Warm up from the inside out with Ginger Chicken Meatballs and Winter Vegetable Ramen from "Warm Your Bones: Cozy Recipes for Chilly Days and Winter Nights" by Vanessa Seder (Union Square & Co., 2024). (Jenny Bravo)

Ginger Chicken Meatballs and Winter Vegetable Ramen

Serves 4.

From “Warm Your Bones: Cozy Recipes for Chilly Days and Winter Nights” by Vanessa Seder, who writes: “Many Americans perceive the word ‘ramen’ as a synonym for ‘cheap Asian noodles with flavor packets eaten by off-campus college students too busy to regard food as anything other than fuel.’ In many other parts of the world, however, ramen is a complex and delicious, freshly prepared food for adults (though even the sophisticated kind is slurp-able, always a good thing in my book). Ramen also makes splendid cold-weather food. My version features broth made with fresh ginger and soy sauce and flavorful, tender ginger chicken meatballs, along with a slew of nourishing winter veggies — a full meal in a bowl." Find plain dried ramen in the Asian section of supermarkets or in Asian or international markets. (Union Square & Co., 2024).

For the meatballs:

½ c. grated carrot (about 1 medium)
3 scallions (white parts only), finely chopped (2 tbsp.)
1 tbsp. finely chopped garlic
1 tsp. grated fresh ginger
2 tsp. soy sauce
2 tsp. toasted sesame oil
½ tsp. sea salt
½ tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1 large egg, beaten
1 lb. ground chicken

For the soup:

8 c. low-sodium chicken broth
¼ c. mirin
⅓ c. soy sauce
1 tbsp. grated fresh ginger
8 oz. dried ramen noodles
1 (1-lb.) Japanese sweet potato, peeled, halved lengthwise, and sliced into ⅛-in.-thick pieces
2 c. thinly sliced shiitake mushroom caps (from 4 oz. shiitake mushrooms)
1 bunch spinach (about 12 oz.), stemmed and well washed
Thinly sliced scallion greens, for serving
Toasted sesame oil, for serving
Toasted sesame seeds, for serving

Directions

Make the meatballs: In a medium bowl, using clean hands, combine the carrot, scallions, garlic, ginger, soy sauce, sesame oil, salt, pepper, egg and chicken, then gently shape the mixture into 1 ½-inch meatballs (using about 2 tablespoons for each); you should have about 16. Set aside.

Make the soup: In a medium saucepan, combine the chicken broth, mirin, soy sauce and ginger. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, about 15 minutes. Add the noodles to the broth and cook until al dente, about 3 minutes.

Leaving the broth in the saucepan, use tongs to divide the noodles evenly among the four soup bowls. Add the sweet potato to the broth and cook until tender, about 6 minutes. Still reserving the broth in the saucepan, use a slotted spoon to transfer the sweet potato to the bowls with the noodles.

Add the mushrooms to the broth and cook just until tender, about 1 minute. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the mushrooms to the bowls with the noodles and vegetables.

Repeat this process with the spinach, blanching it in the broth just until tender, about 1 minute, and then transferring to the bowls with the noodles and vegetables.

In two batches, add the meatballs to the broth, and cook each batch until the chicken is cooked through and the meatballs float to the top of the broth, about 5 minutes. Divide the meatballs among the bowls.

Ladle some of the remaining broth over the top of each bowl, then garnish with scallion greens, a drizzle of sesame oil, and toasted sesame seeds. Serve immediately.