Give Instant Ramen A Flavor Upgrade With This Staple From Your Cabinet

If you're already a fan of upgrading your instant ramen with creamy ingredients such as coconut milk or peanut butter, you may have overlooked another pantry staple: tahini. This smooth paste is made by grinding toasted sesame seeds, giving it a richness similar to peanut butter but with a distinct flavor. Perhaps surprisingly, tahini is nuttier and more savory than many peanut butters, plus it has a gentle bitterness that can balance out the saltiness of instant noodle seasoning.

Another reason it works so well in instant ramen is that it adds some much-needed fat to the broth, giving it a thicker, creamier mouthfeel. It has a strong sesame flavor, so it fits well with instant ramen's typical ingredient lineup, which often combines powdered garlic, ginger, and chile peppers. And it isn't a wildcard idea, either — tahini is often used in modern takes on tantanmen, a type of ramen featuring a creamy sesame-based broth.

If you're curious, start with just a tablespoon of tahini for one packet of ramen. Cook your noodles, then whisk a few tablespoons of the hot broth with tahini in a bowl before stirring the mixture back into the broth and adding it to your cooked noodles. If you add tahini straight into a pot of rapidly boiling broth, it can split and separate into clumps instead of melting seamlessly, so tempering it like this is important. From there, you can adjust the ratio to suit your preferred consistency — if you find the tahini has made the liquid too dense, simply loosen it with extra hot water.

With your creamy, full-bodied tahini ramen base at the ready, you can build on those creamy, sesame flavors with other ingredients you may have on hand — a drizzle of chili crisp for heat and texture or freshly grated garlic and ginger for a more intense, aromatic taste. Crushed peanuts will add crunch and bring back some of the flavors associated with peanut butter ramen, and of course a scattering of toasted sesame seeds almost goes without saying. If you're concerned about it leaning too rich, a splash of rice vinegar or a squeeze of lime can brighten the whole thing up. 

If you're a die-hard peanut butter fan and find yourself missing your favorite legume-based spread, there's no reason you can't use both. Using a 1-to-1 ratio of a teaspoon of peanut butter and a teaspoon of tahini, you can create a hybrid peanut-sesame sauce with the roasted sweetness of peanuts balanced by sesame's earthier notes. You can also make the bowl more substantial and textured with tahini-friendly additions such as crispy ginger-glazed tofu, crispy panko chicken, edamame, meaty fried mushrooms, or some shredded cabbage. The beauty of this upgrade lies in tahini's versatility: You can take it in numerous directions and endlessly tailor your instant ramen experience.