Tips for Reducing the Salt in Ramen Noodles
By Mike
Just like 90% of all college students (and even pre-college), I thrived on ramen noodles (aka “oodles of noodles”) due to their cheap price (5-10 cents per pack) and tummy-filling goodness. These aren’t those high quality bowls of ramen that you’d find in a Japanese restaurant. No, these are sodium- and MSG-packed bricks of dehydrated noodles that spring to life with a bit of boiling water and a pack of pure, flavored salt.
While my wife is a dietitian, she also recognizes that many Americans don’t eat healthfully, nor will they ever give up their favorite snacks, just like I still enjoy a couple packs of Ramen noodles here and there. So in that vein, I’ve concocted my own ways to reduce your sodium (salt) intake when dining on that juicy brick of joy:
Fixing a “Healthy” Bowl from Ramen Packs
First, I’ll talk about those plastic-sheathed packs of Ramen that you generally make in a pot of boiling water at home. These aren’t the portable “Cup-O-Noodles”, which I’ll talk about next.
First, what is the nutritional value of a brick of Ramen? For the beef flavor (all flavors differ), a serving size is “half a block”. Well, I’m surprised as I usually eat two blocks in a sitting! Oops!
Moving on, assuming you’re eating a full block, or two servings, you’re taking in about 380 calories, 14 grams of fat (7g of saturated fat), and 10g of protein. But the worst thing about these noodles is the salt content: You’re taking in about 1600mg of sodium, or 66% of the daily value! I can only assume that this counts the seasoning pack that comes with every block of Ramen.
And that’s what I’m here to talk about: reducing the salt in your Ramen.
I’ve found it is easier to keep the sodium down in the blocks of Ramen than the cups, simply because you can control how much salt you add with the seasoning pack. But I don’t stop with the salt pack:
- Boil a pot of water. Add the Ramen block. Let the noodles get almost done (still slightly firm).
- Drain all of the water out of the pot and add in the appropriate amount of fresh water for which you normally eat your Ramen. Personally, I just like the noodles, so I drain out all the water. But if you like it as soup instead, add in more water. The reason I drain is to remove the sodium and other additives that have leaked out during boiling. Plus, the noodles get a fresher flavoring.
- Reheat the noodles, but you probably don’t need to bring them back to the boiling point as they were almost done. Be careful not to overcook the noodles or they’ll be mushy (unless you like mushy noodles).
- Add less than the full pack of seasoning. For me, since I don’t have much broth, I use half a pack of seasoning. Since there is so little water to dissipate the taste, I don’t need the full brunt of the beef flavoring. I could put in even less than a full pack, and I do sometimes, but half is a good starting point.
- Enjoy
Honestly, comparing when I was a fatty in high school eating 3 packs of ramen at a time, with all 3 flavor packs added, I can’t tell the difference with my new method of preparation.
Fixing a “Healthy” Cup of Noodles
First, I need to say that a serving of a half block of Ramen is 42 grams, while a serving of the Cup of Noodles is 64 grams, so I can’t quite do an exact comparison of servings.
I will say, though, that the Cup of Noodles is less healthy than the block of noodles, based on the product label. The numbers in the previous section were based on 2 servings, or a whole block, of ramen, which is 84 grams. While that block has 14 grams of fat, a lesser amount (64g) of the cup also has 14g of fat. While the cup has about 90 fewer calories than the full block of ramen, it has over 1,400mg of sodium, or just shy of the block’s 1,600mg.
So, those 99 cent cups that you probably eat during your lunch hour at work are horrible for your figure. Utterly horrible. And how many of you just eat the cup for lunch? Do you also tack on a sandwich? A bag of chips? Shame, shame 
So here are my tips for reducing the salt content in Cup of Noodles. As a note, the package says to heat water separately, then add to the container. My steps are just heating the water directly with the noodles. Both methods are bad for you since you get all the unsavory chemicals leeching out of the styrofoam from the hot water. You should probably just heat it in a microwave-safe ceramic bowl:
- Open the paper lid halfway. Dump out the junk on top. While this means you’re probably tossing out what little vegetables and minuscule bits of meat came with the cup, you’re also tossing out the top coating of salt. But don’t stop there…
- Fill the cup with water and dump it out a few times. Once the water become pretty clear, then fill the water up to the inside line (the “fill line”) and heat the noodles until almost done.
- Dump out the water again (be careful not to lose the noodles!) and fill it up one more time. I fill mine up only halfway as I don’t like the broth (or I know it’s where most of the salt is).
- Heat a little longer to get it up to your preferred temp.
- Enjoy!
While I don’t know the new nutritional value after these two methods, I’m positive I’ve reduced the sodium content by half or lower. By using less of the “flavor pack” and dumping the scummy water and rinsing the noodles, you’ll have a healthier, and still cheap, meal. Granted, the Ramen still isn’t very healthy compared to freshly-made dishes with real veggies, etc., but if you’re on the run, or on a very, very tight budget, I guess Ramen is OK once in a while
Try one of these related posts too!:
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Another thing to do to make these healthier is add some veggies while you’re cooking the noodles – julilenned carrots and some broccoli spears are great. Add some leftover shredded chicken for protein.
Wow! When I was in high school and college, I figured out my own way of preparing ramen. You’ve just described it to a T! I’m glad I managed to make it a little “healthier”, somehow.
I’ve heard that potatoes leech salt from soups. Perhaps sticking a chunck of potato in for a few minutes will help remove some sodium from the broth.
The way I do it is similar:
1.) Boil noodles until done.
2.) Drain all water from noodles.
3.) Add flavoring to noodles, and now add fresh hot water back in.
4.) Let sit for a couple of minutes so noodles can soak up some of the flavor.
5.) Drain.
After this you have drained all of the original water, which gets rid of a lot of the bad stuff, and you’ve soaked up a lot of flavor from the packet, but have drained most of the salt and bad stuff from that too, leaving you with slightly healthier noodles with flavor.
Okay – enjoy your junk food, but use extreme caution. (There are 2 yummy, cheap and easy alternatives for you at the end of this message.)
A.) Try never to add the flavoring packs. as the MSG, high sodium and chemicals are unhealthy and cause your body to crave the junk food even more. Just like with those golden arches french fries! Always ask for unsalted and a pack of salt and only sprinkle a tiny bit on (if any) to control future cravings. You will lose so much weight by reasonably reducing your sodium intake.
B.) Ramen noodles are too high in fat and too low in nutrition too be spending your time and money on. You will eat 1960 mg of sodium in one package, so this leaves you with 40 mgs to spare to meet your max sodium intake for the day, to be healthy. (2000 mg/day)
C.) Never microwave food in styrofoam or plastic. Bad for you, your friends in the air around you, the environment, the economy.
The FDA defers to the Consumer Product Safety Commission who defers to the Food and Drug Administration to make a definitive statement on the carcinogenic and other dangers caused by the the gasses from heating styrofoam and by the decomposition of the foam it combining with your food when it interacts with certain foods.
My eighth grade students made one cup of hot water and three cups of typical black tea using hot water: one with just the tea bag – no effect; one with a tea bag and sugar – no effect; one with a tea bag, sugar and added the juice of one slice of a fresh lemon – after a few minutes the cup was leaking tea through 5 pin holes. After the hot water cooled, the poured out the water and looked inside each of the four cups.
All of the beverage cups, even without the lemon, had craters where the hot liquid had begun to interact with the foam. There was no evidence of the missing foam. It could only have combined with the liquid in some way to be part of the beverages!!!
The students saw this, were shocked, and wrote to the FDA and the CPSD and in each response letter they were politely referred to the other department for an answer to their questions about the safety of using styrofoam when eating or making heated foods and beverages.
They also buried paper hot cups and the styrofoam cups in dirt to see what might happen to each after several weeks. The paper hot cups began to decompose. The styrofoam did not change. This made an impression on them and they asked the school to stop using styrofoam.
Finally, a 2-minute alternative to Ramen cooking:
Try this instead for a quick pasta snack:
Break up pre-cooked lasagne noodles and add a small amount of hot water to it in a corningware bowl.
Cover it with a paper towel and microwave for one minute or until the noodles are hot and the texture you like.
Drain.
Sprinkle the top with shredded cheddar cheese and sprinkle with toast crumbs and black pepper.
Cover and heat for 15 more seconds. Enjoy your own personal mac-n-cheese.
1 box of precooked lasagne noodles – will make 12 indiv. meals
1 package of shredded cheddar cheese – will make 12 indiv. meals
save your toast crumbs from this morning’s breakfast – free
save some condiment packets of ground pepper – free
(Make a similar dish using shredded mozzarella and spaghetti sauce, with chopped spinach or broccoli, instead. Steam the broccoli when you heat the pasta.)