High Protein Tantanmen (担々麺) Recipe

Learn how to make high protein tantanmen – spicy Japanese pork ramen in rich soy milk broth – with all the flavor, half the fat, and 54 grams of protein.

Ramen. Possibly one of the best soups in the world. Ramen is so appealing because of the variety of broths, toppings, and noodles used throughout Japan, from miso, to tonkotsu, to shoyu, to tantanmen.

What’s Your Favorite Type of Ramen?

 「ラメンの中で、いちばん好きなは何ですか？」

“What’s your favorite type of ramen?” This is always one of my favorite questions to ask Japanese people. I have yet to find an answer for myself.

Tantanmen was the favorite of a Japanese baseball player I met last summer. I had heard of tantanmen before then, but that was the first time I had actually got in the kitchen to make it. It’s quickly risen to one of my favorite bowls.

While I do love a traditional bowl, I also developed a recipe that has a fraction of the fat, more protein and is just as good (well, almost). The best part is it’s super easy to make, and it takes less than an hour to make.

What is Tantanmen?

Tantanmen is ramen, spicy sesame pork ramen.

Tantanmen is the Japanese version of Chinese dan dan noodles, which is a Szechuanese dish loaded with chilies, sesame paste, and heavily seasoned pork for topping. Tantanmen is similar, but it’s a noodle soup instead of saucy stir-fried noodles like the original Szechuanese dan dan noodles.

The broth is what sets Japanese tantanmen apart from dan dan noodles and other Japanese ramen. It is one of the most unique ramen broths, made from a combination of chicken or pork stock and soy milk, the key to its creaminess. The alternative is simmering pork bones for a day and a half.

The main ingredients for the tare (seasoning) are sesame paste and chili oil, which gives the two main flavor components: spicy and nutty. While authentic Japanese tantanmen use neri goma (sesame paste), many recipes and restaurants in America substitute peanut butter for a similar flavor.

For the chili oil, you can buy Japanese la-yu, or try my recipe for homemade chili oil. It takes 10 minutes to make and is one of the most all-purpose condiments in our fridge.

A bowl of ramen is only as good as its toppings, so I kept things pretty standard – spicy stir-fried pork with doubanjiang, blanched spinach, and an optional jammy boiled egg.

What Makes this High Protein Tantanmen Different?

Tantanmen is rich, spicy, and boldly flavored – a far cry from many Japanese dishes, but staying true to it’s Szechuanese roots. Also true to its roots tantanmen is quite oily and isn’t the healthiest option due to its high fat content.

Luckily, I’ve developed a high protein tantanmen with a much lower fat content and 54 grams of protein, while still maintaining the dish’s integrity. Healthy food is great, but it shouldn’t come at the cost of completely changing the original dish.

It all comes down to a few clever tricks:

1. Use Pork Loin – For most ground pork, I blitz pork shoulder in a food processor. But to make this dish lower fat, pork loin is a great option. There’s no flavor lacking since it’s in such a flavorful sauce,
2. Swap Sesame paste with PB powder – While neri goma (Japanese sesame paste) is traditional, peanut has a similar flavor. Plus, if you opt for peanut butter powder (which only has 2 grams of fat per serving), you can keep the dish way lighter.
3. Stay Light on the Chili Oil – The chili oil is, well, oil, so that’s where a lot of the fat in tantanmen comes from. So by using minimal oil when frying the pork and seasoning the broth, you can keep this dish low fat.

Ingredients for High Protein Tantanmen

Pork Loin – Pork loin is good option because it has some fat but is leaner than pork butt, shoulder, or belly

Chili Oil – The store-bought Japanese version is called la-yu, but I always use my all-purpose spicy garlic chili oil.

Garlic and Ginger – These two ingredients make up the aromatics for the pork. Fresh is preferred.

Doubanjiang – This an ingredient you’re probably not familiar with, but it’s a Chinese seasoning made of fermented chilies and beans, and it has a spicy, salty, and umami flavor profile. Doubanjiang is essential to this recipe, and you can buy it on Weee, Amazon, or Asian grocery stores.

Soy Sauce – Soy sauce provides the main saltiness in this dish, as in many Japanese recipes.

Dark Soy Sauce – Dark soy sauce is a Chinese ingredient that tastes very similar to regular soy sauce but has molasses that gives dishes a much darker hue. If you can’t find any, just add more regular soy sauce.

Sake – Sake is one of the three main seasonings in Japanese cooking. I highly recommend anyone who wants to cook Japanese food even just semi-regularly should buy some. You can buy it on Amazon, Weee, Asian grocery stores, and maybe (big maybe) well stocked grocery stores.

Spinach – Tantanmen is usually served with a simple leafy green, blanched spinach in this case.

Salt – Adding a little bit of salt to the boiling water will counteract the spinach’s natural bitterness.

Peanut Butter Powder – This is the secret ingredient to making this high protein tantanmen. It has a much higher protein to fat ratio than the traditional sesame paste, but it still gives a similar nutty flavor.

Soy Milk – Tantanmen’s soy milk based broth is just as creamy as a tonkotsu broth, but lower in fat and without the hours of simmering. Make sure you buy unsweetened!

Stock – I always use a 1:1 ratio of soy milk to stock. Chicken, vegetable, or pork stock are the best for this recipe.

Ramen Noodles – The most accessible brand of ramen noodles I’ve found is the J-Basket brand that you can buy for a reasonable price on Amazon or Weee. These are not the same as instant ramen noodles, which are fried before packaging.

High Protein Tantanmen Macro Breakdown

Nutrition is a lot more than simply counting macros, but they are still important. In the end this recipe comes out to 637 calories, 54 grams of protein, 78 grams of carbohydrates, and 15 grams of fat, according to Very Well Fit Nutrition Calculator.

Ingredients

Pork Topping

• 450 grams (1lb.) of pork loin
• 12 (1 tbsp.) grams of chili oil
• 15 grams (6 cloves) of garlic, minced
• 15 grams (1 tbsp.) of minced ginger
• 32 grams (2 tbsp.) of doubanjiang
• 15 grams (1 tbsp.) of soy sauce
• 15 grams (1 tbsp.) of sake
• 7 grams (1/2 tbsp.) of dark soy sauce

Blanched Spinach

• 1 bunch of spinach
• Salt

Tare

• 65 grams (4 tbsp.) peanut powder
• 30 grams (2 tbsp.) of chili oil

Broth

• 450 grams (2 cups) of stock
• 450 grams (2 cups) of soy milk

Noodles

• 360 grams (4 servings) of ramen noodles (preferably dried, not instant, although they work in a pinch)

Pork Topping 

1. Use a food processor to grind the pork loin into small pieces. If you don’t have a food processor, use lean ground pork.

2. Heat a wok over high heat and add about 1 tbsp. of chili oil (with no chili flakes, oil only), and swirl to coat the pan. 

3. Add the pork and cook undisturbed for 3-4 minutes, to brown. After 3-4 minutes break up the pork with a metal spatula or wooden spoon.

4. Add the garlic and ginger, and cook for 1 minute.

5. Season with soy sauce, dark soy sauce, doubanjiang, and sake. Cook for 2-3 minutes until the sauce is reduced and the pork is glazed in the spicy salty sauce.

5. Move all but about ¼ cup of the pork from the wok and place it in a separate container. Leave the rest in the wok and don’t wash the pan.

Broth

1. Immediately after cooking the pork, add the soy milk and stock to the wok, wash the sauce off the side, and bring the broth to a boil.

2. While the broth is coming up to heat, mix the peanut butter powder and chili oil in a small bowl and set aside.

3. Once the broth is boiling, slowly stir in the peanut chili paste until it’s completely dissolved. Turn the heat to low until ready to serve, then turn up the heat right before serving.

Spinach

1. Bring a salted pot of water to a boil.

2. Before adding the spinach, prepare a small ice bath.

3. Add a bunch of spinach to the pot and cook for 30 seconds, then immediately move to the ice bath.

4. After shocking the spinach for about 2 minutes, transfer it to a cutting board and cut it into 4-5 sections crosswise.

Noodles

1. Before you start cooking the pork or the spinach, bring a large (unsalted) pot of water to a boil.

2. Cook according to instructions right before serving. Since the noodles are best freshly cooked, only cook as much as you need, even if you’re making extra broth and pork.

Assembly

1. Place freshly cooked noodles in warmed bowls.

2. Top the noodles with pork, and pour over the hot broth.

3. Top with the the blanched spinach, green onions, and maybe a jammy egg or an ajitama. Eat your high protein tantanmen quickly (with chopsticks and slurping) for the full experience!