Shoyu ramen is a popular Japanese noodle soup. It consists of chewy soft ramen noodles served in a clear soy sauce and chicken based broth. This hearty bowl of ramen is quick and very easy to make at home so you can ditch the cheap and unhealthy instant ramen cups and enjoy a bowl of fresh homemade ramen instead.
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Why you will love this Shoyu Ramen
This ramen noodle bowl is filled with texture, nutrition, and the best comfort food of all – noodles. This dish is bursting with the ever-popular umami flavor that comes from the soy sauce and chicken dashi broth. Toppings are totally up to you so feel free to use what you have on hand; no need to go out and get extra ingredients! This ramen is also a quick and easy way to fix a lunch that will nourish you and keep your belly and soul full.
What is Shoyu Ramen?
When you think of ramen we might all have a different interpretation. Some may think of a styrofoam cup of cheap noodles while others may think of a hearty bowl of soup filled with hand-pulled noodles and tasty toppings. This ramen is the latter. It’s that flavourful, umami rich, nutritious noodle soup that warms your whole body. There are several types of ramen in Japan, with a few of the most common being miso ramen, tonkotsu ramen (made from pork bones broth), and this shoyu ramen.
In Japanese, shoyu means soy sauce. So this shoyu ramen is a recipe made from a soy sauce base broth. Along with the soy sauce, the broth has chicken stock garlic, and ginger to deliver a flavour packed soup.
In order to elevate this recipe and make it nutritious, I’ll show you all the different vegetables and types of meat that you can add to it, and some tips that will make it taste even more robust with the most aromatic broth you ever experienced!
Ingredients Needed To Make Shoyu Ramen
For this recipe, I used authentic Japanese ingredients in the ramen. Here is a bit more information about what I used so you can do the same.
Ramen Noodles
Feel free to use any kind of ramen noodles that you have access to. However, using fresh noodles will make this dish that little bit better. And if you really want to make it incredible, then make your own ramen noodles from scratch!
Broth
This broth is one of the easiest you’ll ever make. All you need is Japanese chicken stock, soy sauce, garlic, ginger, and green onion. Japanese chicken stock is called torigara soup. It is a dried powder made from chicken carcass broth. If you can’t find this, use chicken stock powder from the supermarket but the flavour will be a bit different. Add a little drizzle of sesame oil for a subtle nutty flavour. To make this vegetarian-friendly you can replace the chicken broth with a kombu (kelp) based dashi broth. Substitute the 2.5 cups of water in this recipe for 2.5 cups of kombu dashi. You can also use a dashi mixture of kombu and katsuobushi (bonito flakes) and for a less sodium version, use a salt reduced soy sauce.
Ramen Toppings
Popular and typical ramen toppings are:
- Chashu sliced pork belly.
- Soft boiled ramen egg (or miso egg).
- Naruto (pinwheel fish cake)
- Menma (bamboo shoots)
- Corn
- Bean sprouts
- Sliced scallions
Of course, you can be creative and use whatever you like or have in your fridge and pantry. All toppings need to be thinly sliced and ready before you start to cook the noodles!
Chashu
Chashu is also known as Ramen pork, Cha siu, or Chinese BBQ pork. It is made from pork belly that has been marinated and simmered. You can buy ready-made Chashu or if you would like to make your own, follow my popular recipe here.
Seaweed and Bean Sprouts
People usually add these two things at the very end, right before they eat it. You can find nori online or in asian supermarkets and it’s always best to buy fresh bean sprouts.
Soft-Boiled Egg
You can make a soft-boiled egg or seasoned ramen egg called “Ajitsuke Tamago.” My ramen egg recipes uses a delicious tare marinade made from miso and soy sauce.
Menma
Menma is a Japanese condiment that is made from lacto-fermented bamboo shoots also known as “Shinachiku.” You can buy these bamboo shoots in a jar from Japanese grocery stores. If you cannot access this ingredient, you can replace this with young corn or something else.
Naruto (Pinwheel Fish Cake)
These are fish cakes that are usually sold frozen. The best place to find them is at your local Asian or Japanese marketplace.
How to Make Shoyu Ramen at Home
- Make the soup.
- Cook the noodles.
- Drain the noodles and add it to the soup in a ramen bowl.
- Place toppings and garnishes.
Tips for Making The Best Shoyu Ramen Soup
Even though this is a super-easy recipe, here are some tips that will make sure that your soup comes out perfectly every single time.
Serve It Fresh
Ramen is definitely not a food that you can make ahead and eat the next day. When you cook noodles al dente, it needs to be served and eaten immediately, otherwise the noodles soak up the soup, which changes the texture of the noodles and makes them stretch.
Watch How Long You Cook the Noodles
For the above reason, although this recipe is easy, the timing of making the soup and cooking noodles is critical. You need to have the soup prepared and ready in the bowl before the noodles have finished cooking.
FAQ
A: No, the soup broth is made from chicken and adding pork belly as a topping is optional.
A: No, it contains chicken; however, it can be made vegan. Replace the chicken stock broth with a kelp based dashi broth (refer to the “Broth” section for more information).
Ramen Recipes To Try
If you love this shoyu ramen recipe, try some of these other recipes as well:
Stay Connected
If you liked my recipe for Shoyu Ramen, please rate it and leave a comment below. Also, don’t forget to follow me on Youtube, Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to keep up to date with all the latest happenings on Chopstick Chronicles. Don’t forget to use the hashtag #ChopstickChronicles so I can see your wonderful creations!
Shoyu Ramen 醤油ラーメン
Ingredients
Ramen Soup
- 2½ cups water
- 3 tsp torigara soup
- 1 clove garlic crushed
- 3 slices ginger
- 2 inch scallions
- 4 tsp soy sauce
Noodles & Toppings
- 2 potions ramen noodles
- 4 cups water for cooking noodles
- 2 soft boiled egg * suggestions only
- 4-5 Menma bamboo shoots *suggestions only
- 10 g or one handful of bean sprouts *suggestions only
- 1 tsp Sliced scallions
- 2 nori sheets *suggestions only
Instructions
- Boil 2½ cups of water with torigara soup powder, crushed garlic, ginger slices and scallions.
- Add soy sauce when it boils and turn the heat off.
- Strain the garlic, ginger and scallions, and pour the soup into 2 ramen bowls.
- Cook the noodle for 3 minutes to al dente.
- When the noodle is cooked to al dente, drain the cooking water.
- Add the noodles to the bowls of soup.
- Top with your choice of toppings.
- Stick nori seaweed sheet on the side of the toppings.
- Serve immediately.
Notes
Nutrition
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Thanks For Sharing this amazing recipe. My family loved it. I will be sharing this recipe with my friends. Hope the will like it.
Thank you for your recipe, easy to prepare yet so heavenly delicious!
Thank you Regs.
This looks like such a beautiful and delicious dish!
I love ramen so much, and look forward to making this at home!
Thank you Alexandra 😀
Where can I find the fish cakes you use? I feel like I’ve searched everywhere!
Where do you live Nikki? Is there any Asian or Japanese grocery stores nearby? They are fish cakes so they are NOT available online usually.
wonderful and delicious thank you !
thank you for your sweet comment!
Great recipe!. I’ve always wondered what is the little white thing with the pink spiral on it. Thanks 🙂
Hi Lisbeth,
That is Naruto. I am not sure if your know any anime. There is a famous one called Naruto named after the food and often Ramen is featured in the anime 😀
What a colorful and delicious bowl of ramen! Love it! Pinning! Your photos are amazing!
Thank you Mira:D
I think I could live off of ramen! This is such a gorgeous bowl and shoyu ramen is one of my favorites too! Great broth recipe recipe too – can’t wait to give it a try!
Thank you Kathleen. Me too, I can live off of ramen. Nowadays you can buy packaged ramen and condensed soup pack but still home made soup is the best as you know what’s in it:D
Love Ramen! This looks like a perfect bowl for all the cold weather we are having lately!
Me too Ramona:D and yes it is the best comfort food for cold winter. I drink all soup too.
This is absolutely adorable! My husband usually gets stuck with the packaged ramen noodles haha! I’ll have to try this for him!
Thank you Cynthia, not packaged ramen for your husband for this coming Valentines day:D
What a gorgeous bowl of ramen. I always love the mix of raw vegetables with the noodles and meat.
Thank you Christie:D. Yes, any meat and vegetables go with ramen well all the time!