Instant Pot ramen? You bet. You can use a pressure cooker to make steaming bowls of umami-packed noodles! It’s total comfort food.

Instant Pot Ramen

Want the best ever comfort food? Steaming bowls of slurpable ramen is where it’s at. Authentic ramen from a Japanese restaurant is the absolute best. But the next best thing is trying it homemade! This recipe was born out of a challenge: can you use your pressure cooker to make ramen? (Spoiler alert: you can.) This Instant Pot ramen features a savory broth flavored with umami-laden miso and soy sauce, tender noodles, and runny soft boiled eggs. Ready to get cooking?

What’s in this Instant Pot ramen?

Ramen is a traditional Japanese dish of broth and wheat noodles (here’s a Ramen Guide for more). Alex and I love seeking out incredible ramen at restaurants. We love making it at home, too! You’ll need a few special ingredients to make ramen at home, but it’s not hard to put together:

  • Eggs to soft-boil
  • Miso paste of any type
  • Onion, garlic and green onion for aromatics
  • Spinach, carrots, mushrooms, and Napa cabbage for the veggies
  • Ramen noodles (more below!)
  • Vegetable broth
  • Sesame oil, soy sauce, and mirin
  • Coconut milk for creaminess
Instant Pot ramen

Is it faster to make ramen in a pressure cooker?

Actually, not necessarily! This Instant Pot ramen recipe is based on our Easy Miso Ramen, which takes just 30 minutes to make on the stovetop. This recipe takes about 35 minutes, and more if you want to soft boil your eggs in the Instant Pot. Why?

  • Preheat time! The Instant Pot needs to come up to pressure before it cooks food. While it has incredibly short cook times, the time to “preheat” gets tacked on to that every time you use it. The time varies based on the volume of food in the pressure cooker.
  • What’s the timing breakdown? This Instant Pot ramen takes about 10 to 15 minutes to preheat, so add that to everything else and it’s a little longer than the stovetop version. If you want to soft boil eggs in the Instant Pot, that tacks on another 10 minutes.

While it’s not faster: it’s still valuable to have an Instant Pot version of ramen! It’s helpful for when you don’t have access to a full kitchen. It’s amazing all the food you can make in this relatively small pot with just access to 1 outlet.

Want more ramen recipes? See 6 Ramen Ideas to Try at Home.

Ramen noodles

Two ways to cook the noodles

Can you cook the ramen noodles in the Instant Pot too? There are varying methods for making ramen noodles in a pressure cooker. The main challenge is that cooking the noodles right in the broth causes them to soak it up, resulting in less broth. Here’s what we recommend to avoid this:

  • If serving the ramen away, you can cook the noodles in the Instant Pot. Once you’ve finished the broth, you can switch back to Saute mode and cook the noodles right in the broth. But eat them right away! If you have leftovers sitting in the pot, you may even want to separate the noodles from the broth in two containers so that they don’t soak up too much broth.
  • If you might have leftovers or you’re making it in advance, cook the noodles on the stovetop. Yes, it’s not quite as Instant Pot-reliant of a recipe that way, but this avoids the soggy noodle problem!

What is miso paste?

Miso is a Japanese fermented soybean paste that’s full of nutrients and savory flavor. It’s full of umami, the so-called fifth flavor that is the definition of savory. You’ll find umami in meats, mushrooms, cheese…and of course, miso! You can find miso at most major grocery stores near the other Japanese ingredients. There are many different types of miso: red, yellow, and brown. You can use any type for this ramen recipe!

Instant Pot ramen

Where to find noodles for Instant Pot ramen

Where to find ramen noodles for this Instant Pot ramen? Here are a few tips on types of noodles and where to find them:

  • Standard grocery vs Japanese or Asian grocery: Most grocery stores give you 1 or 2 options for ramen noodles: usually you’ll find them dried. You can also can go to your local Japanese or Asian grocery; they will have a wider variety including fresh and frozen.
  • Fresh vs dried: You can use either fresh or dried noodles here. Fresh are our favorite, but dried are easier to find.
  • Curly vs straight: You’ll find noodles packaged with the word “ramen” that are curly or straight. Ramen is basically a wheat noodle served in broth, so there’s a lot of variation. You can use either! Here we used a straight noodle, which works just as well as a curly like in our Mushroom Ramen.

Want to learn more about noodle types? Here’s a review of 6 different packaged ramen noodles.

Marinated tofu
Marinated Tofu would be an easy swap-in for eggs to make it plant-based!

Is there a plant-based or vegan variation?

This Instant Pot ramen recipe is vegetarian. But of you prefer not using eggs, you can use tofu instead to make it vegan or plant based! The easiest option is to make our Marinated Tofu, which doesn’t require a stovetop! Or, use the tofu preparation in Tofu Ramen or Vegan Mushroom Ramen. The first has seasoned, crispy tofu cubes, and the second is lightly seasoned and quicker to prepare.

What kind of Instant Pot to use?

The pressure cooker we used to test this recipe is the Instant Pot 6 Qt Pressure Cooker. But there are lots of great brands out there! If you’re using a different brand, you may find that the cook times are slightly different.

This Instant Pot ramen recipe is…

Vegetarian. For vegan, plant-based, and dairy-free, use Marinated Tofu.

Print
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Instant Pot Ramen

Instant Pot Ramen


  • Author: Sonja Overhiser
  • Prep Time: 10 minutes
  • Cook Time: 25 minutes
  • Total Time: 35 minutes
  • Yield: 4 1x

Description

Instant Pot ramen? You bet. You can use a pressure cooker to make steaming bowls of umami-packed noodles! It’s total comfort food.


Ingredients

Scale
  • 4 eggs*
  • 1 cup sweet yellow onion, sliced
  • 8 ounces baby bella (cremini) mushrooms
  • 1 cup Napa cabbage, thinly sliced
  • 3 green onions
  • 4 garlic cloves
  • 2 large carrots
  • 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 4 cups vegetable broth
  • 1 cup water
  • 4 tablespoons miso paste, divided
  • 1 tablespoon mirin
  • 1 tablespoon soy sauce
  • ¼ cup coconut milk
  • 2 cups spinach leaves
  • 8 ounces dry ramen noodles
  • Sesame seeds, for garnish

Instructions

  1. Make the eggs:* Go to Soft Boiled Eggs or Instant Pot Soft Boiled Eggs.
  2. Prep the veggies: Slice the onion. Slice the mushrooms. Thinly slice the cabbage. Thinly slice the green onions. Thinly slice the garlic. Slice carrots into matchsticks.
  3. Turn on Saute mode (on Medium) and heat 1 tablespoon sesame oil and 1 tablespoon olive oil. Add the onion and cook 4 minutes until lightly browned on the edges. Add the garlic 30 seconds just browned, stirring constantly. Add the vegetable broth and water, and turn off Saute mode.
  4. Stir in the mushrooms and carrots, miso paste and mirin. Lock the lid of the Instant Pot. Place the pressure release handle (vent) in the “Sealing” position.
  5. Cook on High Pressure for 3 minutes: Press the Pressure Cook button, making sure the “High Pressure” setting is selected, and set the time. Note that it takes about 10 minutes for the pot to “preheat” and come up to pressure before it starts cooking. (During cooking, avoid touching the metal part of the lid.)
  6. Quick release: Vent the remaining steam from the Instant Pot by moving the pressure release handle to “Venting”, covering your hand with a towel or hot pad. Never put your hands or face near the vent when releasing steam. Open the pressure cooker lid.
  7. Turn on Saute mode to Low. Add the noodles and cook until tender, about 3 minutes. (Or if you’re planning to have leftovers or are making in advance for meal prep, cook the noodles on the stovetop according to the package instructions. If you’re planning to serve the ramen right away, you can cook the noodles in the pressure cooker: they just soak up a lot of the broth as they sit. )
  8. Stir in remaining ingredients: Stir in the coconut milk, green onions, cabbage, spinach and cook 1 minute more. Taste and add about 1 tablespoon more miso paste to taste.
  9. Serve: To serve, place the noodles into four bowls. Top with the broth, tofu, peeled soft boiled eggs, and vegetables. Garnish with a splash of soy sauce if desired. Don’t allow the noodles to sit in the broth for long, or they will soak it all up! Store leftovers with the broth and noodles in separate containers (to avoid the noodles soaking up all of the broth).

Notes

*For a plant-based version, make Marinated Tofu while the Instant Pot cooks. See also Tofu Ramen.

  • Category: Main Dish
  • Method: Stovetop
  • Cuisine: Ramen

Keywords: Instant Pot Ramen

More Instant Pot soups

A pressure cooker is so versatile, you can use it for so many things! Here are some of our favorite Instant Pot soups:

About the authors

Sonja & Alex

Meet Sonja and Alex Overhiser: Husband and wife. Expert home cooks. Authors of recipes you'll want to make again and again.

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11 Comments

  1. You don’t say how long to set the instant pot for to cook the soup. You mention it will take ten minutes to come to pressure, but not how long it should be under pressure before the quick release.

  2. Made it tonight. Pretty good and the family liked it! I left out the cabbage & ended up not using the spinach because the amount of broth seemed too small already. I used 10oz of ramen & added an extra cup of water. Maybe next time I’ll add even more water! Also added the corn in with the broth (recipe didn’t say when but figured this was fine). And dang you weren’t kidding about the noodles soaking up! Will make it again for sure, thanks!

  3. Made it again & instead of adding extra water, I used 3 packs of cheapo college ramen and it didn’t soak up all the broth like the nice ramen did! Better & saved some $ 😀 (Also added a touch of seasoning sauce that added to the flavor 👍)

  4. Recipe wasn’t accurate, vegetables ended up being mushy. It’s be better to put all veg and ramen noddles in at the same time and do the pressure cook for 3 minutes. At step 4 just put everything in the pot and pressure cook it. The favors we’re really good

  5. If I read the instructions correctly, I’m supposed to soft boil the eggs in advanced, and then proceed with the rest of the steps. When do I peel the eggs and add them to the soup? is that a part of step 8?

    1. Add the eggs as a topping in Step 9 when you serve the bowl — we’ve added that to the recipe instructions. Thanks so much!

  6. basicaly just brown the onions toss everything in but the noodles [they go last] put it on sealing mode 3 mins don’t overthink it too much like I did the first time.