Soup Hack

Listen, it's April 1st, and it's time to fool someone or something.  In that spirit, I give you the Ramen Noodle Soup hack.  Fool yourself into thinking it's healthier than it actually is. 

First, get yourself a standard package of instant ramen soup, complete with noodle brickette, and what amounts to a packet of salt.  I prefer the shrimp flavor, mostly because my wife only eats seafood (occasionally) and the chicken one, while I don't think there's actual chicken in it, skeeves her out.




Follow the instructions, which go like this: 2 cups of water, bring to boil, toss in noodle brick, simmer for 3 minutes, turn off heat and dump in salt-packet.


However, you may get more nutrition out of deep-fried shoe leather.  So, while you're boiling your water, consider adding something a bit more healthy.  What you'll need is:

3 tbsp of sesame oil
1 shallot, diced
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
1/4 red pepper chunked
1/4 cup of peas
1/4 cup of baby spinach leaves
5 cleaned frozen shrimp (tail on)
1 egg, preferably soft-boiled, but hard-boiled works as well
4 tbsp of soy sauce
3 tbsp of hoisin
1 pat of unsalted butter


Simply put, it's stir-fry time.  Oil first in a non-stick pan that's heated to a medium heat.  Toss in the shallot and let it sweat for a minute before you throw in the peppers.  After a minute or so of that, add the garlic, red pepper, peas, shrimp and continue to stir-fry.  When the peas start to pucker/shrimp cooks fully, you're almost there, add the soy sauce, hoisin and the butter and continue to stir until the butter is melted.  By now your ramen should be at a boil so add the brick.  When the noodles are done and you've added the flavoring packet, take the whole sautee and just dump it into the broth.  Slice the egg and place both halves, yolk up into the soup.  Garnish with the fresh spinach which should wilt a bit the longer it sits in the broth...and VIOLA, done.  Results should look something like the shot below.  And yes, I eat my ramen with a pair of light saber chopsticks as we all know that ancient Japanese tradition has a major role in the Star Wars saga.  Seriously. 


Anyway, there you go.  Yes, it's a lonely meal for one.  But, what a meal.  You can easily modify it for more than a single serving.  In fact, I encourage you to do so. 


And, no they don't light up...but yours can:

Light-up Chopsticks (Amazon)