One of my favourite restaurants in Bangkok is Demi Restaurant 曼谷茶米台灣餐廳. It is not a fully vegan, or even vegetarian, restaurant, but they have some amazing vegan food. This vegan braised beef noodles dish is inspired by one of their dishes.
In vegan braised beef noodles dish, we use the delicious and chewy lion’s mane mushrooms to replace beef. These mushrooms are excellent for absorbing flavours, and they taste so great when braised. They don’t really take long to cook at all, so we are basically only stewing to get the flavours out of the whole spices.
Instead of egg noodles, I use vegan yellow noodles made in the Philippines. Ideally, the noodle in this dish would be flat instead of round. If you cannot find a vegan yellow noodle, feel free to use rice noodles or white wheat noodles instead. This dish is usually served with preserved mustard (雪菜 xue cai) both as a topping and on the side.
To make the soup extra tasty, make sure you have a nice chilli oil. If you have time, make your own with my recipe for Fragrant Sichuan Red Chilli Oil (红油辣子). Otherwise, you could use Lao Gan Mao or Lee Kum Kee Chiu Chow Style Chilli Oil.
I’ve done this recipe with fresh tofu and defrosted frozen tofu. Both are good in their own way. I think I prefer defrosted frozen tofu though. Both ways are outlined below!
Ingredients
- Soup Spices
- Soup Flavourings
- Toppings
Instructions
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Cut the lion's mane mushrooms into small pieces.
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Heat 1 tbsp of sesame oil and fry the soup spices until golden.
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Add the water and soup flavourings and bring to boil.
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Add the lion's mane mushrooms into the soup and stew for 20 minutes.
- If using defrosted frozen tofu: Add it into the soup 10 minutes after the lion's mane mushrooms.
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If using fresh tofu: Pan-fry the tofu on all sides until golden and slice.
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Add the chilli oil to the soup.
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Cook the noodles as per package instructions. While the noodles are boiling, quickly blanch and remove the bok choy.
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Assemble!
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Serve hot with a side of preserved vegetables. Defrosted frozen tofu version.
