Very Simple Ramen Soup
A very simple soup for an exhausting week
Hi!
How has your week been?
Around here it’s been a bit of a slog. It’s a 4-day school week and one of my kids was home with the sniffles for 2 of those days, so I don’t feel like I’m getting a whole lot done.
As my lovely husband pointed out, taking care of a sick child for two days counts as “getting something done” and I know he’s right. Still, I feel the weight of everything I thought I was going to accomplish this week and didn’t.
A week like this calls for the simplest of recipes, and I’ve got a good one for you. I’ve combined two things I love, Vietnamese Pho broth and ramen noodles, into one easy Instant Pot soup.
This Instant Pot ramen soup isn’t traditional in any sense of the word. I can only claim that it’s simple and yummy. It tastes more homemade and more “grown up” than regular packaged ramen. This soup makes you feel like you’re eating something special, without actually doing much work.
To make the short-cut Pho broth, combine store-bought chicken or beef broth, ginger, cinnamon stick, cloves and star anise in your Instant Pot. Cook on high pressure for 8 minutes to make an aromatic, flavorful Pho-inspired broth.
Remove the lid, add dried ramen noodles, and simmer for a few minutes until the noodles are cooked. That’s it! Yum. You can find the full recipe here.
Dinner Last Week
I’m always curious about what other families are eating. Aren’t you? Here’s what my crew ate last week.
Monday: Sheet-pan Italian sausage with roasted cabbage and Trader Joe’s latkes.
I needed to use the cabbage that was already in our fridge, otherwise, I probably would’ve thrown broccoli on the sheet-pan with the sausage.
I’ve gotten into the habit of buying pre-cooked sausage for convenience, but this week I bought raw sausage and it’s actually really easy to roast in the oven. First, use the tip of a knife to prick a few holes in the sausage to prevent bursting. Line a pan with foil and roast the sausage at 450F for 20 to 30 minutes, until the sausages are nicely browned.
Using this method, you can roast Italian sausage on a sheet-pan with any type of vegetable for an easy, sheet-pan dinner.
Tuesday: I made and photographed two recipes that paid subscribers are getting this month (frozen roasted broccoli and easy, crispy tofu slices) so that’s what we had for dinner. I also made Trader Joe’s egg rolls.
Wednesday: Another day of recipe testing. I made miso mushroom pasta and photographed it for Kitchen Skip, so that’s what three of us ate for dinner. My 9-year- old kiddo is not into mushrooms and won’t even eat plain buttered pasta these days. Instead, I packed her dinner in a lunch box so she could eat in the car while her older sister was at swim practice, which worked out just fine. (She had baguette slices with butter, a baby orange and leftover Valentine candy for dessert)
Thursday: It was a “eat the leftovers and clean out the fridge” night because we were heading out of town for the weekend.
Friday: We drove to Arizona to visit my parents and my mom had a simmering pot of chicken soup waiting for us. You’re never too old to appreciate a homemade meal from your Mom!
Cookbooks
This is a fun cookbook! Mostly because Dan Pelosi seems like a really fun guy from a fun family who seem to spend most of their time eating and cooking food. Dan Pelosi (also known as @GrossyPelosi) is an Instagram darling and it’s easy to see why when you flip through his cookbook. He has tons of personality and his Italian American recipes will make you very, very hungry.
At first glance, it seemed like the recipes weren’t practical for busy parents, but then I found the pasta chapter. Baked pasta primavera, Bimpy’s Pasta e Piselli (Bimpy is his grandpa) and Grossy’s Vodka sauce are just three examples of simple family meals you can make from this cookbook.
Well friends, that’s it for this week. Hope you enjoy the soup. Can I take a nap now?
Hope you all have a restful weekend,
Jenny