Vegan Laksa

Vegan Laksa is an ideal noodle soup for those seeking a hearty, creamy, and utterly delicious meal. This aromatic Malaysian soup has a spicy kick and features homemade vegan laksa curry paste, puffed tofu, vegetables, and crisp toppings. Sounds good? Just keep reading!

What is Laksa?

Traditional Laksa is a popular spicy noodle soup from Malaysia. You can find this dish in other countries such as Singapore, Thailand, or Indonesia. While there are many variations, it is characterized by its rich, coconut milk-based broth flavored with aromatics like lemongrass, garlic, and shallots. Classic Malaysian Laksa often contains noodles, seafood, fish balls (Asam Laksa), chicken, or puff tofu.

For our vegan Laksa soup, we use puffed tofu, vegetables such as broccoli and mushrooms, and toppings such as cucumber, fresh chili, and beansprouts. Our broth gets its creaminess from coconut milk and is punched up with a homemade vegan curry paste. For our curry noodle soup, we use brown rice laksa noodles. When combined, these ingredients make a satisfying soup that is spicy, comforting, and 100% plant-based.

Our Vegan Laksa is:

• Made with homemade curry paste
• Traditional and authentic
• Spicy
• Served with brown rice noodles
• Made from scratch
• Inspired by living in Malaysia and trying many vegan Laksa from different places
• Hearty and tasty

How to cook Vegan Laksa

To make Vegan Laksa, you can choose to follow the "from scratch" way, or the "cheating" way. You can make Vegan Laksa from scratch by making your own Laksa paste, or simply use store-bought Vegan Laksa Paste (quite difficult to find if you are not in Malaysia), or use Red Curry Paste using a few tricks we'll give you.

How to make Laksa Paste from Scratch:

The flavor base of laksa lies in its curry paste. Traditional versions contain shrimp paste and fish sauce, so creating a vegan version requires some substitutions. Making your own Vegan Laksa Paste is quite simple, as all you need to do is add all the ingredients into a blender jug, and blend using a hand blender until you have a smooth curry paste. The tricky part may be to find all these ingredients depending on where you live.

Ingredients and substitutes

• Dried red chilies. (they need to be soaked before adding them into the blender with the rest of the ingredients)
• Candlenuts. We use them to make our curry paste, as we live currently in Malaysia and they are easy to find, but you can substitute this for Macadamia Nuts, which are very similar, or Cashews.
• Lemongrass stalks. For the curry paste, we just use the white thick part. You can use the green part to add to your broth and add more flavor.
• Galangal and ginger. If you can get both, use both, they add different flavors that are nice for your curry paste. If you can't find galangal, then you may want to just use ginger.
• Garlic cloves.
• Shallots. We use Asian shallots, which are smaller than French shallots. If you are using French shallots or yellow onion reduce the amount.
• Mushroom sauce or vegan oyster sauce. We use this as an alternative to prawn paste. You can use other ingredients such as miso paste, or mushroom powder.
• Dry Spices. For your Vegan Laksa Curry Paste, you will need turmeric (you can use fresh turmeric), coriander seeds, and cumin.
• Sugar. We use cane sugar to add some sweetness to our Curry Paste. This is optional, but we do recommend using it to make the paste, or adding some sweetener while cooking the curry.

Method

1. Soak the dried chilies while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.
2. Finely chop the galangal, ginger, garlic, shallots, and lemongrass. We like to chop these ingredients into small pieces so it makes the blending process easier.
3. Add all the ingredients to a blender jug, add the soaked red chilies, and 1 tablespoon of fresh water, and blend until you have a smooth paste.

When blended into a paste, these ingredients create an intensely flavorful mixture that's spicy, gingery, and filled with Southeast Asian flair.

If you are making a big enough batch, you can use the food processor to blend the paste ingredients.

At this point, you can freeze any extra paste that you won't be using the make the Laksa Curry using an airtight container.

Store-bought Laksa Paste

If you cannot find the time, or energy to make the paste from scratch, that's alright. We've been there, and you can still make a really decent Laksa Curry that will taste very similar to the other version. You have two choices here:

• Use store-bought Vegan Laksa Paste. This may be difficult if you are not in Malaysia or its surroundings. We got a really nice Vegan Laksa Paste from Pinxin Restaurant. It's really handy to have it already made for you if you want to have a quick version of this delicious curry noodle soup.
• Use Thai Curry paste. Laksa paste and Red Curry Paste have many ingredients in common, so they can be used alternatively. If you are using Red Curry Paste, add curry powder to it, to make it more "laksa-like". If you are looking for that bright yellow color for your paste, you may want to use a yellow curry paste. Thai curry pastes are easier to find in your local Asian supermarket, or big grocery stores.

How to make curry Laksa once the paste is made

Once your Laksa paste is ready, whether you make it from scratch, or you are using a store-bought paste, you just need a couple of ingredients and follow some simple steps to make a delicious Laksa Soup.

Ingredients

Laksa Paste. Choose if you prefer to make the paste from scratch or if you want to use a store-bought paste.

Fresh vegetables. For our Vegan Laksa, we use broccoli and mushrooms. Here you can get creative and use your favorite veggies. Some of our favorites are green beans, carrots, different types of mushrooms, bok choy, eggplant, or baby corn.

Coconut cream or coconut milk. You can find coconut milk in most grocery stores. We recommend using a can of full-fat organic coconut milk. Creamy coconut milk is much tastier and richer.

Vegetable stock or broth. We like using organic vegetable bouillon, but you can choose your go-to brand, or make your own homemade veggie stock.

Laksa Noodles. Traditionally, Laksa is served with rice starch noodles or rice noodles. You can find different types of noodles depending on where you get your Laksa Soup, but so far, I've seen that in Malaysia, this soup is mostly served with thick rice noodles which look like Udon noodles. For our Laksa soup, we use brown rice laksa noodles. You can use any type of rice noodles you may find or have.

Tofu puffs. This is the main protein we use for our Vegan Laksa. Normally, Laksa comes served with fish balls and tofu puffs. You can try making tofu balls, or even buy Vegan Fish balls if you are in Asia. If you cannot find tofu puffs, you can just use stir-fried firm tofu, or make tofu puffs at home.

Toppings. For our recipe, we use bean sprouts, fresh chillies, fresh mint, and sliced cucumber. These toppings add freshness, crunchiness, and heat, the perfect combo for your noodle soup!

Step-by-Step Method for Vegan Laksa

1. Cut into bite-size your fresh vegetables, and briefly stir fry using some vegetable oil. Reserve for later.
2. Add some vegetable oil in a wok or pan and heat to medium heat. Add the Vegan Laksa curry homemade paste or store-bought one, and cook for a couple of minutes. You want your curry paste to be well cooked so the flavors are released.
3. Slowly, pour your coconut cream, and bring it to a gentle simmer. You should see the oils separating from the cream.
4. Add the vegetable stock, and combine well. Bring to a gentle simmer.
5. Incorporate the stir-fried veggies, tofu, and optionally, the greens of the lemon grass, to add more flavor. Let it simmer for about 8-10 minutes. Season with salt, or a dash of soy sauce.
6. Cook the noodles following the package instructions, rinse them with cold water, and place them in a serving bowl. Add the Laksa soup on top, add toppings of your choice, and serve.

Best noodles for Laksa

Traditionally, this delicious soup uses either thick rice noodles or thin rice vermicelli noodles. Both noodle types work beautifully, soaking up the rich coconut curry broth, but in my opinion, making your Laksa with thicker noodles makes the whole dish heartier. For a healthier Laksa, you can use brown rice noodles like we do, or sweet potato starch noodles.

Some tips for preparing the noodles:

• If you are using dried noodles, soak in hot water for 5-10 minutes until softened and pliable before adding to the soup. Drain well before using. Make sure you are following the package instructions, as soaking time may vary, and sometimes, you'll need to cook them in boiling water.
• Fresh or frozen noodles can be briefly boiled until just tender, around 2-3 minutes. Drain and rinse under cold water to stop the cooking process.
• For a shortcut, use pre-cooked instant rice noodles. Simply soak in hot water for 1 minute to hydrate before adding to the laksa.
• Cut or break up longer noodles into shorter pieces so they're easier to eat with a spoon.
• Add the noodles to the bowl just before serving so they don't overcook in the hot broth.

Variations to our Vegan Laksa Recipe:

• Use store-bought paste. We use homemade Vegan Laksa Curry Paste, but you can make a delicious Laksa Curry by using store-bought Vegan Laksa Curry, Thai Red Curry, or even Thai Yellow Curry.
• Use different types of noodles. If you are not sure about thick rice noodles, you can as well, use vermicelli noodles for your Laksa, otherwise, use your favorite type of noodles.
• Add different toppings. Some traditional toppings include fried shallots, chili oil for a spicy kick, some lime wedges, fresh lime juice, and fresh cilantro, and for a vegetarian Laksa, you can add a hardboiled egg.
• Change the main protein. We use tofu puffs. You can buy them or make them at home by deep frying fresh tofu. Other options for protein would be tempeh, soy curls, fried or steamed vegan dumplings, toasted peanuts, or vegan alternatives such as vegan fish balls, or vegan chicken pieces.

Serving Suggestions

Vegan Laksa is a complete and hearty dish that doesn't need much more to make for a filling main dish. If you still want to add some sides to this curry noodle soup, here are some options:

• Pan-fried or steamed potstickers
• Pickled veggies
• Asian slaw salad made with crunchy cabbage, carrots, green onions, cilantro, and a tangy dressing.

Store and reheat

You can store your Laksa leftovers by separating the noodles from the soup and keeping them in different airtight containers in the fridge.

We recommend keeping the toppings in small airtight containers too, as they will get soggy otherwise.

Reheat using a pan or the microwave.

FAQ and Tips

More delicious Asian-style Noodle Soups:

• Vegan Coconut Noodle Soup
• Vegan Pho
• Spicy Miso Ramen
• Vegan Khao Soi
• Vegan Wonton Soup