Imagine my excitement when I was invited to the Chef Challenge at Shoryu Ramen, a fab restaurant in Manchester. This week I’ve shared a Vegan Ramen recipe and it might sound like it was planned, but it was not, I’m just very keen on Ramen. I went to Shoryu Ramen a few months ago and I enjoyed their food a lot. This time I was eager to try doing it myself.

Shoryu Ramen is a chain of a few restaurants in London and Manchester. I saw that they are planning to open another one in Oxford later this year. They opened the first restaurant in London and they have been recommended in the Michelin Guide from 2014, every year. You can read more about their story and the restaurants.

The Chef told us how he makes the bun and then we made our own.

This is my bun. I was surprised to have grilled halloumi as an ingredient. I like it a lot, but I would rather use tofu in Japanese recipes. Either way, the bun turned out to be tasty.

My husband made his bun with letuce instead of the cucumber, but the rest was the same as mine. Both of us are keen on cheese and mushrooms, so it’s not hard to imagine we would pick the same things.

It was so much fun to make a new recipe in the restaurant. We were judged and my husband and I were on the 2nd place, just one point behind the winners. Now I want to bake these buns at home, so I have to go to the International Supermarket to get a bamboo steamer.

After the buns were done, we had Ramen and cocktails.

From the cocktail menu I picked Pink Geisha, it’s made with jinzu gin, americano cocchi rosa, josen sake, lychee puree, fresh raspberry and rose water. I love it, the flavour of rose water was great and those little roses on top were just delightful.

My husband was driving, so he chose a mocktail called Virgin Yuzu Mojito. His mocktail had fresh strawberries, mint, homemade yuzu syrup and apple juice. I’ve tasted it too and it was fab. He really liked it.

When it comes to Ramen, my husband had White Natural, like last time. A vegan ramen with soy milk, shiitake broth, fried tofu, a few types of mushrooms, bamboo shoots and nori seaweed.

I chose the second vegetarian option in the menu. They didn’t have this last time. My Ramen was called Spicy Vegetarian and in addition to soy milk and the other ingredients in the White natural, it has spicy miso sauce and broccoli. I like it, a bit too spicy, but very good. I would have it again.

*I was invited, all opinions are my own.