How to make vegan glass noodles with tempeh and bean curd – a delicious plant-based dish
- Delight your meat-free diners with this satisfying soybean-centric dish, and be sure to use the coriander roots rather than discarding them
The soybean is a wonderfully versatile legume that, when processed, takes many forms. They include soybean milk, soy sauce, miso, doenjang and fermented black beans, and ingredients that many vegetarians depend on for protein, including bean curd, tempeh and natto.
Vegan glass noodles with tempeh and bean curd
This vegan dish uses four soy products: salted yellow bean sauce (which comes in a bottle or jar); light soy sauce; bean curd; and tempeh. If you like, you can add another one: dried bean curd skin (fu pei).
Soak a sheet of the bean curd skin in warm water until pliable, then drain. Cut the sheet into thin strips and add the pieces to the pot when you add the tempeh and bean curd. You will probably need to add more stock to the ingredients when cooking, so the bean curd skin becomes tender.
Many cooks discard the coriander roots, which come attached to the stems and help keep them fresh a little longer. The roots have a lot of flavour, though, and are used often in Thai dishes and spice pastes. For this recipe, use the root and about 3cm of the lower stems.
200 grams fen si (also called glass vermicelli or mung bean vermicelli)
4-5 spring onions
5 fresh coriander roots
2 shallots, peeled
2 garlic cloves, peeled
3-5 red bird’s-eye chillies
2 green banana chillies, preferably long slender ones
1 red banana chilli, preferably a long slender one
100-150 grams tempeh
1 block (about 150 grams) medium-firm bean curd
60 grams yellow bean sauce (including some of the solids)
5 grams granulated sugar, or to taste
15ml light soy sauce
15ml rice wine
½ tsp finely ground black pepper
200-250ml unsalted vegetable stock
20ml cooking oil
Fresh coriander sprigs
1 Put the fen si in a wide bowl and add cool water to cover. Set aside while preparing the other ingredients. Just before cooking the dish, drain the fen si in a colander.
2 Mince the spring onions and set aside about one-quarter of them for the garnish. Finely mince the fresh coriander roots.
3 Cut the shallots and garlic cloves in half, then thinly slice them.
4 Cut the bird’s-eye chillies into thin rounds, shaking out and discarding the seeds as you go. Thinly slice the green and red banana chillies on the diagonal.