Step 1: Add a little bit of oil to taste.
Done.
Take your crappy canned soup and toss in a bit of butter, olive oil, or regular vegetable oil. Sprinkle some sesame oil into your homemade ramen. This is basically the single most important difference between the soup which traumatized you as a child and the inexplicably edible soup you get from restaurants.
Don’t suffer through fall and winter. Soup can be a lazy convenience meal you which can taste good without a lot of effort.
Sesame oil in ramen definitely takes it to the next level. Another fun addition is liquid dashi concentrate, which lends a nice deep umami flavor.
The other umami adder that’s worth playing with is fish sauce. I find that as it cooks it loses its aroma, making it easy to use in a wide variety of recipes.
There also exists a vegan version of fish sauce for any herbivores, vegans, or general fish haters out there.
Please elaborate. I have a vegetarian here and have not found a vegan dashi. The best I can do is use kombu in my ramen/Asian/miso-based soups (but not in Euro-centric soups, like Senate Bean Soup or Cauliflower-Potato). I’ve got a decent vegan Worcestershire sauce, and would love a link for a good vegan dashi base to add to my cooking toolkit.
Buying Brands:
-Nuoc Mam Vegetarian
-Nuoc Mam Vegan
-24Vegan
-Tofuna Fysh
-Bep Ong Bui
-Ocean’s Halo
Making Recipes:
-Tasty Thai
-Minimalist Baker
-Epicurious
Fish sauce has so many applications in all kinds of cooking it’s crazy. I always have a bottle on hand.