Vegan Ramen

1. Heat up the oven 200° C / 390° F and grab a large baking dish.
   
   
2. Wash carrots and celery, dry with a kitchen towel and chop into 4 cm / 1.5″ chunks. Peel sweet potato and cube it into 1.25 cm / 0.5″ pieces. Leave garlic cloves unpeeled and whole. Leave onion unpeeled but trim the root and chop into quarters.
   
   
3. Coat all of the vegetables in about 2 tbsp of oil and arrange them on a baking tray. I like to keep the sweet potato pieces all together. Bake for about 20 minutes.
   
   
4. After 20 minutes, stir 1 tbsp of red miso paste through the vegetables. Carry on baking for another 20-25 minutes, until the veggies get lightly charred.
   
   
5. Towards the end of the baking time, heat up 1 tbsp oil in a large pot. Add ginger, 4 garlic cloves, spring onions and a good pinch of coarse salt. Sauté, stirring frequently, until the veggies get nicely caramelised (not burnt though).
   
   
6. Remove the veggies from the oven once ready. Place sweet potato chunks and garlic cloves aside. Add the rest of the baked veggies to the pot with ginger, garlic and spring onions. Add 1 litre / 4 cups of water (use some of this water to deglaze the baking tray and add that to the pot too). Then add shiitake and kombu and their liquids (if you have had a chance to soak them earlier otherwise add an extra 480 ml / 2 cups of water).
   
   
7. Bring to a gentle (low heat) simmer and allow everything to simmer very gently for about 60-90 minutes. Remove kombu after about 20 minutes as it doesn’t like prolonged cooking.
   
   
8. While your stock is simmering, prepare your noodles and other toppings. Pick whatever you have in your pantry.
   
   
9. Place sweet potato cubes and squeezed out garlic cloves (discard the skins) and soy milk in the blender. Blitz until smooth – we will use this to make the broth heartier, creamier and more aromatic. If you don’t have a blender, mash the potato and garlic with a fork and blend until smooth with soy milk using a wire whisk – it won’t be as silky smooth but it will do just fine.
   
   
10. Strain the stock, reserving all the shiitake for the topping. Squeeze all of vegetables well to obtain maximum flavour in your stock. You should get approximately 1 litre / 4 cups of stock at this point – top up with more water if necessary. Return strained stock to the pot and whisk sweet potato / garlic / soy milk mixture in and finely grated garlic clove to add a bit of brightness to the soup. Warm up.
    
    
11. Place flavourings at the bottom of each serving bowl – adjust to taste. I used 2 tsp sesame paste, 1 tsp miso, 1 tsp mirin, 1 tsp tamari / soy sauce and 2 tsp rice vinegar. Top with 300 ml / 1¼ cups of broth and whisk well. Add cooked noodles and the rest of your toppings.

 *You can replace this with 1 litre / 4 cups of quality vegan stock. If you choose to do that, add the tablespoon of miso in step 3 – after the veggies have caramelised a little already.