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How to Make Instant Ramen Better with Healthy Ideas

By Peter Reyes

When I was a struggling student in Tokyo back in 90s, I didn't have much money to spend on dine-out meals or takeaways. Things are jaw-dropping expensive in Japan, and I remembered the cheapest meal (¥ 900) I had was at a stand up noodle bar in Shinjuku. So I had to make do with whatever that was within my tight budget – packets of cheap no-frills instant ramen or instant noodles.

Yes, I've read those horror stories circulating online about instant noodles ranging from hair loss to cancer risks. There's no denying that instant ramen are unhealthy, loaded with notorious health saboteurs like fat, MSG, sodium, preservatives, artificial colorings, all packaged into one meal.

However, there are many recipes to transform Mr. Villain into a nice guy, and here are a few ways how I cook instant noodles.

How to Make Instant Noodles Healthy

Although there's still an ongoing debate whether instant ramen contain wax and that it takes about 4 to 5 days for the body to excrete the wax (??) but if you're concerned, here's what you should do:

1. Boil the instant noodles in a pot with water.

2. Once they're cooked, remove and discard cooking liquid.

3. Next, bring another pot of water to a boil, then place your cooked noodles into the pot and turn off the fire.

4. Add in soup mix to make ramen soup or remove cooked ramen and toss with instant mix to have dry noodles.

I usually use just ⅓ of the instant mix when making dry ramen. If you prefer a stronger flavor, you are free to use ½ packet.

Another way to significantly reduce MSG consumption is to use a little soy sauce, sugar and pepper for seasoning.

Or, create your own seasoning with a combination tomato sauce and yellow mustard. A little tomato sauce, Thai chili sauce and oyster sauce for a spicy kick. I sometimes flavor the instant noodles with XO sauce (a spicy seafood sauce, which is available in the Asian aisles of your local supermarket).

Avoid slurping the msg-laden soup if you don’t want to drown yourself in gallons of water after the meal. Limit to a few tablespoons, just for the taste.

Instant ramen offer nothing more than refined carbohydrates, fat, very little protein and not much fiber. So to pump up the nutrition of instant noodles, add protein and fiber.

You can toss in shrimps, canned crab meat, shredded chicken or turkey breast, thickly-sliced plain ham, eggs, tofu cubes, and fresh or frozen mixed vegetables (spinach, napa cabbage, celery, tomatoes, broccoli, mushrooms are great) to any basic instant ramen or noodles recipes.

You might also want to consider non-fried instant noodles. The ramen is air-dried instead of being fried. Healthy brands of instant noodles also don’t have added preservatives, food coloring or MSG. They are also lower in sodium content and no trans fat.

There are vegetarian friendly instant ramen that don’t contain egg or animal products.

A few of my favorite healthy instant ramen noodles brands include assam laksa (Maggi), spicy black pepper (Koka), and Nutri noodles (Cinta).

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