Pulled Pork and Spinach Ramen with Ras el Hanout

Ras el hanout doesn’t announce itself all at once. Cinnamon arrives first, warm and a little sweet, then cumin underneath it, earthy and rounding out the edges, and somewhere further back, if the blend is a good one, a faint trace of dried rose that you might not even name correctly on the first breath — you’d just notice the kitchen smells like somewhere else. That spice blend, worked into a pork shoulder and left to cook low and slow until it falls apart under a fork, is the backbone of pulled pork and spinach ramen with ras el hanout, a bowl that takes a North African spice cabinet and drops it into a Japanese framework without asking either tradition’s permission.

The pork shreds into long, tender strands, dark at the edges where the spice crust caramelized against the pan. Spinach wilts into the hot broth at the very last moment, going from stiff and glossy to soft and folded within seconds. Together over noodles, in a broth built to carry both, this is a bowl that shouldn’t work on paper and does anyway.

What Makes It Worth Your Time

This isn’t a fast dinner, and there’s no point pretending otherwise — the pork needs real time in the oven to break down properly. But most of that time is unattended, which changes the math considerably: an afternoon with the oven doing the actual labor, and maybe twenty minutes of hands-on work squeezed into either end of it.

What you get back is a dish that tastes like it belongs to no single tradition, built instead on the logic that warm, complex spice blends and rich, savory broths were always going to find each other eventually. Ras el hanout brings a depth that a standard ramen tare doesn’t reach for, and the pulled pork carries it through every spoonful rather than sitting on top as an afterthought.

What You’ll Need

• 2.5 lbs (1.1kg) boneless pork shoulder — a well-marbled cut that needs the long, slow braise to properly break down; leaner cuts will dry out under this same treatment
• 2 tablespoons ras el hanout, plus 1 teaspoon for the broth — quality varies enormously between brands, so if you can find a version from a spice shop rather than a supermarket blend, it’s worth the difference
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• Salt and black pepper
• 1 large onion, sliced
• 4 cloves garlic, smashed
• 1-inch knob fresh ginger, sliced
• 6 cups (1.4L) chicken stock
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 14 oz (400g) fresh or dried ramen noodles
• 4 cups (about 4 oz / 115g) baby spinach
• 2 soft-boiled eggs, halved
• Fresh cilantro and lime wedges, for serving

If ras el hanout isn’t sitting in your spice cabinet yet, a rough approximation combines 1 teaspoon each cinnamon and cumin with 1/2 teaspoon each ginger and coriander — it won’t carry the same floral complexity from dried rosebuds, but it gets close enough to hold the dish together while you track down the real thing.

Making It

1. Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C). Pat the pork shoulder dry and rub it all over with the 2 tablespoons of ras el hanout, salt, and pepper, pressing the spice into every surface until the meat looks dusted rather than merely seasoned.
2. Heat the olive oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat until it shimmers. Sear the pork on all sides, 3 to 4 minutes per side, until the spice crust turns dark and fragrant — you’ll know it’s ready to turn when it releases cleanly from the pot rather than sticking and tearing. The kitchen should smell distinctly of warm cinnamon and toasted cumin by this point, sharper than it did before the pork hit the heat.
3. Remove the pork and set aside. Add the onion to the pot and cook for 4 to 5 minutes, until softened and picking up color from the fond left behind by the sear. Add the garlic and ginger, cooking for 30 seconds more, just until fragrant.
4. Stir in the tomato paste and cook for 1 minute, until it darkens slightly. Return the pork to the pot, then pour in enough chicken stock to come about halfway up the sides of the meat, roughly 3 cups.
5. Cover and transfer to the oven. Braise for 2.5 to 3 hours, checking at the 2.5-hour mark — the pork is ready when it shreds easily with two forks, offering almost no resistance, the fibers pulling apart into long, tender strands rather than tearing in short, tough pieces.
6. Remove the pork from the pot and let it rest for 10 minutes before shredding. Strain the braising liquid, discarding the solids, and set the liquid aside.
7. In a separate pot, combine the remaining chicken stock with the reserved braising liquid and the additional teaspoon of ras el hanout. Stir in the soy sauce, bring to a simmer, and taste — it should carry real depth from the braise, warm and a little smoky underneath the ras el hanout’s spice.
8. Cook the noodles separately according to package instructions, timing them to finish just as the broth is ready. Drain well.
9. Divide the noodles among bowls. Add a generous handful of shredded pork to each, then ladle the hot broth over the top — the moment it hits the spinach you’ve placed alongside, the leaves should visibly wilt and darken within seconds, going soft and glossy rather than staying stiff.
10. Top each bowl with a halved soft-boiled egg, fresh cilantro, and a wedge of lime. Serve immediately.

The Details That Separate Good from Great

Sear the pork properly before it ever goes into the braising liquid. That initial crust, built through direct contact with a hot, dry pot, is where a real portion of the dish’s depth comes from — skip it, and the finished pork tastes merely spiced rather than genuinely developed.

Strain the braising liquid and use it in the final broth rather than discarding it. Hours of slow cooking have pulled rendered fat, collagen, and spice compounds directly from the pork into that liquid, and folding it back into the broth carries all of that concentrated flavor forward instead of leaving it behind in the pot.

Add the spinach at the absolute last moment, ideally letting the hot broth wilt it rather than cooking it separately. Spinach loses its structure fast, and a few extra minutes of heat turns it from a fresh, bright counterpoint into something limp and flat.

Where It Goes Wrong

The most common mistake is rushing the braise, either by raising the oven temperature to speed things up or pulling the pork too early. Collagen breaks down on its own schedule, and higher heat doesn’t accelerate that process — it just risks drying out the exterior while the interior is still working through the same transformation. Give it the full time and trust the fork test over the clock.

The second failure is skipping the sear entirely to save time. It’s tempting on a long-cook day, but that initial browning is doing real work, and a braised-only pork shoulder without it tastes noticeably flatter by the time it reaches the bowl.

And don’t add the spinach too early or let it sit in the hot broth for more than a minute. Overcooked spinach turns a bright, structural element into something soggy and easy to overlook entirely.

Ways to Make It Your Own

A spoonful of harissa stirred into the finished broth pushes the whole bowl toward more direct heat, playing well against ras el hanout’s warmer, sweeter spice profile without erasing it. Toasted almonds, roughly chopped and scattered over the top, add a crunch that nothing else in the bowl currently offers — worth trying if you want another textural layer beyond the soft pork and noodles.

For a different vegetable altogether, roasted butternut squash cubes stirred in alongside the pork echo ras el hanout’s warmth in a way spinach, chosen here for contrast, deliberately doesn’t.

Putting It on the Table

Serve this ramen hot, immediately after assembling — the spinach loses its fresh quality quickly, and the noodles soften the longer they sit in broth. A side of warm flatbread works well for anyone who wants to mop up the last of the broth once the noodles are gone.

This bowl suits a slower weekend dinner given the braise time involved, though the actual eating experience — hands wrapped around a warm bowl, steam rising with cinnamon and cumin still clinging to it — feels suited to any cold evening you can give it.

Keeping and Reheating

Store the shredded pork, broth, and noodles separately in airtight containers in the fridge for up to 4 days. The pork actually holds its texture and flavor exceptionally well over time, since the long braise has already broken it down completely.

Reheat the broth on the stovetop until it returns to a simmer, then warm the pork directly in the hot broth rather than separately, which keeps it from drying out. Cook fresh noodles rather than reusing previously cooked ones, since ramen noodles continue to absorb liquid and lose their structure once refrigerated.

Approximate Nutrition Per Serving

Values below are estimates for informational purposes only and will vary based on specific ingredients and portion sizes.

Closing

There’s a particular satisfaction in a dish that refuses to explain itself, that simply trusts warm spice and rich broth to find common ground without a shared history to justify it. Pulled pork and spinach ramen with ras el hanout doesn’t ask permission from either tradition it borrows from — it just works, quietly and completely, the way good improvisation always does.