Vegan Sesame Tantanmen (Homemade Ramen)

Name: Vegan Sesame Tantanmen (Homemade Ramen)
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: PT-471146H11M19S
Total time: 30 min
Cuisine: Japanese
Ingredients: 3 tbsp asian sesame paste; 2 tbsp soy sauce; 1/2 tbsp rice vinegar; 1 tbsp sesame oil; 1 tsp rayu (Japanese red chili oil); 1 cup soy milk (250ml); 1.5 cup kombu dashi broth or vegetable (300ml); 100 g soy meat or tofu; 1 tsp garlic, minced; 1 tsp ginger, minced; 1/2 tbsp soy sauce; 1 tsp sake (optional); 1/2 tbsp miso paste; 1 tsp red chili oil; 2 portions of ramen noodles; 1/2 head of small cabbage, shredded; 1 cup bean sprout; 1/2 cup corn; Additional garnishes: crushed peanuts, sesame seeds, sliced green onions, sliced garlic tops, soy sauce and rayu/red chili oil.

February 25, 2019 By Lisa Kitahara 58 Comments

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This Vegan Sesame Tantanmen features the perfect ramen noodles swimming in a creamy sesame broth, served with spicy tofu crumbles and fresh vegetables. The perfect easy to make comfort meal!

Coming at you HOT with this delicious, ultra rich and creamy Vegan Sesame Tantanmen! Super excited about this one because well.. I think the title says it all. Vegan Ramen, who doesn’t get excited about ramen?! Soft chewy noodles drenched in a nutty, spicy broth with little chewy bits of meat-y mince and crunch from the vegetables. You really don’t need butter or meat to make a dang hearty and delicious ramen.

Tantanmen is a Japanese take on Sichuan Dan Dan noodles. It’s typically served spicy with traditional asian vegetables, minced pork and garnished with green onions. The creamy nutty sauce is usually made from sesame paste or peanut butter. One of the best Tantanmen’s I’ve ever had was actually from a vegan ramen restaurant in Japan, in Tokyo Station. The noodles were perfectly cooked, the ratio of noodles to broth was perfect, and the broth was creamy, flavourful but not too salty. The vegetables and soy crumbles just made it extra special with the additional textures. On my flight back to Canada, I was totally inspired to make this slurp worthy bowl of tantanmen at home.

I think the soup base is the most important component when it comes to a good bowl of Tantanmen. When making the soup base, I tried a couple different ingredients, variations and ratios but ultimately settled on this combination of flavours (very similar to the one I tried if I remember correctly).

Asian sesame paste - for it’s subtle nuttiness and makes it super creamy
Soy sauce - for it’s saltiness
Rice Vinegar - for a slight tang to balance out the richness
Sesame oil - for its aromatic flavours (this stuff never needs an explanation why you should add it… it’s just essential)
Rayu (Japanese chili oil) - for the spice
Soy milk - to make it extra creamy

This Vegan Sesame Tantanmen has been my go-to comfort meal during this winter. I love how simple and easy it is to make!

Ramen come in all sorts of flavours, shapes of noodles, vegetable combinations… I’d love to know your favourite or if you’d like to see more veganized ramen recipes!

Why you’ll LOVE this Vegan Sesame Tantanmen, it’s:

creamy
rich
chewy
crunchy
warming
so full of flavour
homemade and easy to make
and makes the most satisfying comforting meal!

Tips and Tricks to making Vegan Sesame Tantanmen (Homemade Ramen)

I highly recommend using the fresh ramen noodles sold in the fridge section vs. dried or frozen ones. They all are very different in texture.
I chose bean sprouts, cabbage, corn as my vegetable toppings but you can use any you like! I also like to add in bamboo shoots and all sorts of mushrooms like shiitake, enoki, shimeji or oyster.
Serve the ramen as soon as the noodles are cooked. Leaving ramen noodles in hot broth for too long over cooks them and you end up with soggy too-soft noodles.
The ramen paste can be made in patches ahead of time, I would use around 3-4 tablespoon per bowl if you triple the recipe. It can be stored in a air tight glass jar for a week.

If you recreate this Vegan Sesame Tantanmen please share it and let me know what you think by tagging me on Instagram @Okonomikitchen, I love seeing all of your tasty recreations!