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This crockpot crispy caramelized pork ramen noodle soup with curry roasted acorn squash is some real deal Ramen. The mixture of flavors and broth – oh my!! Ramen has always been one of my favorite things to eat and now it’s one that I love to make AND eat – YUM.
Growing up I pretty much lived on Ramen Noodle Soup. Especially during the cold fall and winter months. If you live in northeast Ohio, especially along the lake, like I used to, you know that those months can be brutal. Comforting soup is the best cure-all. The rain, the freezing rain, the snow, the ice, the bitter cold – with no sunshine for days.
UGH.
Ramen, and maybe a roaring wood burning fire, can restore sanity. I would come home from school, boil the water, add the noodles + seasoning and cuddle up on the couch with a big blanket (if I was lucky, the fire was going too), my hot bowl of ramen and either a re-run episode of Gilmore Girls or 7th Heaven.
Ok, that was my ideal day. I cannot say how often that truly happened because I had five other brothers living in the house as well. Getting the TV all to myself meant that I was probably still in grade three, four or five because for some reason those grades got out at 2:45pm. The rest of the grades got out at 3:15 (middle school + high school) and 3:55 (lower elementary school). For the record, Kensington (my upper elementary school) was by far my favorite school, for the sole reason that while attending, I got out earlier than all my siblings. This meant that I had at least an hour alone with my mom after school. With five other siblings + my dad all fighting for her attention, this was obviously the best thing ever to me. It was rare that it was just us girls in the house so I always loved that time after school. Unless of course I had a boatload of homework. Then I was stressed to the max and HAD to get it done right-away (issues).
It’s probably clear I was a total freak. No denying it. I mean what kid does their homework literally right after school? I wouldn’t eat or do anything till it was all done. Mental issues? Yes, yes, yes, I had them and still do, but now they are in different forms…
I have not actually had Ramen Noodle Soup, with the seasoning pack and all, in years because my mom and I sadly found out (at way too young of an age) that Ramen was basically a bunch of processed junk that we did not want to be putting into our bodies. I still remember the day my aunt Alyssa called and broke the news that our beloved Ramen probably wasn’t the best thing to be eating. Daily. And yes, even as a kid I never wanted to eat junk food unless my mom made it from scratch, meaning all her cookies, cakes, K-bars and pies where fair game. I didn’t even like chips. See, total freak.
Last year I made this Thai peanut chicken ramen that I still love and make all the time with angel hair pasta, but this fall it was time for a new Ramen. And um, I have to say that I have totally upped my Ramen making game.
The caramelized pork does the trick. It’s pretty awesome, but I still think the egg… or maybe the curry roasted acorn squash (can’t decide) are my favorites. Together they honestly make the most perfect bowl of ramen.
Bonus, the pork gets cooked all day in the crockpot too. It’s the best way to make this because not only does it make dinner easy, but the pork gets cooked low and slow and creates an incredible broth. Seriously, the broth is out of this world good. There is a little work to do before dinner, you have to roast the acorn squash and get the pork all crispy + caramelized in the skillet, but I promise the extra efforts will be so worth it. You do not HAVE to make the pork all caramelized and crispy. It’s still going to be good if you don’t, but I highly recommend taking the extra ten minutes to do so. It takes the meal to a whole new level. Plus, it totally makes this a Bahn Mi Ramen Noodle Soup.
And the squash, well it’s the perfect fall topping to add to Ramen. I wouldn’t do it any other way. So good.
And those noodles, while nothing will ever compare to real deal Ramen noodles.
Crockpot Caramelized Pork Ramen Noodle Soup w/Curry Roasted Acorn Squash.
Servings: 4 servings
Calories Per Serving: 2018 kcal
Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
Ingredients
Soup
- 2-3 pounds pork shoulder roast or butt
- 4 cups low sodium chicken broth plus more of needed
- 1/4-1/2 cup + 2-4 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce <--Use low sodium
- 1/4 cup + 2-4 tablespoons rice vinegar
- 2 tablespoons fish sauce optional
- 2 tablespoons thai red curry paste
- 1 tablespoon fresh ginger
- 1 tablespoon sambal oelek chili paste, or to taste
- The juice of 1 lime
- 1 tablespoon Chinese five spice
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 2 tablespoons sesame oil
- 1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- 2 cups wild mushrooms left whole - or button mushrooms, sliced
- 4 packs Ramen noodles seasoning packets discarded
- 4 soft boiled or fried eggs for serving
- Chopped carrots sliced jalapenos, cilantro + green onions, for serving
Curry Roasted Acorn Squash
- 1 medium acorn squash seeded + diced
- 2 tablespoons coconut oil melted
- 1 tablespoon curry powder I use spicy curry
- 1 tablespoon white miso paste
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- Pepper to taste
Instructions
- Add the pork to the bowl of a crockpot. Pour the chicken broth, 1/4-1/2 cup soy sauce (depending on your taste), 1/4 cup rice vinegar and fish sauce over the pork. Add the thai red curry paste, ginger, sambal oelek, juice of 1 lime, Chinese five spice powder, black pepper and 1 tablespoon brown sugar. Cover the crockpot and cook on low for 7-8 hours or on high for 4-6 hours (I recommend going low and slow).
- About 40 minutes before you are ready to eat, roast the squash. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
- In a small bowl mix together the melted coconut oil, curry powder, miso, brown sugar and a good pinch of pepper. Add the cubed squash to a greased baking sheet and pour the curry mixture over the squash. Toss well. Bake for 30-40 minutes, tossing a couple of times during cooking. You want the squash to be lightly browned and crisp.
- Meanwhile, remove the pork from the crockpot and add the mushrooms. Cover the crockpot and crank the heat up to high. Lightly shred the pork with two forks or your hands.
- Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Add the sesame oil. Once hot, add enough pork to cover just the surface of your skillet, do not over crowd the skillet. Sprinkle a little brown sugar over the pork, add 2 tablespoons soy sauce and 2 tablespoons rice vinegar, toss. Allow the pork to caramelize, about 2 minutes. Stir and allow the pork to continue to caramelize, about 3-5 minutes total. Remove the pork from the skillet, repeat with the remaining pork. Keep the pork warm.
- Add the Ramen noodles to the crockpot and allow them to cook 5 minutes. Once the noodles are cooked, stir in only half of the pork. Ladle the soup into bowls. Top with extra caramelized pork, curry roasted acorn squash and an egg. Season the egg with salt and pepper, Add the carrots, jalapeños, green onions and cilantro if desired. Happy slurping!
Love this bowl. It’s everything you could ever want in soup.
This post was originally published on September 29, 2014
QUESTION: This looks AMAZING, but I have a fish & seafood allergy – is there a good substitute for fish sauce, or should I just omit it?
Hey Kate, just omit it. No big deal. Hope you love the soup!
Made this tonight and it was one of the best noodle bowls I have ever had. The squash is a treasure all on its own! We subbed rice noodles because we don’t do wheat and it turned out great!
Do you think I could sub the acorn squash with sweet potatoes? I don’t know why but I really struggle with liking squash.
Please, please, please tell me how to make my eggs like yours!! <3
I swear, this was a lucky day for me. Every other time they look horrible.
I see you mentioned to eat it right away since the ramen noodles soak up the broth, is there a way to make this recipe so It can last a few days? I only cook for myself so making big batches means saving the rest for later meals. Thanks for the awesome recipe!
Hey Alisa, just cook the noodles as directed and then store the soup and noodles separately. Then just heat the soup in a bowl and add your desired amount of noodles. This way you can save the leftovers without the noodles getting soggy. Hope you love this!
Can’t wait to try this recipe! Sorry if someone mentioned this already, but you can get “healthy” ramen noodles at any Asian market or online. They are basically just wheat flour and water. I make them all the time with miso broth and whatever greens I have in the fridge for a better-for-you ramen soup.
Love this tip! Thanks!
looks delicious! do you remove the skin from the acorn squash? i’ve recently read that acorn squash skin is edible, but have never tried it.
Hey Laura! I leave the acorn squash skin on, I love it!
I see you’ve used low sodium soy sauce in your recipe (probably to minimize sodium content in your broth, which makes sense). However, from experience, low sodium soy sauce is generally not aged like normal soy sauce, and is instead made by chemical hydrolization. Thus, I recommend you try using a “dark” soy sauce (if you’ve only tried “light” soy sauce).
In general, dark soy sauce is much less salty, but it colorizes broths much more (i.e. your broth may end up looking darker), but dark soy sauce does pack a much stronger umami (savory) flavor, and it’s known for its nuttiness, and I have picked out hints of mushroom and such in some brands, so don’t be afraid to sample around a bit.
Even better, dark soy sauce is usually made by the traditional brewing method (as is regular, light soy sauce), and is thus less processed.
Yes, winters by this darn lake definitely require bowls of hot steamy soup with noodles…really any will do, however this looks like just the trick!
Hi there – I am eating vegetarian – wondering if you have a substitute for the pork, and how you would adjust cook times and broth?
My wife is vegetarian so I am wondering the same thing. I am thinking about replacing the chicken broth with a mushroom broth and using caramelized onions to replace the umami flavor from the pork. Without the pork, there is not much of a case to do this in the slow cooker for 8 hrs, using high for 4-6 should be more than enough.
I, however, love meat and am thinking about when my wife will be out of town next so I can make the original recipe. The picture looks so delicious I was nearly licking my screen!
That sounds interesting. How many onions would you use and where does one buy mushroom broth? I like this idea – could maybe also get some dried shitakes and use the rehydrated water…
Here’s a recipe for mushroom broth :http://www.chow.com/recipes/30304-easy-mushroom-broth
You might be able to find it at a grocery store, or it can be bought on Amazon.
I would start with one large whole sweet onion and see if that worked.
Hey Colin! I think you vegetarian version sounds pretty awesome! Let me know if you have any questions. Hope you love this which ever way you decide to go! 🙂
I would bump up the mushrooms, add them in the beginning and use veggie or mushroom broth and reduce the cooking time to 2-4 hours. Let me know if you have any questions.
Can you use beef instead? If so what cut would you recommend?
I would use short ribs. That would be awesome!
This looks amazing. I’m a pescatarian but I really want to try this! Could you recommend a seafood of vegetable(s) I could use instead of pork? Thank you!!
Hey Katherine!!
I would use tuna, but do not cook it all day. I would add it towards the end of cooking. You could also just use all vegetables. I would use broccoli, bok choy, butternut squash, edamame and or bell peppers. I think both options or combo of the two would be great. Let me now if you have any other questions, hope you love the soup!
I followed this recipe to the T. Unfortunately, while tasty, it was a little too salty. Next time I’m going to cut back in some of the soy sauce, fish sauce, etc.
Yes, it is a salty meal…glad you still thought it was tasty. Hope you can adjust to you liking next time.
So yeah, I made more broth that was a lot less salty for the leftovers. Both me and my boyfriend agree it was a million times better with the new broth and leftovers. The pork shoulder and other ingredients added the extra seasoning it needed. That Acorn Squash by itself is pretty amazing!
Oh awesome!! So glad you could adjust it to your liking. THANKS!
Yes! Same here. Loved the creative spin on an authentic dish. I think this salt level was perfect as a brine for cooking the meat, but as a soup broth it was salty to an unpalatable degree. In addition to halving the fish and soy sauces, I recommend using plain red pepper flakes instead of the sambal olek- its ingredients are just red pepper, salt, and vinegar (of which there is plenty in the broth already). I might even replace one cup of broth with plain ol’ water.
Thanks for sharing, Halfbakedharvest. Keep on rocking the kitchen!
Wow! The photography is fantastic! No wonder this has been posted all over the internet. I am jealous of your artistic talents! I also recognize that you didn’t ask for anyone’s opinion, but alas, everyone is a critic. Especially me! 😉
First off, let me say that I read a few reviews I didn’t really agree with. I don’t see what one gentleman called a “hodgepodge of spices”. Maybe he was using old stuff. Also, who gives a hoot if it’s authentic or not? It’s “authentic Jen’s Kitchen style” ramen. I’m a big acorn squash fan, and I loved the addition of umami with the miso, and the curry spice was everything I had hoped it to be! I sprinkled a little extra sugar over the top which mixed incompletely with the oil/spice mixture, and caramelized on the baking sheet — these pieces attached to the squash were crispy and candylike. I think I’ve found a new go-to squash recipe.
I was very skeptical about all the soy sauce you were adding in the video. It looked like a lot, and it sure proved to be. I’m glad I bought the extra half gallon of low sodium chicken stock to dilute with. It was still very rich (thank pork), and still too salty, but I ran out of volume in my slow cooker after adding a quart. In the future, I would reduce soy sauce and sugar used in the broth to 1/4 of what is listed in the recipe, and also half or quarter it in the caramelization step. You should probably fix the recipe with some strike-outs/amendments regarding the salt as using low sodium soy sauce alone is woefully inadequate correct this issue. I also wouldn’t feed this to anyone with a high blood pressure or a heart condition, but nobody has ever said that Maruchan, Mama, or Neoguri were healthy either! 🙂
In general, I’m always wary of reducing anything that has any salt to it. Same for many ingredients imparting bitterness. Soy sauce is pretty infamous for becoming too salty in a reduction if you use even a little too much, but it can still be done very well (see iterations of Chinese brown sauce — rice wine, vinegar, soy sauce, ginger, garlic, sugar).
Other smaller tweaks I’d make is to rely on the pork fat for the carmelization step and add sesame at the end with the garnishes if you really want that toasted sesame flavor. Two reasons I say this are that it’s got a low smoke point, and cooking with it kind of ruins the flavor in this humble critic’s opinion. Equally valid opinions may vary.
All-in-all a nice starting point, and incredibly photogenic! I’m looking forward to your food photography masterclass! Keep up the good work!
Take a gander at some recipes for Tonkotsu ramen if you love pork. The broth gets milky white with fat, and is such great comfort food.
Hey Mark! WOW! Thank you for such a detailed comment, I am amazed! So glad you like the photos. I am so glad you enjoyed the recipe and I enjoyed reading all you comments and tips, thank you! I will look up Tonkotsu ramen!! Thanks again and have a great Thanksgiving!
On your ingredient list it says 1/4 cup vinegar, but in your description it says 1/2 cup vinegar. I did the latter. Is it supposed to be pretty vinegary? If not how would I mellow it out?
Hey David, 1/2 cup should be fine, but if it is a tad too vinegary just add chicken broth or water to mellow it out. Hope you love this!
This soup was AH-mazing!!! I don’t normally comment on recipes, but this one demanded it!! My husband asked if I could make this once a week, he loved it so much!! Thanks for a delicious recipe. I can’t wait to try more of yours!
THANK YOU!! I am so excited you loved the soup. That makes my day! Hope you love everything else you try as well! Have great rest of the week! 🙂