Forget the instant brick. Real ramen is a broth project — and the best ones never had meat in the bowl to begin with.
Japan obsesses over the soup. Tonkotsu gets the headlines, but shōyu and shio ramen lean on kombu and dried shiitake for their backbone — pure plant umami that predates the pork.
Build a dashi from kombu, dried shiitake and roasted aromatics and you get a bowl with real depth. The trick is layering salt and fat, not animal — toasted sesame and a spoon of miso do the rest.