Vegan Laksa is a comforting Malaysian noodle soup with coconut milk-based broth, veggies, and tofu puffs. It's a hearty, colorful, and nutritious dish.
What is Laksa?
Laksa is a spiced noodle soup dish made out of aromatic paste, and coconut milk from Southeast Asia. It has an origin in Malaysia but is also very popular in Singapore, Thailand, and Indonesia.
This recipe of Vegan Laksa
Laksa is native to Malaysian & Singaporean cuisines and the original Laksa paste contains shrimp paste. It’s also more challenging to find a vegan version of this dish in restaurants. In this recipe, we veganized it very easily by omitting it!
Thank you to Ramya from Brown Girl Vegan who created this amazing recipe with me – for authentic vegan recipes, go to Brown Girl Vegan Eats!
Ingredients and substitutions
The vegan Laksa paste of this recipe contains:
- Flavorful aromatics that are roughly chopped: shallot, garlic, galangal, Thai chili, kaffir lime leaves, lime zest
- Spices: coriander, cumin, paprika, turmeric
To make the Laksa broth:
The Laksa broth has:
- Coconut milk
- Water
- Season with soy sauce, salt, and pepper
- Toppings:
- Fried tofu: I use pre-fried tofu puffs, but you can also fry your firm tofu
- Bok choy: Alternatively, you can use broccolini, spinach, or snap peas.
- Bean sprouts
- Cilantro
📖 Recipe
Vegan Laksa
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: 3-4 servings 1x
Description
Vegan Laksa is a comforting Malaysian noodle soup with coconut milk-based broth, veggies, and tofu puffs. It's a hearty, colorful, and nutritious dish.
Ingredients
Laksa Paste
- 3-4 shallots
- 4 garlic cloves
- 3 lemongrass ends
- 6 kaffir lime leaves
- 1 piece of thumb-sized galangal
- Lime peel (1 teaspoon lime zest)
- 1-3 red chili/dried red chili
Dry spices
- 1 tsp coriander
- ½ tsp cumin
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1 tsp turmeric
Make the Laksa broth
- 1 tbsp oil
- 400ml coconut milk (60%)
- 500ml water
- Juice from 1 lime
- salt
- pepper
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
Toppings
- Greens such as bok choy, snap pea, or broccoli
- Tofu puffs
- Cilantro
- Sliced red chili
- Bean sprouts
- Assemble with rice noodles
Instructions
Make the Laksa Paste:
- Roughly chop the shallots and garlic. Remove the outer leave of the lemongrass and chop it into chunks.
- Roughly chop the galangal and chili into small pieces.
- Add the chopped shallot, garlic, lemongrass, galangal, and chili to a blender and other ingredients. When adding the kaffir lime leaves, tear them in half along the stem to enhance the aroma. Add the dried spices. Blend until it forms a paste, you might have to stop a few times to scrape down the sides.
Make the Laksa Broth:
- Add the oil to a deep pan, followed by the curry paste. Saute the curry paste until fragrant for about 10 minutes.
- Add water and coconut milk and mix well. Add soy sauce, salt, and pepper as needed. Bring to a boil.
- Add your tofu puffs and bok choy. Cook them for a few minutes until the bok choy or greens are bright green. Turn off the heat. Squeeze the lime juice on top.
- Cook the rice noodles according to the package instructions.
- Add the noodles to a bowl, ladle on the soup base, and top with tofu puffs, greens, cilantro, and bean sprouts.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Category: Main Course
- Method: stovetop
- Cuisine: Malaysian, Singaporean
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