Thai Drunken Noodles are a common street food around Thailand. This dish is well known for how spicy it is. Making it at home gives you the option of adjusting the spiciness and you can be sure that it won't contain any fish sauce, which the original recipe does. Our homemade Vegan Thai Drunken Noodles are a quick meal that you can put together in less than 30 minutes, so it makes for a perfect weekday lunch or dinner.
We love Thai food, and this dish is not an exception. We travelled around Thailand for longer than a month, and the food is just incredible. There are so many dishes to try. We actually took some cooking classes there where we perfected some dishes like our Massaman Curry.
About the name
Different theories evolved around this funny name. The one that makes more sense to me is that this dish use to be eaten by Thai men after a night out thinking that the spice will make their hangover go away and be good for the morning.
Key Ingredients
Vegan Fish Sauce. One of the key ingredients for the Thai Drunken Noodles is fish sauce. So to substitute the fish sauce we use our homemade Vegan Fish Sauce stock made simply four ingredients. You can as well buy it already made.
Thai basil. You'll need Thai basil or regular basil in order to make proper drunken noodles, as it's a key ingredient. Thai basil can be a bit challenging to find but you can substitute it for regular basil (used for this recipe) and it will still make for delicious drunken noodles.
Thai Chilli or Bird's eye chilli. Last but not least, chillis! This dish is meant to be spicy, and the spice comes from the chillis. No chillis, no drunken noodles! If you are not a spicy food fan, you can substitute the chillis for chilli flakes. There are less spicy but will still offer the signature taste we are looking for.
Tofu. The tofu we like to use for this dish is fresh firm tofu. We buy it at a Chinese supermarket and it's amazing. Even if it says firm on the packet, it's still quite soft and it crumbles while cooking it. Alternatively, you could cook the tofu separately following our Baked Tofu recipe.
How to cook the perfect Thai Vegan Drunken Noodles
If you get organised, this meal can be cooked really fast.
- Prepare in advance the sauce, the noodles and the shiitake stock. For the sauce, mix soy sauce, garlic, sesame oil, garlic powder, lime juice, maple syrup and sesame seeds. Leave the rice noodles soaking in warm water following the packet instructions. For the shiitake stock, add in a small pan, 1 ½ cup of water and 4-5 dried shiitake mushrooms. Bring to boil and leave it simmering for 15 minutes.
- Rinse the noodles with cold water when they are ready. You want the noodles to be still a bit chewy as they will finish cooking in the pan. For the shiitake, once the stock is ready, take the shiitake mushrooms out and cut into slices to add into the pan later.
- Heat some oil in a pan and add the ginger, chillis and onion. Cook for a few minutes and then add the tofu and the sliced shiitake. When the tofu starts to golden, pour the shiitake stock into the pan, and add the sauce. Quickly add the noodles and the Thai basil, turn the heat to high, stir for 3-4 minutes and serve!
Thai Vegan Drunken Noodles
Ingredients
Ingreditents for the sauce
- 3 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 ½ tablespoon sesame oil
- 3 garlic cloves crushed
- 1 teaspoon maple syrup
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon lime juice
- ½ teaspoon sesame seeds
Ingredients for the shiitake stock
- 1 ½ cup water
- 4-5 dried shiitake mushrooms
Ingredients for the drunken noodles
- 300 gr rice noodles
- 1 onion finely sliced
- Thumb-piece ginger grated or finely chopped
- 2 thai chillis or bird's eye chillis
- 1 block firm tofu
- A handful of Thai basil or regular basil
Instructions
- Prepare the sauce, mixing the soy sauce, sesame oil, garlic, maple syrup, garlic powder, lime juice and sesame seeds.
- Leave the rice noodles soaking in warm water following the packet instructions. When they are ready, rinse the noodles with cold water. You want the noodles to be still a bit chewy as they will finish cooking in the pan
- For the shiitake stock, add in a small pan, add 1 ½ cup of water and 4-5 dried shiitake mushrooms. Bring to boil and leave it simmering for 15 minutes.
- Heat some oil in a pan and add the ginger, chillis and onion. Cook for a few minutes and then add the tofu and the shiitake mushrooms thinly sliced.
- When the tofu starts to golden, pour the shiitake stock into the pan and add the sauce. Quickly add the noodles and the Thai basil, turn the heat to high, stir for 3-4 minutes, adjust with salt and serve!
Tracy says
I read the whole post, saved it and finally made it. In the meantime I forgot you talk about fish sauce in your post as there is none in the recipe! It was awfully close to my favorite take out drunken noodles, but seemed to be missing something. I’m going to guess it was fish sauce! How much would you use? I do see your recipe for homemade, but not sure if you use the entire batch or just some of it. Will make again, thank you!
Laura says
Thank you for your comment Tracy. To substitute the fish sauce, we use a shiitake stock, made with 1 and 1/2 cups of water and 4 to 5 shiitake mushrooms (dried). This is the amount we add to our recipe, you can find the info in the recipe card.
Tracy says
Just to clarify then, you don’t use your vegan fish sauce recipe in this? I think I’ll add kombu, miso and soy sauce to the mushroom mix next time…thinking the kombu is the missing component! Thank you again!