This Korean spicy ramen noodles and meatballs recipe makes Korean instant ramen in a spicy sauce with Korean meatballs, sprinkled with sliced scallions and sesame seeds, and served with a cucumber salad. The ramen noodles and meatballs are stirred through a spicy oil made from chilli oil, gochujang, chilli crisp, and noodle water, just as Italians do with pasta water.
Inspired by spaghetti and meatballs, my Korean spicy ramen noodles and meatballs recipe makes the ultimate comfort food for lovers of noodles, meatballs and Korean spice. If you made a batch of my Korean meatballs (and cucumber salad) and have leftovers, as I did after recipe-testing and photo shoots – we ate meatballs for a week! – and you’re a fan of instant ramen, then do try this.
Instant ramen noodles are our go-to noodles when we need a quick, easy lunch. But we rarely use the seasoning packets. I have my (now not-so) secret formula to elevating instant noodles while Terence goes all out, making a jazzed-up Korean ramen noodle bowl with sliced pork, boiled eggs, Asian greens, and bean sprouts. With this spicy ramen recipe, I also discard the seasoning.
I’ll share tips to making this Korean spicy ramen noodles and meatballs below, but if you’re a Korean food lover, also try our recipes for Korean spicy udon noodles, Korean japchae (glass noodles), bokkeumbap (kimchi fried rice), Korean fried chicken, Korean corn cheese, and Korean potato salad.
Spicy Ramen Noodles and Korean Meatballs Recipe
This recipe for Korean spicy ramen noodles and meatballs is the result of leftovers, like many great recipes. In an ideal world, I’d love to have a zero waste kitchen. Although that’s challenging when you cook as much as we do, and don’t have a backyard for chickens. At the very least, we rarely let leftovers go to waste in our kitchen.
Whether it’s rice (see our leftover rice recipes) or rotisserie chicken (yep, we have leftover rotisserie chicken recipes too), we’ll get creative and transform those leftovers into new dishes whenever we can: whether it’s fried rice, stir-fries, salads, or soups, the opportunities for using up leftovers are endless.
Sometimes we’ll cook a meal and double or even triple the amounts with the intention of repurposing the leftovers into other meals. That’s my favourite form of meal planning! See these 10 recipes for dishes that make even better leftovers for examples and ideas.
To give you an example, after Terence makes char siu pork, he’ll whip up some char siu fried rice, Hokkien noodles with char sui, and a char siu omelette. They’re all so good and so different from each other, that you’ll never hear me saying “Oh no, not char siu again!”
I’ll be doing the same with a batch of these Korean meatballs in future. So far I’ve made these Korean spicy ramen noodles and meatballs, a Korean instant ramen meatball soup, and Korean-style banh mi, inspired by Vietnamese banh mi xiu mai, a baguette stuffed with Vietnamese meatballs. I’ll share recipes for all dishes over coming weeks.
I only have a few tips to making this recipe for Korean spicy ramen noodles and meatballs as it’s easy and, if you’ve already made the meatballs, comes together quickly.
Tips to Making this Spicy Ramen Noodles and Meatballs Recipe
The first thing to do if you don’t have leftover meatballs is to make them following this Korean meatball recipe. Once the meatballs are cooked, you’ll need to bring a pot of water to boil and cook the noodles until al dente following the instructions on the packet.
Discard the instant ramen seasoning and make our spicy sauce. We’re fans of the fiery flavours of the Korean chilli paste gochujang and Korean chilli flakes gochugaru, which I combine with a little Lao Gan Ma chilli crisp, and Terence’s homemade chilli oil. But this sauce is super spicy, so adjust it to your palate. You could use your favourite hot sauce or stir gochugaru into tomato sauce.
When the ramen is just-cooked and still al dente, take a couple of tablespoons of the noodle water to the spicy sauce in the frying pan (just as the Italians do with pasta water), then transfer the meatballs to the pan, coat them in the spicy sauce, and cook them a little while if they need re-heating.
Use tongs to take the noodles to the pan and – just like you’d do with spaghetti and meatballs – stir to coat the noodles and meatballs in the spicy sauce, then transfer the lot to a serving plate if it’s going in the middle of the table, or distribute it between bowls.
Lastly, sprinkle on some sliced scallions and sesame seeds – and perhaps some Korean chilli flakes if you’re a spice lover – and serve immediately with sides of Korean salads, such as Korean slaw and cucumber salad.
I like to serve these spicy ramen noodles and meatballs with sides of Korean coleslaw and cucumber salad to cool the palate in between bites of spice. But you could keep things simple and
Spicy Ramen Noodles and Meatballs Recipe
Ingredients
- 12 meatballs
- 120 g ramen noodles - use a packet of quality instant ramen, such as Ottogi JinRamen OR ShinRamyun, discard seasoning
- 1 tbsp neutral cooking oil
- 1 garlic clove - minced
- 1 tbsp chilli oil
- 1 tsp chilli paste - preferably Korean gochujang
- 1 tsp chilli crisp - optional
- 1 scallion - green part, sliced diagonally
- 1 tsp sesame seeds
- 1 tsp chilli flakes - preferably Korean gochugaru, optional
Instructions
- Make the meatballs using this Korean meatball recipe – or use leftover meatballs.
- When the meatballs are cooked, bring a pot of water to a boil and cook the ramen noodles until al dente according to the packet instructions, probably around 3-4 minutes.
- To a frying pan over medium heat, heat the tablespoon of oil, add the minced garlic and fry until fragrant and beginning to colour, then add the chilli oil, gochujang and chilli crisp, stir to combine, and turn the heat to low.
- When the ramen is just about done, add a couple of tablespoons of the noodle water to the frying pan, transfer the meatballs and fry to re-heat and coat in the spicy sauce.
- Use tongs to take the noodles to the frying pan with the spicy sauce and meatballs, stir to combine, transfer to a serving plate, sprinkle with sliced scallions and sesame seeds, (optional) chilli flakes for even more spice, and serve immediately with Korean side salads, such as Korean slaw and cucumber salad.
Nutrition
Please do let us know if you make our Korean spicy ramen noodles and meatballs as we’d love to know how it turns out for you.
