Tomato Ramen Noodles with Meatballs

Make restaurant-quality ramen at home with this Tomato Ramen Noodles with Meatballs recipe. It’s easy, fun and delicious!

Fall is in the air a little bit, even though it does seem like summer in the Midwest now extends into October or even early November, really.

While I’ve enjoyed a long summer of grilled buttermilk chicken and my Mexican street corn salad recipe, I’m very ready to dig into a big bowl of soup. Specifically, a big bowl of soup with noodles!

When I’m truly chilled to the bone in the fall and winter, nothing warms me up like a big bowl of ramen. While my little town has recently gotten a (really good!) pho restaurant, we don’t have anyplace to get ramen.

But it’s really not hard to make at home. I usually turn to shrimp ramen, or the tomato ramen with meatballs that I’m sharing with you today.

This is not the typical college student meal you might think of when you think of ramen. No, my ramen has big flavors and lots of filling toppings.

This tomato ramen has a savory, umami-rich broth!

For this tomato ramen, I wanted to start with something more exciting than the typical broth or water, so I combined chicken broth with the tomato liquid from a can of whole peeled tomatoes.

Most recipes that call for canned tomatoes will have you drain off this tomato liquid and only use the tomatoes, but the liquid is rich, flavorful and full of savory umami. I hate to waste it!

Then, I doctored up this meatball ramen broth even more by adding garlic and fresh ginger. I also added a spoonful of sambal oelek (Asian chili paste) as well as a splash of rice wine vinegar for some extra acidity.

And then I REALLY doubled down on the umami in these tomato ramen noodles by adding a spoonful of miso (which I had left over from making miso dressing and miso ginger dressing for lots of fresh green salads this summer).

Top your tomato ramen noodles with whatever toppings you would like!

Now that the broth is ready, it’s time to choose some toppings for these tomato ramen noodles. Because what’s ramen without some toppings?

Just before making the tomato sauce ramen, I steamed some baby bok choy from our garden and made a few soft cooked eggs.

I decided to top this tomato ramen with meatballs. I was being lazy (or am I just a busy working mom with a toddler?), so I bought a bag of frozen meatballs this time around.

If I had more time, maybe on a weekend afternoon, I might make some Korean meatballs or General Tso’s meatballs for this meatball ramen.

I also sliced up some radishes, green onions and jalapeños (pickling jalapeños would be great for extra flavor) to go on top of the ramen.

Since I had opened a can of whole peeled tomatoes to use their liquid, it only made sense to use a few of the tomatoes as toppings, too. I just cut them in half and placed them on top.

I finished everything off with a few sheets of toasted nori (this is traditionally used to make sushi rolls, and can be found at Asian markets) and some black sesame seeds.

I know I really went all out for my ramen, but please feel free to choose as many or as few of these toppings as you would like.

If you’d like an extra splash of heat, garnish with additional sambal oelek (also a favorite ingredient for my Asian noodle salad).

How to use up the canned tomatoes left over from this meatball ramen:

Once you’ve used the tomato liquid from a can of whole peeled tomatoes, plus just a few of the tomatoes for a garnish for these tomato ramen noodles, you’ll be left with some more tomatoes to use up.

Not to worry – canned tomatoes are versatile and can be used in a variety of dishes, not just meatball ramen!

If it happens to be a time of year where asparagus is in season (probably not the fall or winter, but just in case), you can make balsamic asparagus topped with goat cheese and tomatoes (just chop the whole tomatoes instead of using canned diced tomatoes).

My taco mac and cheese calls for canned diced tomatoes that have been drained, so once you dice up the whole peeled tomatoes you have left over, you’re ready to make mac and cheese!

Psst – you’ll also have the ramen seasoning packets that you didn’t use for this tomato sauce ramen recipe. I usually just throw them away, but if you want to get creative, Tasting Table has 6 Crafty Uses for Leftover Ramen Seasoning Packets!