By Korsha Wilson, The New York Times
During a recent lunch service at Ramen by Ra, a five-seat stall in Manhattan, chef Rasheeda Purdie hummed along to jazz streaming out of a small speaker as she moved through the restaurant’s tiny kitchen.
Behind her, shoyu-flavored broth simmered away alongside a less common sight at a ramen shop: a pot of long-cooked collard greens, its liquid used as the base for her potlikker ramen.
Potlikker ramen, also called “collard green ramen” or “soul food ramen,” isn’t a new dish; chef Todd Richards features a version in his 2018 cookbook “Soul.” But it’s now garnering a following on TikTok and at Ramen by Ra, where reservations book up months in advance.
Purdie’s version is made with Hawaiian Sun Noodles, her favorite brand, and topped with chopped greens and shredded, smoked turkey meat, all delicately placed into the bowl with the precision of a surgeon. It also includes a soy-marinated halved egg, with the soft, bright-yellow yolk adding richness to the broth.
A fixture of Southern cooking, potlikker is the earthy, complex broth that feels like an extension of collards, mustard or turnip greens (or a combination), deeply flavored with the essence of the greens and the ingredients they’re cooked with: butter or oil, onions and garlic, sometimes smoked meat or salt pork. To Purdie, and many other cooks, it’s a revelation — a kind of “liquid gold” to be savored, she said. Even its heady smell makes her emotional.
But during slavery, potlikker was seen as a byproduct or “salvage food,” as historian John T. Edge wrote in his 2017 book, “The Potlikker Papers.” Tasked with cooking on plantations, enslaved Africans stewed collard greens with water, a popular preparation for many kinds of greens in western, central and eastern Africa. On plantations, the liquid was strained from the greens and reserved for enslaved Africans, with slave owners unaware that it was the most nutrient-rich part. In the years that followed, potlikker’s presence grew: “Potlikker,” Edge wrote, went on to sustain “the working poor, Black and white.”
A world away, ramen, traditionally thought of as a Japanese dish, was on its own journey when Chinese immigrants took springy, wheat-based noodles — cooked in a long-simmered broth made with meat, aromatics and vegetables — to Japan in the 19th century. In 1958, Momofuku Ando, a Taiwanese inventor, created instant ramen, able to be made by simply adding hot water to noodles and dehydrated bouillon, creating a pathway for the rest of the world to become acquainted with the dish.
Learning about how both dishes evolved and became staples in their cuisines gave Purdie the confidence to combine the two dishes. She had long loved ramen, eating it often after late nights as a line cook in Harlem, but during the pandemic she began trying to perfect it, buying as many books as she could in the process.
Soon, she was pairing noodles with her grandmother’s collards recipe, and her potlikker ramen was born. “It was the best ramen I’d ever made,” she said.
Pairing American soul food and Japanese ingredients may seem dissonant, but they’re actually a great match, said LaTonya and David Whitaker. At their restaurant, Soul Food House in the Azabu Juban district of Tokyo, they merge the two cuisines in their “Black Ramen,” a mix of black-eyed peas, shredded chicken and noodles from a nearby market, served with a side of cornbread.
While they don’t have access to collards, they’ve learned to make do with turnip greens, braising them with garlic, onions and even smoked meat. The broth is chicken-based, a recipe David Whitaker learned from his mother-in-law in Clarksdale, Mississippi.
“The flavors might be a little different,” he said, “but the heart and soul are the same.”
Recipe: Potlikker Ramen
Recipe from Rasheeda Purdie
Adapted by Korsha Wilson
Potlikker, the broth left over after cooking a pot of greens, makes a flavorful base for ramen in this recipe from chef Rasheeda Purdie. Inspired by her grandmother’s collard greens, Purdie serves bowls of this ramen at her shop in Manhattan. It makes an especially filling and comforting meal when enjoyed alongside a cup of hot green tea or soba cha. This recipe will most likely yield extra potlikker, which can be served with cornbread or crusty white bread and a salad. Chile crisp, homemade or store bought, would also make a delightful addition to this ramen, adding both texture and heat.
Yield: 2 servings
Total time: About 2 hours
Ingredients
For the Potlikker:
- 1 bunch collard greens (about 1/2 pound), or 8 ounces bagged chopped collards
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 yellow onion, thinly sliced
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
- Kosher salt
- 4 cups chicken broth
- 1 smoked turkey wing (about 1/2 pound)
- 2 tablespoons butter
For the Ramen:
- 10 ounces fresh or frozen ramen noodles
- 2 teaspoons shoyu or low-sodium soy sauce, plus more for serving
- Chile oil, soft-boiled eggs, sliced scallions or fried shallots (or a combination), for serving
Preparations
1. Make the potlikker: Begin by separating the collard greens from the stems (if using prechopped collards, skip ahead to Step 2). Fold each leaf in half lengthwise and pull it away from the stem, discarding the stem. Roll the collard greens tightly into a cylindrical shape, then slice crosswise into thick strips. Finally, tear them into bite-size pieces. Rinse the collard greens in a colander under cold running water to remove any dirt, then drain and set aside.
2. In a large (8-quart) stockpot, heat olive oil over medium-low. Add onion, garlic and crushed red pepper, and season with 1/2 teaspoon salt. Cook the mixture, stirring frequently, until the onion becomes translucent, about 10 minutes.
3. Stir in chicken broth, smoked turkey wing and 4 cups water, and bring the mixture to a boil over high heat. Once boiling, add the collard greens and reduce to a simmer. Add the butter and cook, stirring occasionally, until the collards reach your desired tenderness, about 1 hour.
4. Make the ramen: When the potlikker is done cooking, bring a large pot of water to a boil for the noodles. Remove the smoked turkey meat from the potlikker pot and set aside to cool. Once the turkey has cooled, take the meat off the bones and pull into bite-size pieces to use as a ramen topping.
5. Add the noodles to the pot of boiling water and cook according to package directions; drain.
6. To serve, divide shoyu across ramen bowls (or other wide, deep soup bowls). Top with some potlikker broth (there will be some left over) and season if desired with more shoyu to taste. Add the ramen noodles, then top with some greens from the pot and the chopped smoked turkey in separate sections, along with any other toppings you like.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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