Vegan Mondays: Ramen

Last weekend, my husband, Charles, came to me and asked if we could start having less meat-centered meals during our weeks.  Sparked by an article he read about human evolution and diet, he concluded that perhaps we should be consuming less animal products.  Combine that with the environmental aspect and cruelty of the meat industry, and we now have our reasons for Vegan Mondays.  (By the way, I was always for this, but you know how dudes can be about their meat.)  This may expand to a few more days of the week later on, but right now, we're trying it out once a week.

If this ramen is any sign of what's to come, we're going to be having many, many more meatless meals.

Forget the ramen you had in high school and college that was ten cents a package and came with a little packet of MSG seasoning.

This is the real stuff. It's man-approved.  I was even asked to make this for the in-laws about five minutes into eating.  And we couldn't believe that it's animal-byproduct-free!

This is a bit of work for a meal, but I think it's so worth it.  It'd also be a GREAT idea to double the broth recipe and have a ramen party where people bring their own little topping.

The original recipe also used smoked shiitake mushrooms and features guidelines for David Chang's Momofuku ramen broth, so if you're interested in that, you'll find it here.

Ingredients:

Shiitake Mushroom Broth

3 quarts (12 cups, or almost 3 liters) of water
3 oz. dried shiitake mushrooms, enough to result in 1 cup of ground mushrooms (these come in tiny bags at my supermarket that are very expensive--I used 3 .5-oz bags and it was enough, so YMMV)
1 sheet Kombu seaweed, rinsed (I could not find this at the supermarket, so I used 3-4 sheets of toasted seaweed sushi wrappers...I have no idea if that was really different)
5 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 bunch of green onions, chopped
8 whole peppercorns
3 whole cloves
1/4 cup mirin
1/3 cup soy sauce (or more, to taste)
2 carrots, 2 celery stalks, and 1 medium onion, tossed in olive oil and roasted at 425 degrees F until lightly browned (if you have the time)

Toppings
Tofu, cube
Chopped green onion
Bamboo shoots
Roasted cauliflower
Roasted butternut squash
Lightly steamed bok choy (or other sturdy greens)
Bean sprouts
Enoki mushrooms
Roasted/smoked/sauteed shiitake mushrooms
Soy sauce (to top)

Noodles (udon, if you're not eating GF, but for GF people, I suggest soba or shirataki noodles)

Instructions:

Powder up your dried mushrooms in a food processor.

Shiitake!

The dried portobella mushrooms powdered up easier.  (They didn't have enough shiitake bags at the store.)

 Place all broth ingredient in a large stockpot.  Bring to a boil.  Simmer for 30 minutes.  Remove seaweed pieces, then simmer 30 minutes more until reduced by half.

Strain the mixture with cheesecloth, return to the pot, and keep warm.  Once it's time to eat, bring the broth back to a full boil.

Prepare your toppings and noodles.  We tried these low-carb, low-calorie shirataki noodles for the first time.  If you can ignore the smell when they first come out of the bag, they're fantastic!

Serve by placing noodles in a bowl, and toppings in their own bowls around the table so people can add them as they wish.  Pour the broth over everything, once assembled.  (You may need to reheat your bowl if your toppings are cold when you add the broth.)

The set-up!   Note the ubiquitous Sriracha.

Bowl of deliciousness, and a Japanese cucumber salad on the side.

This is an incredible meal, and it gets a 10 on the healthiness scale.  Dig in!