This Cold Ramen recipe is perfect for when you need cooling down on a hot summer's day. This dish is inspired by Japanese Hiyashi Chuka, a delicious cold noodle soup recipe. The chewy noodles are combined with a homemade cold ramen dressing and topped with tomato, carrot, edamame beans, cucumber, prawns, and nori. I hope you enjoy the recipe!
This is honestly such a fun, bright, and tasty dish to enjoy on a hot summer's day. It's really simple to make and takes less than 15 minutes to rustle up. I've made the ramen dressing using a base of chicken stock and topped with prawns, but you can absolutely make this into a vegan version using veggie stock and topping the cold ramen with tofu! I'll provide more ingredient details below!
Another light dish that I love to eat in summer is my vermicelli noodle recipe which is made all in one pan! If you're not in the mood for noodles, then my sushi sandwich is a great option to make for lunch on a summer day!
If you're looking for more ramen recipes (but hot ones), then you'll love my marry me chicken ramen and my lemon chicken ramen.
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Why you'll love this recipe
Easy: This recipe requires minimal ingredients and virtually no cooking.
Cold: Despite ramen being known for being eaten hot, it's also a great dish to serve cold, to cool you down on a hot summer's day. You can optionally add in some ice cubes to the broth to make it ice cold!
Customisable: Another thing I love about this cold ramen recipe is that you can add any kind of toppings you fancy. I've chosen to go for tomatoes, carrot, green onions, prawns, edamame beans, and cucumber, but you could add on tofu, sweet corn, pak choi...whatever you have in the fridge!
Ingredients & Substitutions
Chicken stock: I've used a store-bought chicken stock here. If you're boiling water and then adding it to a stock cube, make sure to cool it in the fridge. Or you can add in ice cubes to make it cold. If you're wanting to make this veggie, feel free to use veggie stock. You could also use beef or fish stock if you want to jazz up the flavours.
Soy sauce: For a lovely element of seasoning, we are using low sodium light soy sauce.
Honey: For sweetness in our cold ramen dressing, I'm using honey. If you don't want to use that, then you could use sugar syrup, agave, or maple syrup.
Lime: For acidity and extra flavour, we're using lime juice. If you don't have lime juice, you could use ½ tablespoon of rice wine vinegar.
Ginger: I love using fresh grated ginger to add a freshness and spice to the ramen soup. I wouldn't recommend using ground ginger. You could also add some grated garlic if you want more WOW flavour.
Sesame oil: A nuttiness and smokiness from the sesame oil is so gorgeous. It also gives a lovely oily film on the top of the cold ramen broth. You could also use peanut oil or walnut oil.
Tomato: For the toppings, I've used sliced beef tomatoes.
Cucumber: Sliced fresh cucumbers, julienned. Baby cucumbers could work, as well as red bell pepper or thinly sliced courgettes.
Carrot: I've decided to grate the carrot for this recipe.
Spring onion: For garnish, green onions are great to add a bit of an oniony flavour and freshness. Feel free to alternatively use pickled onions or chives.
Edamame beans: Crunchy and super healthy, edamame beans are great addition to this recipe.
Prawns: Or shrimps, I've used pre-cooked ones but feel free to cook them yourself. If you don't fancy prawns, you could sub it out for cooked chicken breast, imitation crab meat, sliced ham, or for a vegan option, fried tofu.
Nori: For the topping, we've got some crumbled nori sheets. You can also get some sesame seeds for garnish too.
Noodles: I've used ramen egg noodles, but feel free to use udon, soba, or any other kind of noodle you fancy!
For the full recipe and ingredients list, keep scrolling until you reach the recipe card at the bottom of this post!
Step by step instructions with photos
Step 1: In a jug or large bowl, combine the chicken stock, soy sauce, honey, lime juice, grated ginger, and sesame oil. Give everything a good stir and then taste and season with more ingredients based on your preferences.
Step 2: Slice and prepare all of your topping ingredients from the tomato, cucumber, grated carrot, edamame beans, prawns, to green onions. Set the aside.
Step 3: Prepare your noodles according to packet instructions, then run them through cold water.
Step 4: Divide your noodles between two bowls and then top the noodles equally with your toppings.
Step 5: Lastly, pour your cold ramen broth equally between your two bowls. Top with sesame seeds, nori, and optionally some chili oil if you like spice!
What to do with leftovers
Storage: I would recommend storing the toppings in one container, the broth in another, and the noodles in another...if possible. If not, then simply store everything in one airtight container and place into the fridge for up to 2 days. The textures may change slightly but the flavours will still be delicious.
Freezing: Place into an airtight container and freeze. Thaw overnight in the fridge. The textures will change significantly, especially for certain vegetables. I would recommend eating the dish fresh, if you can. But if you're going away or the alternative is that you'd have to throw it away, then store it in the freezer for up t o 3 months.
FAQs
Absolutely! And this recipe is the perfect example of it. It's refreshing, citrusy, flavourful and served with chewy noodles and fresh toppings.
For sure. Simply replace the chicken stock with vegetable stock. Use fried tofu or silken tofu instead of prawn for that extra protein.
I love adding sweet corn, kimchi, imitation crab, sliced ham, sliced omelette, honestly, it's a great fridge raid recipe!
The beauty of this recipe is that yes, you can eat this hot. Simply bring the broth to simmer and then add in your noodles. Serve up with warmed toppings or fresh toppings and enjoy!
Other recipes you might enjoy!
If you tried this Cold Ramen (Hiyashi Chuka) recipe or any other recipe on my website, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it went in the 📝 comments below. Thank you!
A better Cold Ramen Recipe (Hiyashi Chuka)
Ingredients
For the ramen dressing broth
- 500ml chicken stock cold, you can optionally add a couple of ice cubes to it if it's warm.
- 2 tablespoon light soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 1 lime juiced
- 1 inch fresh ginger finely grated/microplaned
- 1 tablespoon sesame oil
For the toppings
- 1 beef tomato sliced into wedges
- 150g edamame beans
- 1 carrot grated
- 150g precooked prawns
- ½ cucumber julienned
- 2 spring onions finely sliced
- 2 tablespoon nori finely chopped/flakes
The bulk
- 200g fresh egg noodles cooked and rinsed through cold water
- sesame seeds for garnish
Instructions
- In a jug or large bowl, combine the chicken stock, soy sauce, honey, lime juice, grated ginger, and sesame oil. Give everything a good stir and then taste and season with more ingredients if you need to based on your preferences.
- Slice and prepare all of your topping ingredients from the tomato, cucumber, grated carrot, edamame beans, prawns, to green onions. Set the aside.
- Prepare your noodles according to packet instructions, then run them through cold water.
- Divide your noodles between two bowls and then top the noodles equally with your toppings.
- Lastly, pour your cold ramen broth equally between your two bowls. Top with sesame seeds, nori, and optionally some chili oil if you like spice!
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