Homemade Ramen Noodle Recipe From Scratch - Not So Ancient Chinese Secrets (2024)

The age old question: Would you like rice or noodles? If ever asked to my husband, he will always invariably, without question, faithfully and lovingly reply: Noodles. So what is a good wife to do but learn to make her husband’s appetence?

Just to be clear, I’m not Japanese so don’t have any inherited ramen-making secrets to pass along. But I came across Marc Matsomoto’s blog No Recipes here, which had me intrigued. Ok, obsessed.

So with your permission, I’d love to share my own little process along with a few of my own tweaks to get these awesome little noodles from only 4 (yeah, ONLY 4!) basic ingredients transformed to rolled up bundles of perfection.

Homemade Ramen Noodles Ingredients:

Serves 4. For big eaters like my family, this recipe easily doubles, triples, quadruples, etc…

• 2 cups all purpose flour (300 grams)
• 2 tbsp vital wheat gluten (15 grams)
• 1/2 cup warm water
• 1 tsp Koon Chun Potassium Carbonate & Sodium Bi-Carbonate (kansui)

* If you happen to have bread flour handy, you can use 2 cups of that instead of all-purpose flour and wheat gluten.

** A note about kansui. You might be asking is this really necessary and what does this do to the noodles? I find that it gives the noodles that proper texture and bite, necessary for ramen noodles.

*** Where can you find kansui? Typically you can find this at your local asian supermarket. For all my local Calgarian foodie friends, pick up a bottle at Lucky’s Supermarket

Stir the flour and wheat gluten together in a large mixer bowl. Mix the warm water and kansui, then add the liquid to the flour. You should immediately see the flour turn a shade of yellow. Fit your mixer with the dough hook and knead until it starts to form a ball, about 5 minutes. The dough will be fairly tough and dry. I’ve actually burnt out an Artisan KitchenAid stand mixer from kneading this dough too long. Even with my Commercial Kitchenaid mixer I just run it enough to pull the ingredients together in a ball and stop the machine.

Looks like my brain on too much coffee… but that’s another post. 🙂

Cut the dough into quarters. Wrap the pieces you aren’t working with in a towel or plastic wrap to prevent from drying out.

Set your pasta roller to the largest setting. Flatten the dough with your fingers and run it through the pasta roller.

Fold it in half and run it through the pasta roller a number of times.

The first few times your dough will be ragged and just plain ugly. If you find it tearing, like in the photo below, try dusting it with flour.

After more runs through, it will smooth out into a silky like texture.

Roll out the dough to your desired thickness. I use a setting of 3 on myKitchenAid pasta roller.

Switch out your roller for the spaghetti cutter. Run the sheets of dough through and catch those gorgeous noodles!

Dust generously with flour and gently twirl into serving sized bundles.

At this point your can either pop them into freezer bags for noodles on demand, or start a large pot of water boiling in preparation to feast! I use a huge stock pot that fits 2 “spider” or noodle baskets. These make cooking noodles SO easy and mess free. Bring your water to a rolling boil, drop in a bundle of ramen in each basket and cook for 2-3 minutes until the noodles start to float. Pull out the baskets and invert into serving bowls. Top with soup, veggies and an egg and you’re ready to slurp!

And if you’re not hungry by now, check out the video teaser below!

HOMEMADE RAMEN NOODLES

Ingredients:

Serves 4. For big eaters like my family, this recipe easily doubles, triples, quadruples, etc…

2 cups all purpose flour (300 grams)

2 tbsp vital wheat gluten (15 grams)

1/2 cup warm water

1 tsp Koon Chun Potassium Carbonate & Sodium Bi-Carbonate (kansui)

Directions:

1. Stir the flour and wheat gluten together in a large mixer bowl.

2. Mix the warm water and kansui, then add the liquid to the flour. You should immediately see the flour turn a shade of yellow.

3. Fit your mixer with the dough hook and knead until it starts to form a ball, about 5 minutes. The dough will be fairly tough and dry.

4. Cut the dough into quarters. Wrap the pieces you aren’t working with in a towel or plastic wrap to prevent from drying out.

5. Set your pasta roller to the largest setting. Flatten the dough with your fingers and run it through the pasta roller. Fold it in half and run it through the pasta roller a number of times. The first few times your dough will be ragged. After more runs through, it will smooth out into a silky like texture.

6. Using your pasta machine, roll out the dough to your desired thickness. On the KitchenAid pasta roller, I roll to a thickness of 3.

7. Switch out your roller for the spaghetti cutter. Run the sheets of dough through the cutter.

8. Dust noodles generously with flour and gently twirl into serving sized bundles.

9. At this point your can either freeze the noodle bundles, or start a large pot of water boiling. Boil noodles for 2-3 minutes until they float to the top.

10. Top with soup, add any other toppings of your choice. Enjoy!