Ramen... it´s the old standard standby if all you have is a water cooker and a bowl to prepare a quick lunch at work.
For me, it meant getting a headache most of the time I ate the stuff. Until one day, I had the misfortune of spilling some of the ramen broth on a white blouse, leaving an ugly reddish splotch that proved resistant to each and every method of spot removal I tried on it.
So that was what I had been putting inside my body? Just what the heck was inside those little bags labelled "spice mix"? Apart an unhealthy dose of monosodium glutamate?
So, I decided to find out if there would be a healthier way of seasoning my lunch noodles.
It turned out there was.
I took plain chinese mie noodles to start with, you can of course use the noodles from a ramen pack minus the spice.
Then I bought myself a cheap electric coffee grinder that is, now, used exclusively for grinding spices.(Don´t use your regular coffee mill for this unless you want to have your coffee taste of spices).
And used it for grinding up a mixture of dried chili flakes, laurel leaves (use sparingly), curry powder, and powdered onions, plus a good amount of a dried mixture of leeks, carrots, parsley, and celery that is sold hereabouts under the name of "soup herbs". The resulting powder I mixed in with a portion of organic dried beef broth concentrate ( chicken will do, too, or vegetable broth for the non-carnivores out there).
I put the mix into an airtight container, which I took along to the office with the plain noodles.One teaspoonful of it will spice up a bowl of ramen noodles as well as the mixes furnished by manufacturers, without the side effects of artificial aromas or monosodium glutamate. You can, of course, tweak the spices to suit your personal taste. And, the mixture also is great for spicing up a pot of vegetable soup.
Try and enjoy!
Julia
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