Prepare all the ingredients.

Finely chop the white part of the green onion, slice the green part into rounds, slice the garlic very thin, shave the burdock root, julienne the carrot, and cut the napa cabbage into strips.

Grate half of the onion and finely chop the other half. (If using a sweet onion with high water content, adjust the amount of soy sauce later as needed.)

Heat a pot over medium heat and add the oil. Add the garlic, white part of the green onion, and chopped onion, and sauté.

Start boiling water in a large pot for the noodles.

Sauté until the vegetables are nicely browned to your liking. Don’t over-char, as it can become bitter.

Add the grated onion.

Add all the ingredients marked with ★ to the pot, continuing over medium heat.

Once it comes to a boil, turn off the heat and stir in the sesame oil. The soup is now ready.

Add the abura-fu (wheat gluten) to the soup to soak.

Cook the noodles to your preferred firmness, following the package instructions. Depending on timing, you may want to prepare the toppings while the noodles cook.

Pour hot water into the ramen bowls to warm them up.

Heat a frying pan over medium heat, add a little oil (not listed in ingredients), and sauté the burdock root and carrot. After 30 seconds, add the napa cabbage.

Drizzle 1 tablespoon of the soup over the vegetables and quickly stir-fry together.

Discard the hot water from the ramen bowls and pour in the hot soup.

Drain the cooked noodles well and add them to the soup in the bowls.

Arrange the toppings on the noodles.

Cut the nori into equal pieces and place on top to finish.

You can use leftover soup for fried rice or as a sauce for other dishes!

For a summer version, try using mochi wheat gluten and bitter melon. I used pasta instead of ramen noodles, and the soup clings well to pasta too!