It’s easier and tastier than you might think.

Who doesn’t love a bowl of steaming broth filled with delicious noodles and topped with delicious eggs, veggies, and chashu? It is the ultimate comfort food, that with its gelatine-rich broth is healthy to boot. And ramen noodles are easier to make at home than you would think. 
So why not give it a try?

For years I’ve made homemade ramen bowls with my own stock, tare (flavour booster), and toppings. But for some reason, I always imagined that making ramen noodles myself was unobtainable. Mainly since I knew that I needed kansui to give the noodles that distinctive texture, and I had no clue where to buy it outside of Japan. 

Luckily for me and all people who prefer their ramen noodles homemade. A rather clever man named Harold McGhee found that if you bake baking soda, it acts surprisingly similar to kansui.

Rolling pins and pasta machines

And with that knowledge in my pocket, I started making my own ramen noodles a while back. And I must say that it is a lot easier than it seems. If you can make your own pasta, then there is no reason why you wouldn’t be able to have a go at making your own noodles. Although, I must say that having a pasta machine makes your life so much easier if you want to start making your own noodles or pasta. 

Years ago, I bought a cheap pasta machine, and it worked for a while, but even with gentle use, it broke before it was a year old. So I vowed to only buy a new pasta machine if it was a proper good quality one. But I didn’t stop making pasta and later noodles. But it was time-consuming and hard work trying to roll out the dough by hand and cutting it into strips by hand. 

So imagine my delight when my husband bought me a gorgeous pasta machine for my birthday. (As tends to be the case with us, I got it several months before my birthday, but that aside) Now I’m able to whip up some noodles in time for dinner.

How to make homemade ramen noodles

Homemade ramen noodles are so delicious and far easier to make than you might imagine. Paired with some homemade bone broth and toppings of your choosing, it makes a heavenly meal.

Makes 4 portions
Prep: 20 min
Rest: 1 hour
Cook: 1 min

How to make your own kansui:

All you need is baking powder. Depending on how often you want to make noodles, you can use 25 grams, 50 grams, or 100 grams. It will keep for a long time though, so you don’t have to worry about it spoiling.

Preheat your oven to 135 C or 275 F.

Spread out your baking soda onto a clean baking sheet.

Bake the baking soda in the oven for an hour.

Leave to cool and store in a clean glass jar with a tight-fitting lid.

Ramen noodle recipe

Ingredients for ramen noodles:

• 350 gr plain flour
• 165 ml water
• 1 tsp kansui/baked baking soda
• Pinch of salt
  
• Corn starch for dusting

How to make the ramen noodles:

Add water, the kansui powder, and salt to a measuring jug, then stir to dissolve the powder and salt.

Weigh out the flour and add to a medium-sized bowl, then pour in the water mixture.

Mix till it forms a dough. You can use a little bit of extra water if you need to. (be careful though, you do not want to add too much water, since you want a very stiff dough that is quite dry)

Knead and work the dough for about 10-15 minutes or till it is smooth and the surface feels almost rubbery. (I know it is hard work, but I promise the noodles are worth it)

Cover the bowl with either a damp tea towel or put the dough in an airtight lunch box. This to prevent the dough from drying out while it rests.

Let it rest for an hour (although I have rushed it sometimes, and it still works alright, just not as well)

When rolling out your dough, use plenty of cornstarch to prevent it from sticking to itself.

Pasta machine: Roll out the dough till it is thin enough to go into the pasta machine. 

Slowly work your way up in thinness with your pasta machine. I prefer them at thickness 4.

Feed the sheet of dough through the cutting rollers, and either hang them up or create bundles of noodles, until you are ready to use them.

Elbow grease: Roll out the dough till it is thin enough to see your hand’s outline when you hold your hand behind the dough.

With plenty of cornstarch to prevent sticking, fold the sheet of dough for easy cutting.

With a sharp knife, ideally with a flat cutting edge, cut your dough into strips.

Save them in little bundles until you are ready to use them.

Cook the noodles in plenty of boiling water in a big pan (to prevent the pan from boiling over)

Cook them for half a minute, to a minute, so that they will keep their distinctive “bite”.

Note:
If you want to save the noodles for a later day, you can keep them in an airtight container for 2 or 3 days in the fridge or a couple of months in the freezer. Although I find that when I freeze my noodles, they lose some of their bite, they’re still tasty though.

Enjoy your homemade noodles in your ramen soup

I hope you will enjoy making and eating your homemade noodles. If you want to use these ramen noodles to make some homemade ramen soup then why not also make my chicken bone broth. If you want to try more of my recipes then take a look my from scratch food page.

Please let me know in the comments how you fared, did you find it easier or harder than you had imagined?

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