I've been heavy into watching competitive eating videos on Youtube…not sure why. I guess watching them makes me live vicariously through them…I always feel full after seeing them eat a hundred pieces of KFC chicken! Some of my favorite videos to watch have been by Yuka Kinoshita. I just love this girl's positivity towards the taste of food…it makes me thing that everything in Japan must be delicious!
Watching her videos made me miss Japan a lot too! It's just such a wonderful place to experience life!
But, thinking about all this…I decided to make myself some ramen…but healthier ramen…because it is a new year and I am trying to be more conscious of my health (the years are catching up with me).
Looking up some recipes online, a lot of people say that a healthier ramen means:
1. Use less of the sauce packet
2. Load your noodles with veggies
Sounded easy enough!
What I used:
1. 1 Packet of Shin Ramen
2. A tomato
3. A bit of enoki mushrooms
4. A bit of lettuce
This was just a personal-sized ramen bowl for one.
What I did:
1. I first boiled some water and threw in my enoki mushrooms. 5 minutes should suffice.
I always feel like I have to cook mushrooms longer than everything else. Back when I lived in Japan, I would get mushrooms from the supermarket a lot. Some times, when I didn't cook them well enough, I would find myself having major stomach problems (you know what I'm talking about…). So, I boiled my enoki mushrooms for about 5 minutes.
2. Then I threw in about 1/4 of the sauce packet and my noodles. I let my noodles "cook" for about 1 minute.
3. Then I threw in my lettuce and let them cook for about 30 seconds. I like my lettuce to be crunchy, so I don't usually boil them for long.
4. Lastly, I threw in my tomatoes, sliced. I also don't like my tomatoes to be too mushy, so I cooked them for about 30 seconds…
I think the timing of putting in each ingredient is quite important. The mushrooms were fine being cooked for a longer period of time. The noodles (as instructed by the packet) should cook for 3 - 4 minutes. And my veggies, which I like to be quite crispy would cook the shortest amount of time.
5. Afterwards, I drained most of the soup from my pot and poured everything out into my bowl. I poured in some soup…which I realize you cannot really see in the photo below!
After making this, I thought it was quite similar to making hot pot.
It was good. It had a nice little bit of spice from the sauce packet…it was lower in sodium for sure…and I could get in a reasonable amount of veggies.
Two thumbs up in my book.
Give it a try if you are trying to make a healthier ramen!
