Eating a vegan diet can be pretty simple in approach, but sometimes there are areas where unexpected animal products lurk, or it can be hard to hit that umami flavour note in more complex dishes, such as certain Asian cuisines.
But with a few smart pantry staples and some clever recipes in hand, you can turn almost any classic Asian recipe into a successfully vegan version.
If you're a vegan dining at a regular Asian eatery, you have to be unafraid to ask exactly what is in a dish. "It's hard to say what dishes are the safest to order, as each chef will make a dish differently," says Shannon Martinez, who runs Smith & Daughters with Mo Wyse, "but generally, a basic stir-fried vegetable dish with garlic and ginger would be the safest bet, or pho that has been made using vegetable stock."
Seon Joo Lee from Fitzroy's Yong Green Food warns, "Noodle dishes are hard to check, as there might be eggs in the noodles. And any fried food might have eggs in the batter, which is very common."
Vegan raw curry noodle soup from Yong Green Food (Recipe here). Photo: Eddie Jim
Similarly, a menu might have a vegetarian laksa but it may contain chicken stock, or a vegetable curry, while containing vegetables and tofu, may have shrimp paste in the curry base. (See below for the vegan curry paste recipe by Soul Sister's sous chef, Kristy Montgomery.)
And watch out for white sugar. "Luckily for us in Australia, our sugar is all vegan, but in other parts of the world, white sugar is refined using bone char," says Martinez.
So how can vegans replicate tricky Asian base flavours like fish sauce or shrimp paste? "Vegans are pretty clever," says Martinez. "There is actually vegan fish sauce on the market that is quite easy to get hold of, or when I need that extra funky boost that only shrimp paste will give, I head for fermented soy beans."
Joo Lee likes to make vegan fish sauce from scratch by boiling kombu powder, onion, dried shiitake, soy sauce and coconut sugar, while Mongomery suggests using kombu as a replacement for fish sauce in soups and dressings as it a natural saltiness to it.
No need to skip the fish sauce in your stir-fry - vegan fish sauce is available or DIY. Photo: Marina Oliphant
Stocking a vegan pantry
Ready to load up your pantry with go-to staples for Asian vegan cooking? Our experts recommend you hit your local Asian grocer, health food store and even some regular supermarkets and grab some miso paste, dried kelp, dried mushrooms, kimchi, vegan fish sauce, fermented soy beans, fermented bean curd, sesame oil, kombu, tamari, mirin, light soy sauce, shao hsing (Chinese cooking wine), rayu (chilli oil), shichimi and a variety of vinegars like umeboshi, chinkiang black vinegar and rice wine vinegar, as well as a range of rice and rice noodles.
Montgomery also suggests keeping fridge staples like fresh tofu, garlic, ginger, chilli, lemongrass, lime leaf, turmeric, spring onions and fresh herbs like coriander, Thai basil and Vietnamese mint.
Jungle curry paste
240g red onion, peeled and diced
35g garlic, peeled
30g turmeric, peeled and cut into 2cm pieces
120g lemongrass, sliced, white part of stem only
80g coriander root, cleaned and chopped
40g jar krachai, drained and cut into 1cm pieces
120g long red chilli, seeds removed, cut into 2cm pieces
15g bird's eye chilli, stems removed
60g fermented bean curd (use the curd as well as oil in jar)
80ml blend oil
20g coriander seeds
2½g cumin seeds
5g ground white pepper
25g sea salt
1. Combine all ingredients, apart from the spices and oil, in a large mixing bowl then blend in small amounts in food processor with the oil until smooth.
2. Wet coriander seeds and cumin seeds and toast in pan until fragrant (about two minutes). Combine with ground white pepper and sea salt and allow to cool. Grind in small batches in spice grinder to a powder. Pass through a fine sieve and regrind anything left in sieve and pass again.
3. Add spices to curry paste, blend in food processor to combine. Store in sterilised jars, leaving one centimetre of olive oil on top of curry paste before sealing tight with a lid. Refrigerate for up to two weeks.
Jungle curry stir-fry sauce
300ml gluten-free tamari
250gms palm sugar
150ml tamarind puree
1. To make the palm sugar syrup, break palm sugar into small pieces and put in heavy-based pot with 250mls water. Bring to boil, then simmer for five minutes. Remove from heat and transfer to container. Refrigerate.
2. To make the stir-fry sauce, whisk together tamari, 150ml of palm sugar syrup and tamarind puree. Transfer to container and refrigerate.
Jungle curry stir-fry
160g cauliflower florets
115g baby corn, sliced in half lengthways
100g jungle curry paste
2 kaffir lime leaves, veins removed and torn into half
200ml vegetable stock
80g red capsicum, deseeded and cut into 1 cm strips
100g white fungus
200g bok choy, washed, ends removed and cut into thirds
120g baby king brown mushrooms
60ml jungle cooking sauce
200g gailan (Chinese broccoli), washed, stem ends removed, remaining stem cut into 3cm pieces and leaves into 3cm pieces.
60ml cottonseed oil
Chilli, coriander leaves and lime juice, to garnish
1. Blanch cauliflower and baby corn for one minute in boiling water.
2. Place large wok on high heat until almost smoking, add oil, reduce heat to medium high.
3. Add curry paste and lime leaf and toss for 30 seconds, making sure the paste does not burn.
4. Add vegetable stock and turn heat back up to high.
5. Place all vegetables, except gailan, into wok, toss for one minute. Pour in jungle cooking sauce.
6. Cook for two minutes until vegetables are tender (they should still have a slight "bite" to them). Quickly blanch gailan (for one and a half minutes) in boiling water. Garnish with finely sliced long red chilli, coriander leaves and lime wedge, and serve with jasmine rice.
Serves 2
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