Hello lovelies,
finally I have a recipe for you that I have been promising you for quite a while. It’s the vegan Tom Kha Gai with tofu. Meanwhile we have tried this recipe 3 times and it tastes so good. After I made some adjustments, I can now finally share it with you. Asian food is very popular in our family, the kids could eat Asian noodles daily and Papa Frei and I love the diverse meals this cuisine has to offer. Also because we love to travel to this part of the world. (No wonder my new vegan chop suey with vegetables and noodles was gone in minutes here.)
Since your family loves Asian food, try my tempeh and cashew stir-fry next – crispy tempeh and roasted cashews in a glossy teriyaki sauce.
If your family loves Asian food as much as mine, serve a cool counterpart too – my fresh vegan poke bowl, built on sushi rice with teriyaki tempeh and mango.
Pressing times, marinade and the cornstarch trick for crispy tofu are all in my guide to cooking tofu.
Especially when it comes to Tom Kha Gai I’m always happy to find a vegan version in restaurants, but it doesn’t happen that often. You should always reinsure yourself it’s actually vegan. It’s often forgotten that FISH sauce isn’t vegan (but yeah, it’s not obvious right away :-). It’s better to make your own soup because luckily there is a delicious vegan version of fish sauce, e.g. this one here. You can either order it online or find it in a well sorted organic food shop (this is the case for me).
Tom Kha Gai
It’s actually not really correct to say Tom Kha Gai in this recipe, because “Gai” means chicken. It’s rather a Tom Kha Tofu, but this sounds a little weird:
The Thai word tom (ต้ม) means "cooked", kha (ข่า) means "galangal" and kai (ไก่) means "chicken". The Thai word for "chicken" begins with an unkempt 'k', which in the perception of many German and English native speakers resembles a 'g' rather than a gushed 'k', which is why it is often transcribed as gai. Source: Wikipedia
As you can see in the description above, another important ingredient of the soup is galangal, also called Thai ginger. This tastes really different than ginger and cannot be replaced by this in the recipe. However, you will get "Asia kits" in most supermarkets, where you will find galangal and lemongrass, chili, kaffir lime leaves as well as matching vegetables. This is really helpful if you don’t have an Asia shop nearby where you can buy the spices individually.
The spices such as galangal, lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves are not eaten with this soup. Simply leave them in the pot or point them out while serving.
This soup is so delicious and fresh and immediately puts you in a holiday mood. I’m well aware that the original version doesn’t contain glass noodles, but they match perfectly and the kids and Papa Frei love them very much. Furthermore you can serve it as a main course like this. But of course you can leave the glass noodles out.
Do you like Asian food? You should also try our wok noodles, you can find the recipe here. This is our standard meal when we’re in a hurry. But it’s still healthy as it contains lots of vegetables.
If you love creamy Asian soups, you will probably also fall for my red curry soup with coconut tofu - it plays in the same flavour league as this tom kha gai. And on cold days, my hearty vegan umami ramen will warm you right through. It is no accident this soup leads our list: in my 15 quick weeknight dinners it holds the top spot for evenings that truly need to be fast.
