Vegan khao soi Thai recipe

I've been on a vegan khao soi kick lately, with regards to both research and cooking. If you follow me on Instagram or have ever heard me speak about khao soi, you'll know khao soi is a huge category of Thai dishes beyond the famous (and understandably so) Chiang Mai coconut curry noodles. But in all my attempts to share different styles of khao soi, I realised I've never shared a recipe for the more well known Northern Thai curry noodles. So, here you go.

What makes khao soi different from other Thai curries?

The prevailing provenance theory of khao soi suggests it was introduced to Northern Thailand by Chinese-Muslim immigrants (the Jeen Haw จีนฮ่อ) from the Yunnan region of China. Whatever its original form, the dish took on many new identities as all cultural imports do, as locals adapted khao soi to suit regional tastes. Regardless, the only version to make the cultural export list in a big way is the one made with a rich coconut curry broth, the version I'm sharing a recipe for today.

One reason I want to share my recipe is because most khao soi recipes available in English showcase a more Central Thai take on this Northern dish (remember how I said locals adapted it to suit regional tastes?), where aromatics like lemongrass and galangal take precedence in the ingredients list.

Many bloggers suggest using any red curry paste with the addition of curry powder and/or turmeric, and while those dishes may taste good, it reflects a reductive perspective that treats all curries as having the same character. But Thai curries are named differently because each one has its own unique qualities. Using a cookie cutter mix of ingredients—such as chilies, lemongrass, galangal, shrimp paste, makrut lime peel, garlic, shallots cumin, and so on—doesn't make sense unless your goal is to repeatedly recreate a dish with a single, fixed identity. You can read more about the identity of different Thai curry pastes in my Thai curry paste primer.

Which ingredients should be in khao soi curry paste?

If you read khao soi curry paste recipes written in Thai, or in English by people who are well-versed in Northern cuisine, you'll quickly notice a lack of ingredients like lemongrass and galangal. Instead, the paste generally contains a heavy hand of shallots (or onions), dried red chilies, ginger, fresh turmeric, Chinese black cardamom, coriander seeds, and salt. Some recipes call for curry powder, star anise and other spices, but I've tried to par my recipe down to be as back to basics as possible.

Ginger versus galangal in Thai food

If you consume enough information about Thai cuisine, you might be familiar with the assertion that ginger is not only an inadequate substitute for galangal, but that it doesn't feature in Thai cuisine much at all. This argument is sometimes taken to the brink of what I call authenticity compensation, where a myriad of assumptions based at least loosely in reality lead to conclusions that are as distorted as the thing eristical personalities are arguing against to begin with. In this case, the assertion that ginger isn't an acceptable substitute for galangal in curry paste is largely accurate, and from there a false assumption is drawn that ginger is in fact not a Thai ingredient at all.

In my opinion this curious argument fallacy, in which people start making hasty generalisations about the acceptability of ginger in Thai cuisine at all, stems from an assumption that Central Thai cuisine IS Thai cuisine¹. Ginger isn't widely used in central Thai cooking and, since central Thai food is what most people are familiar with abroad, a conclusion is often drawn that ginger isn't heavily utilised in any region. The assumption extends further: that its association with Thai food comes only from uninformed foreigners who haven't done their due diligence before pretending to be an expert.

But in the real world we're just a bunch of individuals with jumbled ideas born of multiple streams of information and experiences. The recipes for khao soi curry paste in Thai run the same gamut as those in English, ranging from combining red and yellow curry pastes together, to using massaman curry paste, to my own preference for the Muslim style Northern pasted on which my recipe is based.

Black cardamom

This imparts a medicinal, smoky taste to khao soi. Without black cardamom, khao soi doesn't taste like khao soi to me. The type of black cardamom used is the Chinese, not Indian, variety. The former is about 4x the size of the latter and is less pungent.

Pickles

This style of khao soi has a relatively fixed set of accompaniments or toppings: a nest of crispy deep fried noodles, lime, toasted chilli, fresh shallot, and pickled mustard greens. However, I recently came across a couple of khao soi recipes that instruct makers to combine the shallot and pickled mustard greens in mildly sweet and salty vinegar, similar (but much less sweet) to what you'd use to make Vietnamese carrot and daikon pickle for bánh mì. I suspect this is a Thai-ified approximation of the Yunnan style pickled mustard greens that are served with the original, coconut milk free version of khao soi.

At any rate, I gave these recipes a bash and I'm a convert. The flavours and textures (sour, salty, crunchy) pair perfectly with the oily richness of the curry broth. The pickles will keep for a week or so in the fridge. But if you can't be arsed to make it, pickled mustard greens and fresh shallot are perfectly acceptable.

¹ Remember that cultural exports tend to stem from capital cities (in this case Bangkok, which is in the central region), where concentrated wealth and power control narratives of cultural identity, and thus skews assumptions about what is and isn't part of those national culinary identities.

📖 Recipe

Print Recipe

Vegan khao soi ข้าวซอยวีแกน

Khao soi ข้าวซอย is a famous noodle soup from Northern Thai that combines a rich coconut curry broth with a combination of boiled and crispy fried noodles, all paired with a selection of condiments. This is a dish to make for company. Despite a call for fresh noodles, you can use also use dried vegan egg noodles. Just cook them until al dente and set some aside to air dry before deep frying.

Servings: 4

Ingredients

Pickles

• 65 millilitres white vinegar (around 5% acidity is best)
• ¾ teaspoon sugar
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 75 grams pickled mustard greens sliced
• 50 grams roughly chopped shallots or red onion ½ ish centimetre pieces

Toasted chilli oil

• 60 millilitres vegetable oil
• 2 tablespoons ground chilli (mild or spicy) see notes

Curry paste

• 3 mild dried long red chillies or 1 ½ teaspoons ground chilli see notes
• ½ tablespoon coriander seeds
• 1 pod Chinese black cardamom see notes
• 70 grams sliced shallots (about ¾ cup)
• 1 ¼ teaspoons fine salt
• 15 grams roughly chopped ginger (2 tablespoons)
• 12 grams roughly chopped fresh turmeric (1 ½ tablespoons)
• 10 grams packed chopped coriander stems (1 heaped tablespoon)

Curry

• 400 (ish) grams tofu, cut into approximate 1 inch cubes (medium firm to extra firm, your pick)
• 550 millilitres full fat coconut milk Aroy-D or Chaokoh are the best readily available brands
• 500 millilitres water
• 1 tablespoon thin soy sauce see notes
• 1 tablespoon palm sugar

Noodles

• 320 (ish) gras fresh wheat noodles per person, divided around 80 grams per person.

For serving

• Fresh coriander cilantro
• Fresh slices of lime
• Salt vegan fish sauce and/or soy sauce

Instructions

To make the pickles

• Heat the vinegar, sugar, and salt in a small saucepan just until everything is dissolved. Leave to cool. Add mustard greens and onion to a bowl or jar and pour cooled vinegar over. Mix to combine, cover, and leave for at least two hours before use.

To make the toasted chilli oil

• Heat the oil and chilli over medium low heat in a small skillet or pan. Cook, stirring constantly, until the chilli is a few shades darker (but not black!) and smells toasty. Tip into a heatproof bowl to cool.

To make the curry paste

• If you’re using dried whole chillies, remove the seeds and soak in hot water for 15 minutes.
• Heat a wok or pan to medium heat and toast the coriander seeds by shaking and stirring them for 2-3 minutes until fragrant and a shade or two darker in colour.
• Smack the cardamom with the side of a knife and peel out the large seeds. Toast them the same way as the coriander seeds. Leave both seeds to cool for half an hour.
• Heat a well seasoned wok, cast iron skillet, or nonstick frying pan to high heat. Add the shallots (no oil), agitating them and turning them from time to time until there are a few char marks. Scoop onto a dish to cool. Repeat the same method with the ginger, turmeric, and coriander stems.
  
• If you plan to make your curry paste with a traditional pestle and mortar: Grind the dried spices using your pestle and mortar. Spoon the ground spices into a small bowl.
• If using rehydrated dried chillies, drain the chillies and snip them into small pieces with kitchen sheers. Add the chillies and salt to your mortar and work with the pestle until you’ve got a smooth paste. Alternatively, if using chilli powder, add it without soaking.
• Then add the ginger and turmeric. Continue to pound until you once again have a smooth paste. Repeat with the shallots.
• Lastly, add the ground spices back in and pound through until you have a uniform, mostly smooth paste.
• Alternatively, you can use a blender. If you are using this method then skip steps 5-8 and add all of the prepared, toasted, curry paste ingredients to a blender along with around ⅓ of the coconut milk (you can eyeball it). Blend until smooth.

To make the curry

• Optional but recommended step to improve texture: Add the tofu to a saucepan, cover with water, and bring to the boil. Simmer for ten minutes. Drain the tofu and lay it on a plate to dry.
• Add about ⅓ of the coconut milk and the curry paste to a saucepan or wok that holds at least 2 litres (or just dump the contents of your blender in if you used the shortcut method). Heat over medium heat, stirring constantly, for around ten minutes, until the coconut milk thickens. Depending on the brand of coconut milk you use, you will hopefully start to see some oil separating.
• Add another ⅓ of the coconut cream and cook for another 5 minutes. Tip in remaining coconut milk, water, soy sauce, and palm sugar.
• Bring the curry back to a low simmer. Add the tofu and cook for a further 15 minutes.
• Taste the curry. It should be salty and a little bit sweet, with mild spice and smokiness. Add more salt if desired.

To make the crispy noodle topping (optional)

• While the curry is simmering, find a spare wok or high sided skillet and heat 2-3 inches of oil to 175°C. Of each 80 gram portion of noodles, set aside 15-20 grams for frying. Snip the soon to be fried noodles into 7-10 cm (3-4 inch) segments. Test the oil temperature by dropping one piece into the fat. Oil should bubble rapidly around the noodle without splattering. Once the bubbles slow down around the noodles, after around 30 seconds, they’re done. Use a spider strainer to remove them to a plate lined with kitchen roll. If you’re making several portions, continue cooking further small handfuls until all are fried. Leave to cool. These will store in an airtight container for a few days.

To dish up and serve

• To boil the noodles for the curry, bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil. Cook the noodles (follow the instructions on the packet), drain, and divide between bowls.
• Ladle about a cup of curry broth over the noodles, along with some tofu. Top with a handful of the crunchy noodles and serve alongside the pickles, chilli oil, coriander, slices of lime, and additional soy sauce/vegan fish sauce/salt.

Notes

Traditionally the chillis used in both the curry paste and chilli oil would be Thai, but you can use a milder Mexican variety such as guajillo too. If you prefer a milder flavour, use Korean gochugaru.

Don't confuse the Chinese black cardamom with Indian black cardamom. The former is about four times the size of the latter and isn't as pungent.

I always recommend using Thai soy sauces as they have a distinct flavour profile, but don't worry if all you've got is a bottle of Kikkoman because it will work fine. For an overview of Thai soy sauces see my piece on Thai soy and seasoning sauces.

 

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