Ramen Noodles Backpacking Recipes

[pickle]

I would like to get some different Ramen Noodles Backpacking Recipes.

[Maui Rhino]

The beauty of ramen is that you can throw just about anything you like into them. I like to add dehydrated or fresh veggies and some meat... Maybe spam, tuna or chicken packs, fresh caught trout, jerky, or whatever's handy. If you're just coming from a resupply, throwing some egg in its also great. If you enjoy eating items A, B, and C, they're probably pretty good in ramen too.

[rafe]

Bits of pepperjack cheese. An addition to the aforementioned.

[Odd Man Out]

Stir in some PB and hot peppers to make fake Pad Thai.

[Tipi Walter]

The worst part of most ramen is they contain MSG---a non-starter.

[Traillium]

Is the MSG in the noodles? Or in the spice packet?
(I typically do not use the spice packet.)


Bruce Traillium

[Tipi Walter]

MSG is in the packet. Don't see the point in buying a product of which a good portion of the meal and taste is thrown out, i.e. the flavor packet.

[Christoph]

Chicken Ramen in Loaded baked potato, all wrapped in a tortilla with the inside covered with peanut butter and cheese whiz. We called it the Ramen Bomb, but man was it delicious out there on the trail at the time. Tried it at home, didn't have the same effect though. Was pretty gross now that I think about it. Yea...

[Traillium]

MSG is in the packet. Don't see the point in buying a product of which a good portion of the meal and taste is thrown out, i.e. the flavor packet.

Cheap easily-rehydratable somewhat fat-rich carbs?

[Dogwood]

peanut butter, peanuts, sprinkle of sesame seeds, red pepper flakes or a tiny bit of Thai chili, packet soy sauce(No MSG), fresh green onion, ginger(easy to get fresh), bit of fresh garlic, sesame oil or a good chili oil, sprinkle of seaweed(might try Hijiki, salty Dulse, or wakame, Nori strips work too and are wisely available) - cold or hot, can be made with SOBA brand buckwheat noodles too, like chicken, jerky, shrimp(some Hispanic stores sell dried shrimp), or tofu add that

I agree with Tipi on the MSG. Leave it out. It's in the "flavor" packet of cheap cheap cheaply(less than 12 cts per package) made Ramen like Maruchuan and Nissin Top Ramen brands. Noodles aren't all that healthy either. What does one think they are putting into their minds and bodies with a package of "food" that cost less than 3 cts to manufacture?

However, for the umpteenth time PLEASE widen the perspective on what one considers Ramen. Ramen is available well beyond those two narrow options. And their flavor packets don't contain MSG. Might consider taste Of Thai Rice Noodle packages as an alternative. Prepackaged noodle bowls meant for heating in a microwave is an option too. Remove from packaging, break up a bit, and repackage into a Ziploc saving bulk and packaging wt. Drop in hot water . Ouila. No microwave needed.

Personally I avoid the Maruchuan and Nissin whenever possible and make my own tweaking as desired so that I get a better understanding of what I'm consuming.

[Dogwood]

Proof is in the picture and if you are familiar with Tipi's adventures and work. Look at Tipi. Consider what he does, the trail work he's involved, the wt he carries, the time of yr he's always out, the energy he has, his active lifestyle, his lack of complaining about physical issues due to his active lifestyle, …….etc. He's no couch potato! Looks like a fit bearded warrior Knight of the Round table to me. He's doing something right. PERHAPS, it has to do with his lifestyle including his attention to what he consumes? ???? Perhaps, his high activity level and lack of health issues is the result, at least in part, to attention of his diet? ???? :confused:

[egilbe]

What does Tipi eat, besides watermelon? Sounds like a thread topic.

[rafe]

Nongshim brand "Shin Ramyun" is the super spicy variety with no added msg. Net weight (dry) 4 oz. vs. 3 oz. for the cheap stuff. But a lot more expensive, a buck a pack. (Regular stuff is $.20 per pack.)

Hey it's not al that good for you but it hits the spot after a long day of hiking. Mix whatever you want into it to give it substance and real nutrition. "Recipe" is too fine a term for what I do.

[firesign]

I would like to get some different Ramen Noodles Backpacking Recipes.

Ramen Noodles: full of nutritional value, especially when eaten with food!

[Dogwood]

Tipi has discussed it including the details of what's in his food and how he makes it. I'm jus thrown this out there as info and options. It's obviously needed adding to the topic.

[Bronk]

MSG is in the packet. Don't see the point in buying a product of which a good portion of the meal and taste is thrown out, i.e. the flavor packet.Where else can you get a pack of noodles in a single serve package for 10 to 25 cents?

Here's my favorite ramen noodle recipe for backpacking:

--Throw away the spice pack
--Boil noodles, drain water
--Cook precooked bacon until crispy enough to crumble into tiny pieces.
--Crumble bacon over noodles.
--Sprinkle liberally with parmesan cheese (you can save those little packets they give you when you order pizza)
--Sprinkle with crushed red pepper (same deal, they come with pizza)
--Garlic or garlic powder
--Parsley
--Coat liberally in olive oil.

[Traillium]

Tipi has discussed it including the details of what's in his food and how he makes it. I'm jus thrown this out there as info and options. It's obviously needed adding to the topic.

Go for it! He — and you as well as others — are gold mines for me!

[smoovoperator]

dehydrated veggies step it up a notch. I like to put spicy Thai tuna in with shrimp flavor.

[Dogwood]

Folks will drop bookoo bucks on all sorts of expensive gear and accessories or going lighter wt or electronic gizmos and an untold number of other gadgets yet tightwad what goes into their mind and body. If you are what you eat has one iota of truth I don't get the logic. Why not invest in yourself in who you are including what you consume rather than prioritizing what you have? Isn't being healthy being wealthy? Doesn't nutrition influence health?

[Tipi Walter]

Look at Tipi. . . . his lack of complaining about physical issues due to his active lifestyle, …….etc

My body has its own certain set of weaknesses which must be dealt with in varying ways, diet being one helpful factor along with some amount of exercise.

For those who have the time and who hate to exercise, backpacking is the perfect solution. Your shuttle ride drops you off at some trailhead. You have 3 weeks worth of gear and food on your back. You want to hike every day in exploration-mode and then come out alive to eventually meet your evac ride.

In order to do all this you have to walk. The choice then is simple: Either walk with a hefty pack or curl up in a fetal ball and collapse. It's difficult to be a couch potato on a backpacking trip. At home with a TV or computer is a different story.

[Stitches]

I don't like ramen noodles---too messy to eat. I love couscous, which is easy to cook AND easy to eat. Add dehydrated veggies, bacon bits or chopped turkey jerky or dried beef, and whatever spice or sauce you like. There are many varieties available.

[Miel]

I don't like ramen noodles---too messy to eat. I love couscous, which is easy to cook AND easy to eat. Add dehydrated veggies, bacon bits or chopped turkey jerky or dried beef, and whatever spice or sauce you like. There are many varieties available.

I do love me some couscous!

[Venchka]

Why do people continue to rave about Ramen?
There are alternatives.
Hakubaku brand noodles from Australia cook fast, taste good and aren't loaded with junk.
http://www.hakubaku.com/en/
Enjoy.

Wayne


Sent from somewhere around here.

[Miel]

How about dehydrating spaghetti squash? Taste and texture just like angel hair pasta.

[nsherry61]

How about dehydrating spaghetti squash? Taste and texture just like angel hair pasta.
Actually, many different left over cooked noodle dishes from home that are dehydrated, rehydrate quite well and taste very good.

[lonehiker]

On a long trip I will eat ramen (w/tuna or spam) with the spice packet about once a resupply. On short trips I have a ramen recipe that calls for dehydrated burger and veggies but no spice packet. At home I might have ramen for lunch 3 - 4 times a month. I don't mind ramen.

[Cadenza]

The ramen sold in typical American grocery stores is crap!

But you can get good quality ramen (without MSG!) from Korean/oriental markets. There simply is no comparison.

[Miel]

But you can get good quality ramen (without MSG!) from Korean/oriental markets. There simply is no comparison.

^^This^^

And on my spaghetti squash comment: the problem is, the thing contains almost no calories. Ramens are like 300 calories for one of those small packages.

[Dogwood]

^^This^^

And on my spaghetti squash comment: the problem is, the thing contains almost no calories. Ramens are like 300 calories for one of those small packages.

Expand thee mind. Not many calories in a tuna packet(especially packed in water) or dehydrated mashed potatoes(just potatoes!) or pasta(just pasta) either. But people take them on trail because they can have ingredients added that can change the nutritional profile including increasing the caloric content.

How about this? Don't look at a meal basing it on only one ingredient? Have you ever eaten a burger and just eaten a burger patty or spaghetti and nothing else?

Add some tahini, nuts(pumpkin and sunflower seeds come to mind), seeds, oil, coconut, spices(turmeric and cumin come to mind), some type of cream or dehydrated milk, etc

[Dogwood]

How about the empty calories in refined sugar, AND CONSIDERING IT'S ABSOLUTELY DISMAL OVERALL NUTRITIONAL PROFILE, yet hikers carry this on trail in mass amounts as added to "food" in their many highly processed choices. Worse, the FDA approved ingredient labeling laws allow the "food" industry to hide it on packaging by it being masqueraded as alternative names.

[MuddyWaters]

Some fbc recipes with ramen on Sarah Kirkconnells site trailcooking.com


Ramen noodles, pearled couscous, minute rice. All precooked and work exceptionally well with fbc

[shawnb]

The worst part of most ramen is they contain MSG---a non-starter.

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2005/jul/10/foodanddrink.features3

"We now know that glutamate is present in almost every food stuff, and that the protein is so vital to our functioning that our own bodies produce 40 grams of it a day. Probably the most significant discovery in explaining human interest in umami is that human milk contains large amounts of glutamate (at about 10 times the levels present in cow's milk). Babies have very basic taste buds: it's believed that mother's milk offers two taste enhancements - sugar (as lactose) and umami (as glutamate) in the hope that one or other will get the little blighters drinking. Which means mothers' milk and a packet of cheese'n'onion crisps have rather more in common than you'd think."

[shawnb]

I often add Miso base (Kikkoman makes a decent one) to common ramen noodles - replacing the included spice pack. Miso is extremely lightweight. I'm fond of the Miyasaka brand (can be obtained via Amazon.) Add a pork based meat (precooked bacon or, if you want to get extravagant soy-glazed spam) and it's amazing.

[Spogatz]

I kick mine up with a a foil packet of Chicken breast meat. MMMmmmmmm

[show me the monkey]

I saw this at supermarket checkout some years ago, but didn't buy it. It might be worth a look: http://www.amazon.com/101-Things-Do-Ramen-Noodles/dp/1586857355

[rocketsocks]

I don't like ramen noodles---too messy to eat. I love couscous, which is easy to cook AND easy to eat. Add dehydrated veggies, bacon bits or chopped turkey jerky or dried beef, and whatever spice or sauce you like. There are many varieties available.
tip o' the day

break up the ramen by crushing in bag best you can, makes it much less messy and is a joy to drink right from a mug
~soup is good food. :)

[rocketsocks]

tip o' the day

break up the ramen by crushing in bag best you can, makes it much less messy and is a joy to drink right from a mug
~soup is good food. :)
Here's how I do it.
Bend bag in half just enough to break noodles, give bag 1/4 turn and repeat. Now use the heals of your hands to mash the little quartered club sandwich pieces tip broken up.

[chknfngrs]

1:1 ratio of honey and Texas Pete

[Hangfire]

I tried the ramen noodles hot chocolate combo a couple of times, not as bad as you would think, even got the German kids to give it a go. Of course I didn't add the flavor packets in that format.

For normal ramen I like the chicken flavor the best, and as for the MSG, you're either allergic to it or you're not, most people are not.

[shawnb]

I tried the ramen noodles hot chocolate combo a couple of times, not as bad as you would think, even got the German kids to give it a go. Of course I didn't add the flavor packets in that format.

For normal ramen I like the chicken flavor the best, and as for the MSG, you're either allergic to it or you're not, most people are not.

In all likelihood, nobody is allergic to it. Glutamate (MSG is glutamate stabilized by salt, and indistinguishable by humans from other forms of glutamate) is part of every protein in our bodies. Per the link I posted above, it is a component of human breast milk - arguably the most natural food for humans. It's naturally present in all sorts of things - parmesan cheese is loaded with it, as are tomatoes.

The MSG hysteria is a sort of weird food hysteria that is somewhat analogous to the current stir over gluten, of which ~1% of the population actually does have a legitimate issue with.

[Del Q]

Better life through chemicals...........honestly, I am too old to begin worrying about all of the crappy food I have eaten for decades.

Ramen?

Easy. Around lunchtime when you purify your water, possibly with chemicals, put some H2O into a ziploc filled with crunched up Ramen and whatever spices, packets, chemicals you like, let it shake & stir until dinner, it grows into a killer bag of noodles, ready to eat, no cook. YUMMY

[CarlZ993]

I have a few recipes w/ Ramen. But, typically, I use Ramen as a filler to another food - Mac & Cheese, Pasta Side, etc. One Ramen block (minus flavor pack) & a Pasta Side makes a big, tasty meal. I'll add some meat (Chicken, bacon, spam, etc) to it quite often. For a meal for two, I'll add a Ramen block to a box of Mac & Cheese (w/o flavor packet), add some meat, & often extra cheese. Makes a filling meal for two. On both recipes, I'll boil 3 C of water, mix the ingredients in my pot, & place the pot in my pot cozy.

[Miel]

I have a few recipes w/ Ramen. But, typically, I use Ramen as a filler to another food - Mac & Cheese, Pasta Side, etc. One Ramen block (minus flavor pack) & a Pasta Side makes a big, tasty meal. I'll add some meat (Chicken, bacon, spam, etc) to it quite often. For a meal for two, I'll add a Ramen block to a box of Mac & Cheese (w/o flavor packet), add some meat, & often extra cheese. Makes a filling meal for two. On both recipes, I'll boil 3 C of water, mix the ingredients in my pot, & place the pot in my pot cozy.

That's a great idea!

I often use tofu as a filler for day-hiker (and here at home), but IIRC, tofu doesn't keep well? Does anyone know?

[Singto]

Hilarious, people here putting other people down for their choice of foods (Ramen). Let people hike their own hike and eat their own eats. Nothing, and I mean nothing considered as edible food stuffs is going to harm you when consumed under the "moderation" concept. I liken some of these posts to be the same as people crying that you're gonna get cancer from eating bacon but they haven't a clue that you must eat pounds of bacon every week, year after year for years to substantially be at risk. Most people place their lives and health exponentially more at risk each day as they go about their daily routines than they would eating Ramen regularly. Most are just too uninformed to know it.

[rocketsocks]

Fried Polenta if ya have a wood fire going and a small skillet will kick up a ramen dish to another level.

[rocketsocks]

...wood cause real grits take time, and the frying of.

[Pedaling Fool]

I can make a kickass meal using ramen noodles and various dehydrated veggies and jerky...

[rafe]

I have a few recipes w/ Ramen. But, typically, I use Ramen as a filler to another food - Mac & Cheese, Pasta Side, etc.

That's like having Wonder Bread on a hot dog bun. :eek:

[Miel]

That's like having Wonder Bread on a hot dog bun. :eek:

I don't like white bread, but there was a good article in The Atlantic about the origins of white bread, how people preferred it way back when because they thought they could see impurities in the bread. Apparently it's not as bad for us as some would believe, but to me it sure does taste like soft cardboard.