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Pink plastic bowl of finished curry noodles with purple pickles, green herbs, and crispy yellow noodles.
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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.
    toasted charred turmeric, ginger, coriander stems, and shallots
  • 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.