Ramen? No. Pho? Not that either—comforting, easy Asian Style Soup

Not really a ramen or pho hack, but a flavorful, satisfying, easy-to-make soup. Recipe below.

RECIPES ARE RIFE WITH HACKS AND CHEATS THESE DAYS, especially online and on social media. We recently succumbed to exploring “ramen cheats” because we love ramen. Was the soup we ended up making ramen? No. Was it a faux pho? Again, no. But what it was was a delicious, comforting, easy Asian Style Soup.

We knew going in it wouldn’t scratch the ramen itch. A well made ramen is all about the broth, usually a rich pork broth carefully slow cooked for hours. The hacks we found—and the one we made—started with chicken stock and cooked quickly. We dialed up the umami and Asian flavor notes in our broth by adding white miso, tahini and oyster sauce. Diced sautéed mushrooms further enhanced the umami.

For animal protein, ramen usually calls for pork. We thinly sliced some of the Korean Style Pork Chops we made recently. You could also use cooked chicken or beef or tofu or… For the greens, we used Shanghai bok choy, also called baby bok choy, and chopped scallions. You also need noodles. We used some Japanese noodles we had on hand. Our recipe includes substitutes for all of the above. We encourage you to hack our hack recipe and make it your own. Whatever you create, your Asian Style Soup will be delicious.

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Asian Style Soup

Not ramen or pho, but a flavorful, satisfying, easy-to-make soup.

Course Soup

Cuisine Asian-inspired

Servings 2

Ingredients

• 3 ounces or so noodles, cooked, rinsed in hot water, and drained (see Kitchen Notes)
• 4 cups chicken stock, ideally unsalted or low sodium
• 2 tablespoons white miso
• 1 teaspoon tahini
• 2 teaspoons fish sauce (these days we prefer Red Boat brand]
• 8 ounces mushrooms, diced and sautéed
• butter
• olive oil
• Shanghai bok choy (or other Asian greens—see Kitchen Notes)
• 2 or 3 ounces protein (see Kitchen Notes)
• 1 scallion, sliced crosswise

Instructions

• First, cook the noodles, then drain them, rinse in hot water, and set them aside.
• Make the broth. Bring the stock to a simmer in a large saucepan. Add in the miso paste and the tahini and whisk together, then add the fish sauce. Let this simmer gently while you prep everything else.
• Prepare the inclusions, starting with the mushrooms. Dice them, then sauté with butter and olive oil, stirring occasionally, until they are golden brown. Move the pan off heat and save. (You may also do this ahead of time and reserve the mushrooms, covered, in the fridge.)
• Cut the greens into bite-sized slices. Slice the scallions into little coins.
• Prepare the protein. We used a leftover pork chop from last week's Korean Style Pork Chop recipe, slicing the meat very thin. Instead, you could use tofu cubes (sautéed or not) or thinly sliced cooked chicken or even braised beef. If your protein requires cooking, you can also do this ahead.
• Assemble the soup. Using tongs, divide the noodles between two large bowls; you may not use all the noodles. Turn up the heat under the stock so it begins to boil. In each soup bowl, artfully arrange a big spoonful of the cooked mushrooms, a fan of the protein and a little pile of greens. Finally, gently ladle the hot broth over everything—it will heat everything nicely and your arrangement won't be disturbed. That's it. The best utensils for this are a big soup spoon and a pair of chopsticks. Oh, and if you are messy like us, great big napkins.

Kitchen Notes

Pick your noodles. We used some Japanese noodles we happened to have, made from wheat and black rice flour, but many other types of noodle will do nicely—soba, henan, or, don't overthink it, linguine.

Pick your greens. We used Shanghai bok choy (also called baby bok choy). But other Asian greens, like choy sum, or even any sort of spinach would also be great.

Pick your protein. We used a leftover pork chop from last week's Korean Style Pork Chop recipe, slicing the meat very thin. Instead, you could use tofu cubes (sautéed or not) or thinly sliced cooked chicken or even braised beef.