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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
First of all, your food photography skills are amazing! That dish looks so wonderful. I found it on a site offering 50 best slow cooker recipes and yours was the one I wanted to make first. Unfortunately, it didn’t end up tasting as amazing as I’d hoped. I’m posting this not as negative feedback to you –I’ve looked at more of your recipes and they are tremendous– but more as a heads up to others considering making this recipe. First the positive: That pork was outstanding! And it’s definitely worth the caramelizing procedure. It’s good either way, but you won’t regret that step. Also, I think the curried acorn squash was great too. I’m not a huge squash fan, but that was pretty good for squash. If you are a squash or roasted veggie fan, you’ll LOVE it. For me, it was the broth that was so disappointing. I used low sodium soy sauce and low sodium chicken broth, but this broth was ridiculously salty. And I like salt. And so does my husband, but even he didn’t want to keep the leftovers. I made the recipe as stated, just leaving out the sambal oolek (sp?) or whatever it was. I didn’t want it to be too hot since I was hoping my kids would eat it. In addition to being too salty, I think there was just too much going on with the broth in general. Also, by cooking the pork in it, it was very greasy. The pork was outstanding of course. So people might want to consider serving this not as soup, but as shredded pork and roasted squash with a side of ramen. 🙂 Also, as another poster mentioned, there are a lot of steps to this recipe so it’s not quite the best if you usually use your slow cooker to streamline your dinner prep. Thank you anyway!
Thank you so much and for voicing you thoughts. Happy New Year!
I wanted to let you know I made this recipe, exactly except I found ramen noodles without the seasoning packets. I really hate that ramen noodles with the seasoning packs. (Sorry fans of it!) But I love the real deal. I have to say this was A LOT of work to make, lol but it was worth it. My husband is singing my praises for making this delicious soup. I think it might be a semi-regular meal. Not regular mind you, because it was A LOT of work, but when he bugs me enough, I’ll do it. 😉 Thanks for all your hard work developing it and all the pictures and instructions.
Looks very nice. Betting it tastes even better!
I just made this the other day and it was delicious! It still tastes amazing days later. Plus everyone loved it.
I’ve purchased everything I need to make this delicious looking recipe except for the miso,paste which I couldn’t find. Any suggestions on a substitution?
Hey Brenda, the miso is hard to replace, but for this recipe, you can just eave it off the squash. Hope you love it!
i have made this dish twice: once because it sounded so good and a second time just to verify my first impression. i did not deviate from the recipe, used all the correct ingredients etc.there were 6 of us tasting all ramen fans.
the best thing was the sous vide soft boiled eggs. the broth was both bland and greasy[ yes i skimmed the fat]. it was disappointing to wait 8 hours to discover that.
Sorry you feel that way.
Skimming the fat while it is still hot will make the broth bland in most cases. To prevent that from happening, let he broth cool till the fat solidifies on top. Then you just remove it.
Rationale: Food flavors are usually “fat soluble” but when the fat begins to solidify, it tends to exclude the flavors while doing so.
Just made this last night, and it is so good!! Few comments though. The broth recipe calls for 1/4 cup rice vinegar but in the directions it says 1/2 cup. I erred on the side of caution and did 1/4 cup, and it tasted great. Also, the broth recipe calls for 1/4 cup brown sugar plus some, but in the directions it said to only add a tablespoon to the broth. I found that the broth was intense after the 7 hours and so I added in the 1/4 cup sugar. I also found “fresh” ramen noodles at the asian market 🙂 Such a great recipe — the squash and the pork are both incredible. And egg zomg
Haha sorry, I just read some of the other comments that mentioned the rice vinegar.
So happy loved and thank you for your tips! 🙂
I’m sure I’m not the first to tell you this, but if you were marketing a paper-and-ink cookbook with that recipe in it, I would buy one for myself and at least two as gifts. Hell, if you were selling a cookbook with ONLY this recipe in it I’d still probably buy it as a “thank you” for putting this dish in my life. I look forward to trying more of your work. (Context: I cook from food blogs at least once per week, and I’ve never even considered commenting on one, but this recipe more than earned the honor of receiving my first comment. You’ve done strong work here.)
Oh wow!! Thank you so much for since a nice comment, Russ! So happy you love this recipe and that you decided to comment!
Is the fish sauce really necessary? I would love to cut back on the saltiness and the fish sauce makes me gag every time.
Hey Jay, if you do not like it, just leave it out. No big deal. Enjoy!
I made this last night and it was great! There is just a couple of things I wanted to mention to warn those who make it in the future….
1. Don’t add any salt! I used all the ingredients as directed (with the exception of white miso paste – my market didn’t have it so I used red miso paste) but I added salt to taste on the eggs. This dish was very very salty so when making it next time, I would find the lowest sodium ingredients.
2. BEWARE OF THE FISH SAUCE! This dish came out so delicious that my husband had 2 bowls, I had 1 and my toddler son had a small bowl of just noodles. We all could not sleep last night! We were all wide awake. My son was acting pretty wacky and I couldn’t figure out why we couldn’t sleep. My husband and I are usually great sleepers. My husband, who is a doctor, thought that we could have had MSG in the dish. After doing some internet research, I found that the fish sauce could have had MSG. It could depend on the brand of fish sauce, I don’t know. So warning – it could happen to you. My family does not have any allergies so this situation was really weird for us. I am not a great cook so I highly rely on these recipes to feed my family. I am not good at coming up with substitutes. If you could come up with one, please share it because I would LOVE to have this dish again (just without the side effects!!!)
Thank you! So happy you love this soup and THANK YOU so much for these tips. Especially the one about the fish sauce, who knew!?!
Made this tonight and it was a huge it! I can’t wait to use the preparation of the pork for other purposes. Thanks! 🙂
So happy you loved this, thanks! 🙂
Question….I accidentally put the sesame oil in the soup….think it will ruin it? I’m nervous…..
It will be great! Enjoy! 🙂
Looking forward to this! However, you say 1/4 cup rice vinegar in the ingredient list, but 1/2 cup within the instructions. Which one do you mean?
Hey Erica, so sorry about that. It is 1/4 cup. Hope you love the soup!
I noticed the same thing when I made it last week but it was too late – I had already added 1/2 cup of rice vinegar! Pork turned out too dry and the broth was way too vinegary :[ the curry-roasted squash was amazing though. Will have to try it again with the correct amount of vinegar.
So sorry for the trouble. Glad you liked the squash!
This dish was really amazing- as soon as i saw the recipe i knew i had to make it the next day- did not disappoint. I was so pleased with the complexity of the broth, and I finished it with some siracha and homemade chili oil for added heat. I made it with soba noodles just for fun (and because i just had good traditional ramen a few days ago). Definitely going to be a fall staple in my house. Thanks!
Thank you!! So happy you love this! 🙂
Well I definitely wouldn’t call it an authentic ramen. The flavor palette is thai/chinese. I was hoping for more of a traditional tonkatsu type broth. I think too much is going on in there. I dont know about the red curry, lime, and chinese five spice in the broth. It was more of like a tom yum type of soup which is fine but I really like japanese ramen.