Asklemmy

Go to an Asian market and buy better Ramen. The good brands have three packets, soup base, flavored oil, and chili...

Though everyone else's recommendations are much more healthy.

East Meets Southwest: Discard packet. Combine about 3/4 cup salsa (a whole cup if salsa is chunky) and 2 teaspoons soy sauce. May add about 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger, if desired. Cook noodles, drain and add to sauce.

I've made this since the late 90s. If you like both Southwestern and Asian cuisines, you might like this.

crush some peanuts into small pieces, fry in oil, ideally sesame oil.

avocado is a great ingredient too.

Frozen eggrolls aren't necessarily budget friendly, but I think they go great with Ramen. I get the Ramen boxes that have 12 packets of the square blocks of noodles, not the cup kind. The eggrolls come in boxes of 8 and come in chicken, pork and veggie. If I get 3 boxes of eggrolls and 2 boxes of Ramen, it comes to 24 of each so I have a 1:1 ratio. The cost comes to just under $40 where I live, in the U.S. great lakes area.

To make the meal I start by putting the eggroll in the microwave. Then I put the noodles and packet and water in a bowl. The time it takes me to do that is enough to thaw the frozen eggroll a good amount. Then I move the eggroll from the microwave to my toaster oven and put the ramen in the microwave. The time it takes to cook the ramen in the microwave is about the same time it takes the eggroll in the toaster oven to finish cooking to a nice crispy state. I usually cook the ramen a little longer than the package suggest, about a minute more.

Because the eggroll is hot, I stab it with a fork to pick it up. Then I hold it over the ramen bowl and pour a small amount of soy sauce into the fork holes, letting it runoff into the ramen bowl. I start to eat the eggroll while holding it over the ramen bowl. It falls apart, with the bits falling into the ramen. By the time I'm done with that, the ramen has softened and cooled off enough to eat normally.

Chicken eggrolls go with chicken ramen. Pork eggrolls do too, as well as with pork and been ramen. Veggie eggrolls go with any flavor ramen.

The other thing I do is basically the same thing but instead of eggrolls, it is frozen meatballs. They tend to be better with beef ramen, which I am not a fan of but if the food pantry has it I wont turn it down. I still use them in chicken ramen too, some meatballs aren't even beef even thought they may look like it.

Any green herbs you have on hand or in your garden. Leaks, onion, mints, etc. From the Asian market you can also get seaweed, sesame oil, pepper flakes, soy sauce which also give a lot of milage.

There’s a ramen sauce that makes ramen soup I like. Add that to just the dry noodles they sell- not the packs of ramen- and it’s very economical and better quality.

Anything works in ramen. If you have a freezer I’d suggest ham is a very very cheap protein to add if you can buy in a large size.

Otherwise, sprouts are good and inexpensive. So are mushrooms. Turkey is cheap but in bulk like ham. If you’re aiming for less bulk chicken thighs are inexpensive and good in soups.

If you want something like frozen broccoli try peas. Peas are great.

If you brine your eggs in mirin and soy sauce they will work even better in the dish.

Dried seaweed is really cheap and adds flavor and texture.

I cook 2 packs of noodle blocks in 2 cups of water and one seasoning pack in a skillet for that chow mein feel. I sometimes add cabbage or bok choy or similar to the the pan as the noodles cook. Throw a fried egg on top, maybe add a lil seaweed salad, kimchi if you're feeling spicy. Delicious.