47. Vegan Tantanmen Ramen

Tantanmen is usually made with minced pork - in this case, plant based mince, but you could also use finely diced mushrooms if that’s not your jam. If you can’t find the white sesame paste, substitute with a mixture of peanut butter and tahini. Even just peanut butter works well. If you can’t get doubanjiang you could use gochujang, and it’ll be nice, but it’s a different flavour. If you don’t want to use chilli oil for the aromatic oil, use sesame oil instead.

Great

% Daily Values based on a 2,000 calorie diet

Step 1

Pan fry the plant based mince in the vegetable oil, adding the ginger and garlic and getting a bit of colour on the mince. When almost cooked, add the ginger, doubanjiang, soy sauce and sake, and letting the moisture cook off. When it’s just about dry it’s ready, so take the mince off the heat and keep warm.

Step 2

Make the broth by combining the chicken style stock and soy milk, heating it but not letting it get near the boil - the soy milk will separate a little too much.

Step 3

Make the tare by combining the ingredients in a small bowl, setting aside for later.

Step 4

Boil some water for the noodles, and cook the for the amount of time indicated on the packet. While this is happening, blanch the corn and bok choy, and just pour a little boiled water over the bean shoots (rinsed in a sieve).

Step 5

Build the ramen by portioning the tare between bowls, then ladling in the soup, and combining with some chopsticks to agitate the tare. Gently add the noodles to the bowls, and half a bok choy each, some corn, some bean shoots, and some spicy mince. Top with a little leftover spring onion if you haven’t got anything to use it for, and drizzle a tsp of aromatic oil over each bowl.