If you’re a regular visitor to Japanese restaurants, you’ve surely seen the menus of miso soup as one of the appetizers. But is the miso soup ramen? Let’s check everything you need to know about this traditional dish and be sure what you’re ordering.
Miso soup isn’t ramen, although both meals are actually Japanese soups with different ingredients. The soup stock and its role on the table are different as well. However, both have great health benefits for people who are consuming them.
Check all the useful information about miso soup and ramen if you want to know exactly what meal you are ordering or making at home.
Is Miso Soup Ramen?
Miso soup isn’t ramen since these two dishes just don’t have the same ingredients. Now that you’ve found that out let’s check what these meals actually are. Traditional miso soup is a combination of miso and dashi. Quite simple, right?
Dashi is a Japanese soup stock or broth. It’s made of kelp, anchovy, and dried bonito flakes, and it’s commonly used for cooking various Japanese meals. The second ingredient is miso, which is another often used Japanese ingredient. It represents a mixed fermented paste from sea salt, rice koji, and soybeans. It’s an indispensable ingredient in glazes, soups, condiments, and marinades.
Combining these two ingredients will make your meals, especially soups, more comforting. You can add other ingredients, like vegetables, tofu, and seaweed which will give your soup a savory flavor and plenty of textures.
On the other hand, ramen is quite a simple Japanese dish as well. However, it can be seasoned with miso and other toppings, which confuses many people. Because of that, many people think these two dishes are the same when in reality, they aren’t.
What Is the Basic Formula for Miso Soup – Get Only the Best Ingredients
Miso soup is quite easy to prepare but also healthy and fun to eat. All of the ingredients you have to use are pretty much available in most grocery stores. However, some of them, particularly miso paste, could only be found in specialized Asian stores. The good news is that it’s possible to find quality ingredients online as well – like you can buy ramen on Amazon.
What’s Miso Ramen?
Miso ramen probably makes the biggest misunderstandings for most people. Created quite recently, in 1950 by Morito Omorimiso, it’s practically a dish with noodles, beansprouts, corn, chashu, butter, and seaweed. It takes its name from the main component – miso paste which can be white, red, soybean, or barley miso.
In other words, it’s a traditional Japanese noodle soup with miso, vegetables, and pork. Actually, it’s pretty similar to ramen soup as well, but it’s rich and thick. Here are other ingredients that come with this dish:
- Yellow, springy and chewy noodles,
- Miso toppings such as menma and chachu,
- Vegetables,
- Butter.
How Miso Ramen and Miso Soup Are Different?
As I already mentioned, two Japanese dishes are both made from miso, and that’s probably what confuses you the most once you open a menu in a restaurant or order online. And don’t think you’re the only one who is thinking of just adding noodles in miso soup in order to get miso ramen because you sure aren’t. However, it’s not as simple as that. Connoisseurs surely will be puzzled if they find noodles in the miso soup. So, let’s break down all the differences between these two meals.
| Differences | Miso Soup | Miso Ramen |
| Ingredients | Tofu (often fried) and seaweed | Noodles, seaweed, corn, chashu, bean sprouts, and butter. |
| Soup stock | Kelp and bonito broth | Pork, chicken broth, bonito, dried sardine, kelp, and scallops |
| Time of cooking broth | Requires a short amount of time to cook | Requires a long amount of time to cook |
| Role on the table | More a side dish or appetizer | Can be the main dish |
What Healthy Features Does Miso Soup Have
Besides being absolutely delicious, this soup will provide you with numerous nutritional benefits. The main ingredient, miso, has been used in Asian culture for many centuries now precisely because of its healthy features – after all, then you didn’t have the medical systems like nowadays.
By consuming miso, people would strengthen their immune system, provide B12 vitamins as probiotics, and even lower bad cholesterol. Also, did you know that miso makes a complete protein dish because of all of the 20 essential amino acids it contains? And last but not least, it’s abundant in antioxidants.
Make Your Own Miso Ramen Effortlessly With This Easy Recipe
Want to make your own supper night staple? Say no more because there’s nothing better than making easy miso ramen with chicken at home. Just imagine a dish with a combination of classic miso stock that has beautiful flavors and with fragrant chicken.
Add fresh ramen noodles, salty nori, and soft spinach, and your ramen bowl will surely blow your and your friends’ minds. And why not twist the whole dish a bit with some soy sauce, sesame, and even chili oil? It will boost the initial classic miso to a top-notch meal.
Check the ingredients for an amazing recipe for two servings:
- One tablespoon of butter,
- Two soft-boiled eggs,
- One cup of corn,
- Two chicken breasts,
- Two cups of fresh spinach,
- One liter of miso stock,
- Two smashed garlic cloves,
- One smaller sliced piece of ginger,
- Two tablespoons of miso paste,
- Three chopped green onions,
- One pack of ramen noodles,
- Nori for garnish.
Once you get all the ingredients, check the directions for making this delicious meal:
- Melt the butter and fry the corn until warm, and after that, put it to one side,
- Blanch the spinach and soft-boil the eggs in hot water,
- Add scallions, chicken stock, ginger, and garlic to a bigger pan, and let it boil for 30 minutes,
- Add the chicken and let all simmer for 20 more minutes,
- Start cooking the noodles following the instructions,
- Check if the chicken is cooked and remove if it is,
- Set it aside to rest,
- Mix in the miso paste and let the broth dissolve,
- Cut the chicken,
- Divide noodles into two bowls and pour the broth,
- Add the shredded chicken, corn, boiled eggs, nori, scallions, and spinach,
- Enjoy!
Learn the Differences Between Traditional Japanese Dishes
Experiencing all the flavors Japanese cuisine will provide you is a journey to remember. However, there are numerous different dishes, and no wonder people get confused by the names – they can be pretty similar, but not just that – some dishes are practically the same except for one or two ingredients.
That’s the story for miso soup and ramen. Both of these dishes have pretty much the same ingredients, but the miso soup is, let’s put it this way, older. Having this in mind, no wonder why it’s way more simple, and it’s usually not served as the main meal but as an appetizer or side dish.