
Garlic butter ramen noodles with egg
Instant ramen tossed in sizzling garlic butter, soy and a little brown sugar with a soft scrambled egg and spinach, the viral 15-minute noodle dinner.
- 15 min total
- 15 min hands-on
- Anyone can make this
- Serves 2
- About $1.82 a serving
- 610 calories
- Vegetarian

Dolly says: I’d make this on a weeknight. It’s on the table in 15 minutes.
Ingredients
For 2 servings.
- 2 packages ramen noodles, seasoning packets thrown away
- 2 tbsp butter
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 large eggs, beaten
- 2 cups baby spinach
- 2 stalks green onions, sliced
- 1 tsp sesame seeds (optional)
From your pantry
- ¼ tsp red pepper flakes (optional)
- 1 tbsp brown sugar
- 1½ tbsp soy sauce
Each serving has about 610 calories, 17 g protein, 64 g carbs and 31 g fat, and costs about $1.82 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No butter? Ghee works.
- No baby spinach? Kale or arugula works.
- No green onions? Chives work.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
Bring a pot of water over high heat. Cook the ramen 2 minutes, just until the noodles loosen, then .
Bring to a boil. It means heating a liquid on high until it’s fully boiling before you move on. A lid on the pot gets it there faster, which makes it a good moment to chop something.
How you’ll know: Big bubbles break all over the surface, and they keep coming when you lift the lid.
Drain. Draining means pouring off liquid, like tipping pasta into a colander or spooning extra fat out of the pan. Pour hot grease into a can or jar, not the sink, where it hardens and clogs the pipes.
How you’ll know: Only a few drips are left, and the food isn’t sitting in a puddle.
High heatTimer: 2 min
the butter in a large over medium heat. Add the garlic, and the pepper flakes if you like, and stir 1 minute, but not .
Melt. Melting means gently heating something solid, like butter or cheese, until it turns liquid. Low or medium heat keeps it from browning or burning.
How you’ll know: It’s smooth and liquid, and butter may foam a little but hasn’t turned brown.
Skillet. A skillet is a frying pan: wide and flat with low, sloped sides. The shape lets steam escape, so food browns instead of stewing.
How you’ll know: It’s the pan you’d fry an egg in, and a 10 or 12 inch one handles most recipes.
Fragrant. Fragrant means cooking until you can clearly smell it, usually garlic or spices, often in about 30 seconds. That’s the moment the flavor is ready, just before it can burn.
How you’ll know: You can smell it from a step back, and garlic is pale gold, not brown.
Brown. Browning means cooking until the outside turns brown, which is where a lot of savory flavor comes from. Give food room and time without stirring, or it steams and stays gray.
How you’ll know: The food looks brown rather than gray, and the kitchen smells toasty and savory.
Medium heatTimer: 1 min
Dolly’s tip: Skip the pepper flakes for a milder bowl.Stir in the brown sugar and soy sauce until bubbling, then add the noodles and to coat.
Toss. Tossing means gently lifting and turning food so everything gets coated, like pasta in sauce or vegetables in oil. It coats every piece evenly without mashing anything.
How you’ll know: Every piece looks glossy or evenly coated, with no dry spots hiding underneath.
Medium heat
Push the noodles to one side, pour the eggs into the empty space and scramble until just set with no runny parts, about 1 minute.
Medium heatTimer: 1 min
Food safety: For the safest eggs, cook until the whites are fully set and the yolks begin to thicken. Dishes made with eggs are done at 160°F.
Add the spinach and everything together until the spinach . Serve topped with the green onions and sesame seeds.
Toss. Tossing means gently lifting and turning food so everything gets coated, like pasta in sauce or vegetables in oil. It coats every piece evenly without mashing anything.
How you’ll know: Every piece looks glossy or evenly coated, with no dry spots hiding underneath.
Wilt. Wilting means cooking leafy greens just until they go soft and collapse. Greens shrink a lot, so a big pile of spinach becomes a small handful, and that’s normal.
How you’ll know: The leaves turn soft and deep green and slump into the pan, usually within a minute or two.
Medium heat

Plan this in Dollop, and get the grocery list
Dollop puts this dinner on a night that suits your week, lists only what you still need to buy, and walks you through each step while you cook.
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