Peanut Pork Ramen
Ramen with a peanut-chili sauce and freeze-dried pork. One pot, no wok.
- calories
- 780
- weight
- 6 oz
- cal / oz
- 130
- protein
- 32 g
- serves
- 1, scales
- prep
- 5 min
- cook
- 8 min
- total time
- 13 min
- water
- 450 ml boiled
- cost
- $$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Canister stove
- Liquid fuel
- Backpacking
- Basecamp
- Car camping
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Instant ramen | 1 block | throw out the seasoning packet |
|---|---|---|
| Freeze-dried ground pork | 1.5 oz | freeze-dried ground beef works the same way |
| Powdered peanut butter | 2 tbsp | regular peanut butter also works, 1 tbsp |
| Soy sauce powder | 1 tbsp | |
| Chili garlic paste | 1 tbsp | single-serve packet or a small screw-top tube |
| Brown sugar | 2 tsp | |
| Ground ginger | 1/2 tsp | |
| Salt | a pinch | |
| Chopped peanuts | 2 tbsp | |
| Dried scallion or chive flakes | 1 tsp | |
| Vegetable oil | 1 tsp | dropper bottle |
Method
- Boil 450 ml of water. Pour about 150 ml over the freeze-dried pork in a mug or spare bag and let it sit while you do the rest.
- Drop the ramen block into the remaining water and cook two to three minutes.
- Take the pot off the stove. Stir in the peanut butter powder, soy powder, chili garlic paste, brown sugar, ginger, and salt until the sauce coats the noodles instead of pooling.
- Add the rehydrated pork with whatever liquid it did not absorb. Stir.
- Pour the oil over the top and finish with the peanuts and scallion flakes.
The original is a wok dish: seared ground pork, soft-boiled eggs, fresh scallions, sauce built in a bowl. None of that travels. Freeze-dried pork replaces the ground meat and rehydrates in the same time the noodles take, the eggs are gone entirely, and the scallions become flakes stirred in at the end. What survives is the sauce, which is the only part that mattered.
Powdered peanut butter and soy sauce powder keep the weight down and dissolve into hot noodles without a whisk. Add them off the heat — peanut sauce scorches on the bottom of a titanium pot faster than you expect. The chili paste carries the garlic and the heat, so it is worth the small container. Chopped peanuts go on last for texture, not flavor; stirred in early they just go soft.
Packing
Sauce powders, sugar, ginger, and salt go in one small bag mixed at home. Ramen and pork each get their own bag. Peanuts and scallion flakes ride together so they stay crunchy until the end.
Variations
- Swap the pork for a foil packet of chicken if freeze-dried meat is out of budget.
- A second block of ramen and another 1.5 oz of pork feeds two off one pot.
- Cut the chili paste in half and add a squeeze of lime powder for something milder.
https://www.lodgecastiron.com/blogs/recipe/stir-fried-pork-with-peanut-ramen-noodles