Who doesn’t love a hot, heaping bowl of ramen at this chilly time of year?

Of course, you can get your fill at any number of ramen restaurants around. But Kenchan Ramen offers a novel way to get your fix — with its ramen kits to make at home.

Kenshi Kobayashi and Chef Motoki Teranishi started Kenchan Ramen kits in Los Angeles in 2020 during the pandemic. They now ship their assorted kits to Arizona, California, Idaho, Nevada, and Utah.

And they are exceptional, as I found out when I tried samples recently.

Each kit come complete with most everything you need to make two servings of ramen, along with instructions.

The noodles are fresh, with everything shipped on ice. Keep refrigerated and cook up your ramen within 5 days of delivery or place in the freezer for longer storage.

A few of the kits are vegan. You can choose to substitute gluten-free noodles (made of rice flour) in your kit for an added cost of $4. However, most of the kits contain soy sauce, which is not gluten-free.

The kits take little time and effort to make. All you need really do is boil water to cook the noodles for less than 2 minutes, place the condiment packets in a bowl of hot water to warm up, and assemble everything in your bowl.

With the Premium Original Miso Kit ($30.99), for instance, you squeeze the soup base into your serving bowls, then whisk in hot water to make the deeply savory broth. This kit comes with thin slices of tender pork chashu, which you can sear in seconds in a frying pan before adding to your bowl, along with the packet of delicious garlic oil for a robust boost of flavor.

The noodles, themselves, are wonderfully sturdy and chewy, and taste just-made. The amount might not look like much in the plastic packet, but once cooked, they expand and make for a generous-sized bowl.

The Spicy Sesame ($30.99) is vegan and quite fiery tasting. It uses OmniPork, a non-GMO soy-based product designed to mimic ground pork. The OmniPork has a similar ground texture, though is more mild tasting than actual pork. It’s a good foil for the creamy, spicy broth that’s made not with water this time, but your choice of unsweetened milk, be it cow’s, almond, oat, soy or another type, which adds a lot of richness.

Garnished with edamame, and sesame seeds, it can also be made even spicier with the accompanying packets of red chili threads. But taste the broth first before adding, because it’s plenty hot already.

The White Truffle Mushroom ($31.99), which is also vegan, comes with fresh spinach noodles that are bouncy, chewy, and tinged a light green that get topped with a medley of sauteed mushrooms, edamame, and a drizzle of white truffle oil that doesn’t overpower.

This ramen is earthy and restorative tasting. There’s a clarity to its taste, along with a nourishing effect that just envelops you from head to toe.

All in all, I found the ramen varieties top-notch, as good as any at a quality ramen restaurant.

Just note that there is a $90 or three-kit minimum per order.

More: Making Spam Musubi with Vegan OmniPork