Ramen has earned a bit of a bad reputation in the United States:  most people are familiar with the packaged instant kind, which has come to be associated with lazy college kids who can’t be bothered to make anything else and people who are too broke to afford other food.  But in fact, ramen noodles are more than 350 years old and have become a popular staple of Japanese cuisine.  There’s lots of fancy, inventive ramen dishes that you can get at restaurants (like these places in New York that we’ve tried), but you can also make some fun and creative ramen at home.  We recently were inspired by this recipe in Bon Appétit to try these noodles, made with ginger and scallions and topped with sesame seeds.  Our version does indeed use instant ramen, but we’ve elevated this dish with some quality ingredients that we think you’ll love – and by the way, these noodles are also vegan!

To make these, you’ll need:

• A large piece of ginger
• Garlic
• A large bunch of scallions
• Vegetable oil
• Soy sauce
• Vinegar
• Sesame oil
• Sugar
• 4 3-ounce packages of ramen
• Black sesame seeds

Start by cutting off a 5-inch piece of ginger, peeling it, and chopping it into small pieces.

Finely slice your scallions as well and dice up 4 garlic cloves and place them in a bowl with the ginger.

Now pour 1/2 cup of oil into a small saucepan and warm it over high heat for 5 minutes, then pour over the ginger mixture and let it all sit for 5 minutes.

Then stir in 2 tablespoons of soy sauce, a tablespoon of vinegar, a teaspoon of sesame oil, half a teaspoon of sugar, and some salt and pepper.  Let the mixture marinate for 10-15 minutes.

Meanwhile, cook your noodles for 4 minutes, or until they’re just tender, and drain them.  Place them in the bowl with the oil and mix until the noodles are evenly coated.  Serve up your noodles with sesame seeds on top.

These were really simple to make – the only even remotely hard part is peeling and chopping the ginger – and they pack a really flavorful punch.  The ginger, garlic, and scallions meld together well in the hot oil, and everything else in the sauce (vinegar, sesame oil, soy sauce, and a little bit of sugar) help bring out these tastes.  And although you could use fancier noodles for this dish, the instant ramen is a great canvas for all the other ingredients and makes cooking really quick and easy.  We think this recipe shows that you can throw away your preconceived notions about ramen noodles and instead use them to make some really unique meals.