Winter is nearing and the call for something warm, filling and soul soothly good for you is here. This Paleo ramen bowl is completely inspired from a trip I took last Christmas to Japan. The hometown of pure bone broths, handmade noodles, fresh vegetables and the tastiest kimchi!
Japan was a foodie’s delight! Street food, weird looking desserts and drinks, it may all look a bit weird and wonderful but, in my opinion, the Japanese do food well. There’s so much authenticity and craft in each dish, you can really see the care and love taken to make even the simplest of meals.
Back to the ramen…..
There is no real ‘standard’ ramen in Japan as each state has there own flare and create there verson of a ramen bowl slightly differently, this could be different meats, different broths, varies spices or a combination of them all. I have created my own Japanese hybrid style ramen bowl based on the experiences I had and take away ideas just from flicking through a menu and guessing what was in each bowl from looking closely at the photos.
I quickly found that ignorance is bliss as sometimes you could literally be eating anything. Totally good for you and nourishing, but traveling with a friend who is vegetarian trying to adapt the menu to Japanese waiters that speak absolutely no English is as we found impossible. You eat what your given. Offal, lung, intestines, oesophagus, ALL the organs – but honestly when you don’t know, you really can’t tell. This ramen bowl doesn’t include any organ meat – HOWEVER if you want to add it in, go for it.
Ingredients:
Makes 2-3 serves
Broth
- 1 tsp Meadow and Bone both concentrate boost
- 2 tbsp Anchovy sauce (this is fermented anchovies – typically best found in an Asian store)
- 1 tsp chilli flakes
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tbsp coconut aminos
- 1 tbsp Fresh ginger
- A pinch of salt and freshly cracked pepper
Filling and toppings
- Mixed Asian mushrooms
- Snap peas
- Fresh red chilli
- Spring onions
- 100-150g grass fed and finished Mince beef
- Chinese five spice
- Kimchi
- Spaghetti squash
- Poached egg
Method:
Sauces I have found always taste more intense when left to sit and ferment for a day or two. If you like a flavoursome less subtle flavour then cooking up this broth on the day of works really well too.
Start preparing the broth by scooping a tsp of the bone broth concentrate into your saucepan, adding 3 cups of boiling water. Place the saucepan on the lowest heat as we want this to simmer slowly, warming the broth, to ignite the ingredients full flavour. When the mixture has dissolved, add in your anchovy sauce, freshly grated ginger, chilli flakes, coconut aminos, garlic, salt and pepper.
Let this sit and simmer for around an hour. It will smell fishy due to the anchovy sauce, BUT I promise you it will taste incredible, not fishy at all.
Whilst your broth is simmering away nicely, heat up your oven, cut the spaghetti squash in half and place in a tray with the water, just covering the surface. Leave in the oven at 200c for around 20-30mins. As soon as the squash noodles start to pull away from the skin (test this with a fork) you can remove from the oven and let it sit for 5mins as it will be piping hot.
With the toppings, you can cook these up as you wish. I pan fried my mince meat on a low heat and added a tsp of Chinese five spice.
I also pan friend the snap peas and mushrooms briefly to soften, then chopped up the chilli and spring onions raw and sprinkled them in when the broth and noodles are in the bowl together.
When your broth tastes pretty dam delicious, take the pan off the heat and start scrapping the noodles from around the squash skin and place into bowls pouring as much of the broth into the bowl as you wish. Add in your fillings as well as some added extras like kimchi and a poached egg. You can always add a raw egg, given its straight away as the heat from the broth will cook the yolk and white making it safe to eat.
Remember the louder the slurp the better – This is a massive complement in Japanese culture, so when all that remains is your delicious tasty broth, pick up the ramen bowl and slurp away until your bowl is empty and you stomach is full!
Enjoy/Tanoshī
Goodness Green 
1 thought on “Paleo RAMEN bowl”