Ramen is a Japanese soup based on broth, noodles and various additives. Ramen is considered fast food, but it is considered to define Japanese food culture in the 21st century, it is a pop culture dish. Check the nutritional values ​​of ramen, how many calories it has and whether ramen soup is he althy.

Ramenis a traditional Japanese bone broth soup with noodles, spices and various toppings - meat or fish, soy sauce, miso (fermented soybean paste) and mushrooms. Ramen is an important element of Japanese cuisine, but it comes from China.

It is not known exactly when and under what circumstances ramen came to Japan. There are two theories explaining the origins of this typical Japanese soup. The first tells about the scholar Shu Shunsui who fled to Japan from a Manchurian province in China and started cooking ramen on an island.

According to the second, in the early twentieth century, Chinese chefs opened a store in Tokyo, where they sold noodles called "Shina Soba", which became the basis of ramen. The appearance of ramen in Japanese cuisine should certainly be associated with the opening of Chinese ports to the world after hundreds of years of isolation. At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, the soup was sold in harbors from street carts.

Ramen became an important part of the daily meals of Japanese people after World War II, when Japan, devastated by the war, increased the import of wheat (essential for making ramen noodles) from the United States. After dropping an atomic bomb, destroying farmland and the hardships of war, the Japanese depended on American supplies - wheat and lard, which are the basis of ramen.

The name of the soup probably comes from the Chinese "laiwan", which means "handmade noodles". The name "ramen" is also used to describe the pasta itself, which is the main ingredient of the soup.

The mere bowl of steaming, nourishing soup was the main meal of most of the population. Ramen gained great fame thanks to Ando Momofuku, who in 1958 developed a recipe for instant ramen - ready to eat only after pouring boiling water over it. Since then, instant soup is known practically all over the world.

Momofuku invented the technology of dehydrating fried noodles, as well as a cup that allows you to prepare the soup directly in it. In Poland, instant ramen is known as Chinese soup - in a foil packet or ina cup, consisting of pasta, a sachet of spices and another with fats that give the soup flavor.

Currently, ramen has become a cult dish in Japan. Hundreds or even thousands of restaurants serve it in every big city. Blogs, magazines and books are published about ramen. This soup is considered fast food, but it is considered to define Japan's food culture in the 21st century. Ramen is a pop-culture, modern dish that differs from the Japanese tradition, because there are no restrictions, no rules when creating new variations of the soup.

Ramen is served in bowls. The broth can be eaten with a spoon, and the remaining ingredients - with chopsticks. Japanese culture tells you to slurp loudly when eating ramen as a mark of appreciation for the meal and the cook.

Ramen - types

Traditional ramen can be cooked with a wide variety of ingredients. It is prepared differently in many regions. However, the basic ingredients are always: long-cooked broth on a very large amount of bones and fried, wheat noodles made of flour, water and s alt as well as kansui - basic mineral s alts, which give the pasta its yellow color and prevent it from becoming "rubbery" in the boiling water.

The broth is cooked on pork bones or a poultry body, often with:

  • shiitake mushrooms
  • katsuobushi (fermented and smoked tuna flakes)
  • kombu algae
  • niboshi or dried small sardines
  • beef bones
  • onions

Additions to ramen, apart from pasta, can be: slices of roasted pork meat, hard-boiled egg, leek, corn, butter, pickled bamboo shoots or bean sprouts.

The primary purpose of cooking ramen is to get as much umami flavor out of the ingredients as possible. The soup is served very hot. It is better not to wait for it to cool down, because the fat then starts to harden, which does not have a positive effect on the texture of the dish and the feeling when eating it. It is also badly received by Japanese chefs.

The most popular varieties of ramen are:

  • Sapporo ramen - otherwise miso ramen, warming and very nutritious, good for harsh winters. Contains miso, corn, butter, chopped pork, and garlic. Sometimes seafood is added to it, e.g. squid, crabs and scallops
  • Kitakata ramen - famous for its thick noodles and broth cooked in pork and niboshi
  • Tokyo ramen - also known as shoyu ramen, is cooked on chicken with the addition of soy sauce and dashi fish broth. Additions to the soup are spring onion, egg, nori, spinach and sliced ​​pork
  • Yokohama ramen - prepared on pork broth with soy sauce and added thick,simple noodles
  • Hakata ramen - very thick and light, cooked on pork bones, with noodles thinner than usual
  • Tonkotsu - Ramen popular in Fukuoka town, has a milky white color due to the large amounts of fat and collagen extracted from pork bones during several days of cooking

Ramen - calories, nutritional values ​​

The nutritional value and caloric content of ramen varies significantly depending on the recipe according to which the soup is prepared. However, it is always a filling dish, and the serving size is large - 600 - 700 ml.

Ramen is high in carbohydrate, saturated fat, cholesterol and sodium. Due to the fact that the base of the soup is long-cooked broth on the bones, ramen contains protein, collagen, B vitamins, vitamin A, potassium and iron. According to research, broth on the bones alone is a bad source of calcium and magnesium.

Comparison of the nutritional value of an exemplary miso and tonkotsu ramen

Miso ramenTonkotsu ramen
Bowl 700 g100 gBowl 600 g100 g
Energy596 kcal85 kcal656 kcal109 kcal
Protein43 g6 g49 g8.2 g
Fat16 g2.3 g22 g3.7 g
Saturated fat3.9 g0.5 g4.7 g0.8 g
Cholesterol233 mg33.3 mg249 mg41.5 mg
Carbohydrates69 g9.9 g62 g10.3 g
Including sugars5 g0.7 g4.9 g0.8 g
fiber5.2 g0.7 g3.7 g0.6 g
Sodium1,820 mg260 mg1249 mg208 mg
Potassium688 mg98.3 mg822 mg137 mg

Ramen - recipe. How to make ramen?

Source: youtube.com/JapaneseCooking101

Ramen - is it he althy?

Ramen is a variation of the well-known bone broth. Real, essential broths have many he alth benefits, incl. supporting the immune system, strengthening bones and joints, alleviating digestive problems and even preventing wrinkles. These benefits are supposed to come from the amino acids and minerals in the bone marrowextracted during long cooking. However, there is no scientific research that could confirm the beneficial he alth effects of broths.

A study from 2000 showed that drinking broth can reduce inflammation and alleviate symptoms of upper respiratory tract infections, but it concerned vegetable and meat broth and should not be attributed to ramen, which is a typical bone broth, most often cooked without addition of vegetables.

You should also not be under the illusion that the high proportion of collagen in ramen has a positive effect on the condition of the skeleton and skin. Collagen is digested in the human digestive tract into amino acids, and how these amino acids will be used later - we have no influence on that.

The problem with ramen is its high sodium content (a component of table s alt). One serving covers the body's needs even in 75%. Noting that the average diet is very high in sodium, this is a downside. Excess sodium in the diet is one of the causes of high blood pressure. Ramen is rich in saturated fatty acids and cholesterol. However, referring to the new state of knowledge, this is not bad for the he alth or lipid profile.

It is also not an important risk factor for cardiovascular diseases. Wheat noodles, which are the main component of ramen in addition to broth, are undesirable in the diet in large amounts. It has been shown that a diet rich in carbohydrates promotes, among others, disorders of sugar and insulin metabolism, contributes to the development of chronic inflammation and fatty liver.

Ramen is a dish that gives you a lot of energy and warms you up. However, it contains almost no vegetables, provides a lot of carbohydrates, and the broth on the bones is poor in vitamins and some minerals. You cannot consume it too often or it is worth supplementing the soup with vegetable additives.

Worth knowing

Instant ramen soup - why is it better not to eat it?

Instant ramen is nothing but Chinese soup. It is a product with low nutritional value. Dehydrated pasta provides only purified carbohydrates. In addition, there is a lot of sodium in the soup, up to 900 mg per serving. It is suspected that regular consumption of instant noodles may affect the risk of metabolic diseases.

A 2014 South Korean study found that people aged 19-64 who eat instant noodles twice a week or more often have a much higher risk of metabolic syndrome and related diseases than those who eat ready ramen noodles less often.

Sources:

1. https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/feb/22/the-rise-and-rise-of-ramen-noodle-soup
2. https://hubjapan.io/articles/japanese-food-ramen-history-and-types
3. https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2042.html 4. https://nutritionstudies.org/drinking-bone-broth-is-it-beneficial-or-just-a-fad/
5. https://www.he alth.harvard.edu / he althy-eating / whats-the-scoop-on-bone-soup
6. Shin H.J. I in., Instant noodle intake and dietary patterns are associated with distinct cardiometabolic risk factors in Korea, Journal of Nutrition, 2014, 144 (8), 1247-1255
7. Nutritional value of miso ramen, https: // www.nutritionix.com/i/nutritionix/miso-ramen-1-bowl-3-cups/57fe97ce354aa7593b329e6b
8. Nutrition value of tonkotsu ramen, https://www.nutritionix.com/i/nutritionix/tonkatsu -ramen-1-bowl / 56aa697ff254c47c472818cd
9. https://www.kukbuk.pl/blogi/tomek-zielke/zrobic-wieprzowy-ramen/

About the authorAleksandra Żyłowska-Mharrab, dietician Food technologist, dietitian, educator. A graduate of Biotechnology at the Gdańsk University of Technology and Nutritional Services at the Maritime University. A supporter of simple, he althy cuisine and conscious choices in everyday nutrition. My main interests include building permanent changes in eating habits and individually composing a diet according to the body's needs. Because the same thing is not he althy for everyone! I believe that nutritional education is very important, both for children and adults. I focus my activities on spreading knowledge about nutrition, analyze new research results, and make my own conclusions. I adhere to the principle that a diet is a lifestyle, not strict adherence to meals on a sheet of paper. There is always room for delicious pleasures in he althy and conscious eating.

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