new and exciting. And a process you’ll adapt to a multitude of new quick, satisfying meals!
Not long ago, we gave you a super-simple, satisfying, breakfast-busting stir-fry idea: Tomatoes and Eggs. This fun dish expands on that idea in all directions and brings it into the Ramen Realm – without the need for a bowl.
From snack to main
This nifty bowl-free ramen technique adds noodles and cheese – and, potentially, whatever else you find appealing – in a one-pan stovetop dish that defies categorization.
What you need
All you need is a medium onion (diced small), a large red bell pepper, diced medium (1 cm / 5/5 in cubes),2 packets of plain, some tomato paste, dried Ramen Noodles, and a cup or so of grated cheese – your choice. Oh, yes… And, arguably, the most important part of the deal: 4 eggs.
What you do
Sauté the onions until they’re transparent. Add the peppers and and stir until they release their juices. Next, add the tomato paste, and a cup of hot water. Stir well. Then add two packets of nood-les, dry – right from the package – and let them absorb the liquid from the ‘sauce’.
When the noodles have softened, add the eggs. Which you have beaten vigorously with salt, pepper, and a good shake of sweet paprika. Make sure to mix up the seasonings and spice really well, dist-ributing them evenly throughout the eggs. Cover and let cook until the eggs are firm through.
While the eggs are firming up, grate the cheese. I recommend you use a cup and half, rather than just a cup. But that’s just me, coming as I do from a long line of cheese makers broken only when my Dad joined the town waterworks instead, in 1946, fresh out of the army…
Sprinkle the cheese evenly across the top of the eggs and cover for another few minutes until the cheese has melted. This additional cooking time also ensures that the eggs are properly cooked. But because the cheese seals the top, they don’t dry out!
Tips and hacks…
You could substitute any colour of bell pepper for red. Or any fleshy, flavourful veggie you like. Or even a selection of veggies! Let your imagination run wild!
And don’t overlook the potential for adding any protein that turns your crank – and complements your basic flavour theme…
The tomato paste could be swapped out in favour of Soy, or Hoisin or Oyster Sauce. Or any of the multitude of Southeast Asian curries. Or some other flavour altogether. You could even explore other continents using whatever sauces/flavours they feature.
The ramen, water and eggs are the central theme, here. The Cheese and veggies are a close second – not just incidental characters, but bosom sidekicks to the lead players.
The video shows the cook breaking up the noodles. I prefer to leave them whole and just tease them with chopsticks out of their dried nests as they soften. That, of course, may be because I always eat Ramen with chopsticks. But in this case, with the eggs binding the dish together, a fork or spoon may make more sense to you…
This recipe, as shown in the video, serves 4. You can scale it up or down as you need to, without fear of any damage to the final result.
My take
This fast, easy Ramen dish is now my undisputed fave in that crinkly, slippery universe. And I’ll be eating it at least twice a week (for a while, anyway), either for an ingredient-streamlined lunch, or a good-stuffed supper!
~ Maggie J.