Raiding the City Harvest fridge for this quick “ramen” recipe

This fridge raid “ramen” recipe created by our Senior Volunteer Coordinator, Georgie, takes no more than 30 minutes to whip up. The key to any good fridge-raid recipe is in the name – it’s about using up what you’ve got, even if ingredients might be looking a bit sad or wilted. At City Harvest, we’re passionate about preventing food waste, so a good fridge raid recipe like this is great for the zero-waste repertoire.

Georgie’s take on a Tonkotsu ramen was inspired by her spot of some surplus Tonkotsu Broth from Borough Broth, paired with some vegetables that fit the bill: bok choy, mushrooms and spring onions. The genius element of this recipe is the noodle improvisation: dry lasagne sheets! Pasta is a great alternative to egg noodles and Georgie shows us how to do it in this recipe.

Fridge-raid Ramen Recipe

Ingredients:

• 2 cloves garlic, crushed with salt (until it forms a paste)
• 1″ fresh ginger, grated or minced
• 1 bunch spring onions, white part chopped for sauteeing, green part chopped for garnish
• 1 tbsp neutral oil (for frying)
• 1 pack bok choy, white part diced into bitesize chunks
• 800g (2 bags) Tonkotsu Broth by Borough Broth
• 3 lasagne sheets, snapped into strips as our make-shift noodles (or if you’d rather use noodles here, please do)

For the garnish:

• 2 boiled eggs, cut in half 
• Finely sliced spring onion tops 
• Roughly chopped fresh coriander 
• 2 tsp sesame oil 
• 2 tsp crispy chilli oil 

Method

1. Peel and crush the garlic cloves using a pinch of salt and dragging the cloves across the chopping board with a broad knife to create a paste. 
2. Peel the inch of fresh ginger with a teaspoon to prevent unnecessary waste and grate or finely mince the ginger. 
3. Separate your bunch of spring onions into white and green parts and finely chop the white parts. 
4. In a deep pan, heat 1 tablespoon of neutral oil and add the white spring onion, garlic and ginger and lightly sautee until aromatic. 
5. Add the two bags of broth to the warm pan and allow the jelly in the broth to melt and let the water heat through and temperature rise to a simmer. 
6. Bring the broth to a gentle boil then add the snapped lasagne sheets and let the pasta soften for about 5 minutes.
7. After 5 minutes, add the harder bits of veg: bok choy stems and halved mushrooms. 
8. Let the vegetables and pasta boil together for another 3-4 minutes before adding the bok choy leaves.
9. Shortly before serving, add 1 tbsp soy sauce (light or dark), a tsp of sesame oil and 2 tsp chilli crisp (1 of the crisp and 1 of the chilli oil).
10. Ladel the ramen into deep, heat-proof bowls and garnish with halved boiled eggs, finely chopped spring onion, fresh coriander and extra chilli crisp (optional). Slurp and enjoy!