Ahh…what I wouldn’t do for The Ultimate Rich and Creamy Vegan Ramen with Roasted Vegetables and Miso Broth! 1.5 hours to roil, toil and boil this broth of kombu, charred onion, charred ginger, charred garlic heads, essence of charred eggplant, fresh shiitake shroom stems, fresh beech shroom bottom stems, dried porcini shrooms, dried shiitakes shrooms, napa cabbage, leek and scallions. But I guess that ain’t enough. I go on to roast a bunch of sweet potatoes and maitake shrooms spiced with shichimi togarashi and then take some of that to puree with the broth-infused roasted garlic heads (skins off!!) to whisk into the broth because who doesn’t want a creamy broth layered with more flavor? But wait, the flavor profile remains incomplete until I make a shiitake-porcini-scallion-infused oil to create those little pools of glistening, flavorful fat you see on the soup surface (now don’t tell me ya don’t see 3 of them). Still, the flavors in this ramen bowl continue to evolve as I create a soy-based tare from fresh shiitake shroom caps, ginger, scallions, garlic, kombu and mirin. This tare is then used to douse the charred eggplant with toasted sesame. BUT, we’re still not done because there’s still a base of miso, Japanese sesame seed paste, minced garlic and shiitake-soy tare to prepare before we whisk it into a bowl of 1.5 hour broth. Then we blanch the raw ramen noodles in roiling, boiling salted water before immersing in the 1.5 hour broth and topping with spicy roasted sweet potatoes and that charred eggplant doused in that soy-shiitake tare. And I think we’re done? The Ultimate Rich and Creamy Vegan Ramen with Roasted Vegetables and Miso Broth has to be the ultimate test in endurance cooking. Took all of 4 hours. And it was cruelty-free.