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Vegan Steamed Buns (Banh Bao Chay)

August 30, 2017 by Lisa Le 46 Comments

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Vegan Steamed Buns - Banh Bao Chay

These vegan steamed buns (bánh bao chay) remind me of growing up
to the mornings where my mom would make these fresh for breakfast <3

Growing up, I was very lucky to have a Vietnamese mother who loved food. Not only loved food, but loved to cook. We’d have huge family gatherings where people would swarm around my mother’s cooking. There would be trays upon trays of steaming, fresh, Vietnamese food: spring rolls, bánh bột lọc, bánh hỏi, bánh cuốn, etc.

Growing up with Bánh Bao

Not every family was fortunate to enjoy home cooked meals every day, let alone epic Vietnamese ones bursting with flavour. I remember groggily rolling out of bed, dragging my feet until I caught the scent of sweet, fresh steamed buns. The best way to wake up is to the sweet smell of these buns wafting upstairs from the kitchen.

Every now and then, my mom would wake up super early to cook these complicated dishes. Sometimes breakfast was bánh cuốn chay or these bánh bao chay.

Ingredients for vegan steamed buns on in separate bowls on a baking tray (carrot, jicama, onion, mung bean vermicelli, and wood ear mushroom)

Growing up, I remember being tasked to cutting pieces of paper into squares for the buns to steam on. I distinctly remember cutting up my blue, Hilroy lined sheets of paper. I relished in my ability to cut them evenly without needing to fold or measure them. Once they were steamed, I always choose a bun that didn’t have a binder holes. Did it make a difference? No, but something about the lack of binder hole made it special.

Two pictures of the same vegan steamed bun dough, the dough on the right is floured
Adding soy sauce to the cooked vegetable filling
Cooked steamed bun filling mixture in the pot

Why are Steamed Buns Not Vegan?

Vietnamese steamed buns traditionally have pork, stuffed with quail egg and a chunk of Chinese sausage. Since we lived in a small town with no Asian market, my mom made them using a quarter wedge of hardboiled chicken egg instead. Traditionally, people will make the dough with milk or water, and season the filling with fish sauce.

How to Make Vegan Steamed Buns

To make this vegan, I used a vegan ground meat alternative: here I used Yves. The Yves ground is made from TVP and doesn’t stick together, but does a great job at mimicking the texture. Nowadays you can find vegan ground meat substitutes that bind and cook up like ground pork. I have a recipe coming soon with a more traditional filling, whereas this version has a lot more vegetables.

Three pictures of the filling and pleating process of the steam buns.
Two pictures side by side, the one on the left is a steam bun on a square of parchment paper being placed on the steaming insert, the photo on the right is a hand inserting a second layer of the steaming tray over the first layer.
6 steamed buns, cooked, arranged on the steam bun tray

Vegan Steamed Buns Video Tutorial

I filmed this video in collaboration with Rose from Cheap Lazy Vegan! For the video, I had intended to double the recipe for the dough, but I doubled the flour and not the rest of the ingredients, which is why it was a hot mess for the video.

But don’t worry, I retested the recipe and modified it to be what it is in this post haha. I hope you enjoy the shenanigans nonetheless. We also filmed my pho recipe (with some modifications) together if you want to check that out too!

Weighted Vs Volume Measurements

This recipe has both weighted and volume measurements. The weighted version is more accurate, but I provided the volume measurements for those who don’t have a kitchen scale. If you have a kitchen scale, please use that! The volume measurement will yield a tasty dough, but you may find you need to adjust liquid or flour levels depending on how you measure your ingredients.

A cooked steam bun on a blue and white plate with a pink edge.

The texture of this dough is similar to a pizza or a sweet bread dough. Yeast and baking powder are the active agents that give this dough rise. When handling, this vegan steamed bun dough has a similar texture to pizza dough: soft and workable but fairly tacky. Depending on where you live (if it’s more humid or more dry) you may need more flour or more water.

Vegan Steamed Buns - Banh Bao Chay
Print Recipe

Vegan Steam Buns (Banh Bao Chay)

These vegan Vietnamese steamed buns are chock full of veggies with classic Vietnamese filling ingredients. They're savoury, great to freeze for a meal prep, and are a great portable breakfast or lunch!
Prep Time2 hours hrs
Cook Time25 minutes mins
Total Time2 hours hrs 25 minutes mins
Course: Breakfast
Cuisine: Vietnamese
Servings: 10 -12 large buns
Author: Lisa Le

Ingredients

For the dough:

  • 360 mL 1 1/2 cups warm water or unsweetened soy milk
  • 8 g 3 1/2 tsp dry active yeast
  • 120 g 1/2 cup + 2 tbsp sugar
  • 60 g scant 1/2 cup cornstarch
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 10 g 2 tsp baking powder
  • 500 g 4 cups flour + extra flour for rolling out the dough
  • 70 g oil about 1/4 cup grapeseed oil

For the filling:

  • 2 tbsp grape seed oil
  • 5 green onions finely chopped, greens and whites separated
  • 1 cup finely diced jicama about 1/3 of a medium jicama
  • 1 cup finely diced carrot about 3 small/medium carrots
  • 1/4 cup soy sauce I used Golden Mountain Soy Seasoning, you’ll be adding this tbsp by tbsp.
  • 20 g 1 cup dried black fungus/cloud ear fungus, hydrated and finely diced
  • 1 package 12 oz/340 g of vegan ground “meat” (you can also use hydrated TVP, but you may need to add some dark soy sauce and a bit of extra regular soy sauce for seasoning)
  • 2 portions/bunches of mung bean vermicelli hydrated and finely diced
  • 1/2 tsp white pepper or to taste

To steam:

  • 10-12 pieces of parchment paper squares 3×3 inches
  • ~1 tbsp I just added a splash of white vinegar
  • 3 cups water depending on the size of your steamer pot

Instructions

To make the dough:

  • In a separate bowl, combine water, yeast, and sugar and stir to combine and allow the yeast to bloom.
  • In a large mixing bowl, combine cornstarch, salt, baking powder, and 4 cups of flour.
  • Once the yeast has bloomed, combine the yeast mixture and half the oil to the dry mixture and stir to combine. It’ll be a very sticky dough, but it should come together and be slightly tacky. Turn onto a clean and then lightly floured surface and knead until moderately smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes.
  • Place the dough back into the mixing bowl (it should be relatively clean if you pull any extra dough off of it as you were mixing it). Coat the dough in the remaining amount of oil and mix in as well as you can. It will be quite tacky but that’s okay. You should be able to incorporate most of the oil but turn the dough in the bowl to coat in oil just before letting it rest. The dough should absorb the rest as it rises.
  • Cover with a damp towel and let rise in a warm place (like microwave or oven) for at least 1 hour. It should rise a little but don’t be too worried if it doesn’t rise too much.

For the the filling:

  • In a large wok/pot/or pan with high sides, cook the whites of the green onion with 2 tbsp of oil for a minute or two over medium high heat. Add the finely diced jicama and carrot and cook until carrot is tender. You may need to add 1 tbsp of the measured soy sauce and about 1/3 cup of water to cook and deglaze the bottom of the pot.
  • Once carrot is tender, add the chopped black fungus and stir to heat through, about 3 minutes.
  • Add the vegan ground round and stir into the mixture. Add 2 tbsp of the soy sauce and stir to combine and heat through (about 3 minutes again).
  • Add the chopped, hydrated mung bean noodles, the last of the soy sauce, the greens of the green onion and stir to mix through. As the noodles cook, they’ll absorb moisture from the rest of the mixture and sort of bind it together to make it easier to stuff the bao.
  • Add white pepper to taste (you may need to add more soy sauce or salt if desired, but I liked it at 1/4 cup. Let it cool until it’s just warm before you fill the bao.

To make the bao:

  • After about an hour or so of the dough resting, turn it over to a floured surface and divide between 10-12 pieces (If you’re really intense about exact measurements, it’s about 100g per piece of dough). Cover the cut pieces with a damp towel while you’re stuffing them so they don’t dry out.
  • Generously dunk the cut piece of dough into some flour then roll out to about 1/4 inch thickness (5-6 inches in diameter). Add about 3-4 tbsp of the filling into the middle of the dough then pinch the outside edges together and twist to seal the bun.
  • Fill a steamer pot with about 5 cups of water + 1 tbsp of vinegar. The vinegar will help brighten the buns as they steam, resulting in a lighter bun in the end).
  • Place the pinched bun on a perforated layer of a steamer pot on top of a parchment paper square. Repeat and fill the buns with the remaining filling. I tend to go quite heavy handed with the filling, and I ended up using all of the filling for these buns. If you find you have any extra leftover, put it on rice, in fresh spring rolls, or on lettuce cups for lunch.
  • Try not to put the buns too close together like I did in the photos, if they’re touching, they’ll tear once you pull them apart after cooking. If you find you need them to touch, place some parchment paper in between so they don’t stick.
  • Steam on medium heat for 20 minutes, then take off the lid and let them steam for another 5 minutes. Remove from heat and let the buns cool on a wire rack.
  • Enjoy!
  • For any leftovers, wrap them as soon as their cool in some plastic wrap (if you put them in a container they’ll dry out). To reheat, either re-steam or microwave for 2 minutes.
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Filed Under: Appetizers & Sides, Breakfast, Dinner, Snacks, Vegan recipes, Vietnamese Tagged With: banh bao, bao, cheap lazy vegan, recipe, steamed buns, vegan, vietnamese

About Lisa Le

Lisa is the thirty-something, nerdy, procrastinating, feminist blogger and photographer behind The Viet Vegan. She loves spicy foods, noodles, and food in bowls.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Tohar says

    September 1, 2017 at 3:23 PM

    Thank you so much Lisa!
    I made these today and they are soooo good! Made mine with spelt flour.

    Reply
    • Lisa Le says

      September 1, 2017 at 3:55 PM

      Yay I’m so glad!! Thank you for coming to leave feedback :) (If you have Pinterest, it’d really help me out if you said you tried it and liked it on the pin :D)

      Reply
  2. Ushmana Palmo Rai says

    September 5, 2017 at 12:58 PM

    Greetings from Nepal,Lisa!
    These look heavenly! We have similar dish in Nepal called “momos;” but smaller in size. Anything with filling inside is right up my alley. Definitely trying this on the weekned, thank you for sharing! xx

    Reply
  3. Maria says

    September 7, 2017 at 8:51 AM

    Vietnamese food sounds amazing! My mum is Russian and she also cooked delicious food for me all the time when I was younger and I understand the joy of veganising favourite dishes from your childhood :) I am so trying these out!

    Maria xo

    Reply
    • Lisa Le says

      September 7, 2017 at 4:18 PM

      Yes! Veganizing dishes from your childhood is so nostalgic and wonderful :)

      Reply
  4. Oanh says

    September 7, 2017 at 2:55 PM

    Do you have any recommendations for the ground meat? Also, are we using dried and hydrated fungus? Where would I find this and are these just mushrooms? Sorry! I’m new to this Vegan thing. :)

    Reply
    • Lisa Le says

      September 7, 2017 at 4:17 PM

      Any vegan ground meat is fine, I used Yves but I’ve also used Gardein before and it’s been good. The black cloud ear fungus is that sort of brown noodley looking stuff in the bowl in the prep shot I took. You’d find this at most Asian grocery stores in the spice aisle (it’s dried and either like a flat whole ear of mushroom or shredded)

      Reply
  5. Al says

    September 16, 2017 at 5:36 PM

    I made these today and they were sooo so so good! Thank you for the recipe! I used vegan pulled pork instead of the ground and it was great ?

    Reply
  6. Tine says

    October 6, 2017 at 4:28 AM

    Dear Lisa, oh my gosh I failed so hard on these. usually I am great with yeast and dough, but this time… I don’t know, I really don’t. First time making steamed buns myself. The dough got so super soft and expanded real fast. Once I tried to shape and fill the buns, it got even softer and by the time they steamed they weren’t bun-shaped anymore, they were flat discs. I don’t know what went wrong, but ugh… I wanted to master these so badly! Well, you got me! Def not the last time trying to make these!

    Reply
    • Lisa Le says

      October 6, 2017 at 12:10 PM

      Oh no!! It sounds like there wasn’t enough flour :( Sometimes the humidity of where you are really affects it, so if you’re experienced with dough, just add a bit more flour until it feels right!

      Reply
  7. Sheila says

    October 20, 2017 at 1:09 PM

    This looks interesting. These vegan steamed buns are so inviting. Will definitely try this soon once I am able to grab the ingredients needed. Thank you for sharing the recipe.

    Reply
  8. rathershortvegan says

    November 30, 2017 at 7:39 AM

    I love your recipe. An would like to post it on my german vegan food blog, translated and referenced back to yourblog – of course – and would like to know if you would a prove of this.
    Because i think this should be avialabe also for people which are not able to understand english. i would really appriciate it.

    Best Regards,
    RathershortVegan

    Reply
  9. Rosalie says

    February 21, 2018 at 6:09 PM

    I made these before and they were just wonderful! I want to make them again badly but I’ve developed an intolerance to gluten…. what do you think about trying to make the dough with gluten free flour? not too sure if it would rise enough!

    Reply
    • Perri says

      June 22, 2018 at 4:37 PM

      Rosalie, I made these using Bob red mills gluten free pizza dough mix with a little extra sugar. I think you need to lower the amount of liquid the pizza dough calls for. Hope this helps!

      Reply
  10. Marco says

    July 12, 2018 at 6:18 PM

    Hi

    Can these be made the night before, stored in the fridge and then steamed the following day?

    Thanks

    Reply
    • Lisa Le says

      July 16, 2018 at 10:20 PM

      Hi Marco,

      Since there is yeast in this, it’d be better to be steamed right away. What you could do is assemble the filling and the dough and put the dough in the fridge for the first rise and then let it return to room temp in the next day and steam then :)

      Reply
  11. Caitlin says

    July 13, 2018 at 2:21 AM

    I’d love to try these (they look amazing!) but I’m not sure how much a “bunch/portion” of the noodles is. Could you provide a more specific measurement, for those of us who are not familiar with mung bean vermicelli?

    I’m also not sure how much TVP to use…do you have a suggested measurement on that?

    Reply
    • Lisa Le says

      July 16, 2018 at 10:18 PM

      Hi Caitlin,

      Most mung bean vermicelli is separated in each package into these portions, but it’s about 1 cup once soaked per bunch? I show you guys in the videos I believe what it looks like.

      Reply
      • Ve says

        December 10, 2020 at 1:48 AM

        Thanks for this recipe!!!! I was wondering whether cooking the filling ahead of time is required? For my filling I’m using Chinese chives, shiitake mushrooms, and taro and i’m afraid of overcooking the veggies, or having too much moisture coming out from the veggies will flatten the plump-ness of the bao

        Reply
        • Lisa Le says

          December 15, 2020 at 2:48 PM

          Hi there! I think you should cook the mushrooms and taro first, but the chives you can probably add in just before stuffing them.

          Reply
  12. Stacy says

    January 15, 2019 at 8:51 PM

    Have you tried making these with no oil?

    Reply
    • Lisa Le says

      January 23, 2019 at 2:55 PM

      No I have not ^^;

      Reply
  13. Tracey Vu says

    February 11, 2019 at 3:33 AM

    can I use coconut milk instead soymilk?

    Reply
    • Lisa Le says

      February 23, 2019 at 3:12 AM

      Coconut milk will probably be a little thick, you may need to adjust the amount of coconut milk but either way you just need some sort of liquid.

      Reply
  14. Vicky says

    May 18, 2019 at 4:15 AM

    Are these Gluten Free!? I have a health issues(I only have halve of my sm intestine/no bowel) and can’t do gluten in large amount or I take a strong enzyme pill to help with the Severe Bloat-Severe Gas. And isn’t yeast a non-vegan item! Thx

    Reply
    • Lisa Le says

      July 13, 2019 at 5:55 PM

      Hi Vicky! Unfortunately these are very gluten-full! And yeast is vegan :)

      Reply
  15. Hong says

    September 29, 2019 at 2:07 PM

    Hello! I tried this recipe on making banh bao from scratch. I can’t remember if I’ve used it before but I wanted to make sure to get to a computer while I have a chance and express my appreciation and gratitude for you sharing your wealth of knowledge! It worked perfectly. Mine were plain (no filling) and so I figured I could shorten the cooking time. They still came out tasting wonderful. Thank you so much! :)

    Reply
  16. Chelsea says

    November 7, 2019 at 2:59 AM

    Hi Lisa, help I cant find jicama anywhere where I from. Do you have any suggestions for substitutes I could use?

    Cheers

    Reply
    • Lisa Le says

      November 7, 2019 at 7:53 PM

      You could use daikon or maybe water chestnut?

      Reply
  17. Megan Rose says

    April 2, 2020 at 11:03 AM

    I love them! It’s my birthday and we are on lockdown so I decided to give them a go. Made them with spelt and oatmilk… and didn’t have cornstarch but I used arrowroot powder and they turned out perfectly!
    I saw them in Spirited Away, researched them, found out they were bao and your recipe looked the best
    Thank you! Xx

    Reply
    • Lisa Le says

      April 4, 2020 at 4:25 PM

      Aw yeah! I’m so glad you liked them, good to know that it worked with spelt! And tapioca starch and cornstarch are very interchangeable so I’m glad you gave that a try :)

      Reply
  18. Emilia says

    May 17, 2020 at 1:42 PM

    Greetings from Netherlands! The buns are delicious, we’re making them with the family for the second time today and everyone’s in love with them! Can’t wait to try more of your recipes! Cheers! xx

    Reply
  19. Stephanie says

    July 17, 2020 at 5:13 AM

    Hi what type of flour do you recommend? :)

    Reply
    • Lisa Le says

      July 22, 2020 at 4:45 PM

      I just used all purpose :)

      Reply
  20. KT says

    April 11, 2021 at 8:32 PM

    I’ll admit I was skeptical, but man was I proved wrong. That dough turned out amazing, like I bought it from T&T. I always have trouble getting the same rise as a commercial bao but this was large and fluffy. I changed the filling (I had a bunch of veggies to use up and some old rice), but I am saving this recipe for all future bao needs. Thank you!

    Reply
  21. Mark says

    April 17, 2021 at 10:38 PM

    Thank you for this recipe!!!!! :) Does the filling freeze well? I’d love to make a huge batch to have some on hand. I imagine the filling would also work well in a lumpia wrapper or even a lettuce wrap? :)

    Reply
    • Lisa Le says

      April 21, 2021 at 11:36 AM

      I think it would? I’m not sure about the noodle part of it though.

      Reply
  22. Tobbe says

    May 8, 2021 at 5:21 PM

    Thank you for this recipe! The whole family agrees that this tasted way better than the Banh Bao we ate in Vietnam!

    Getting a good thickness of the dough and then wrapping it around the filling is going to take some more practice though 😆 Absolutely nothing wrong with the recipe, it’s just my inexperience 😀

    Reply
  23. Saffron says

    June 1, 2021 at 10:57 AM

    Hi Lisa!

    I was wondering if you knew if I could swap the yeast for instant yeast (it’s all that seems to be available here), and if so, how it would change the recipe and also the quantities involved!

    Thank you! :)

    Reply
    • Lisa Le says

      June 4, 2021 at 12:20 PM

      You could just use the equivalent (I use 2 tsp i think instead of the 2 + 1/4), and instead of blooming the yeast just add it straight to the dough :)

      Reply
  24. Geetu Melwani says

    October 23, 2021 at 5:03 PM

    Hi Lisa,
    The dough is resting, and I just finished preparing the filling – adapted to what I have on hand (happy I have some of the vermicelli!).
    I’m excited to try this recipe. Do you think the baos will freeze well pre-steamed?
    I’m only cooking for two, so I thought I’d freeze maybe half a dozen without steaming – to steam and eat in future.

    Thank you for sharing your recipes with the world!

    Reply
    • Lisa Le says

      October 23, 2021 at 5:06 PM

      Steam first then freeze :) my family will freeze them once cooled to room temp wrapped in plastic wrap, but you can freeze in an airtight container!

      Reply
      • Geetu Melwani says

        November 14, 2021 at 2:51 PM

        Thanks so much for responding, Lisa.
        Wanted to return here to post an update.
        The baos turned out FANTASTIC!!
        Even hubby was super impressed at how authentic the dough turned out.

        Thank you again for such a great recipe and for your generous sharing.

        Reply
  25. Cassie says

    February 13, 2022 at 7:00 PM

    These turned out SO GOOD. I didn’t have a bamboo steamer so mine turned out much more… dumplin-y than bready and I loved them. I just filled them with a cabbage and leek mixture because it’s what I had on hand, but will definitely make them again.

    Reply
  26. keighty says

    November 29, 2023 at 7:22 PM

    Do you know of a vegan substitute or recipe for Chinese sausage?

    Reply
    • Lisa Le says

      January 24, 2024 at 10:58 AM

      I do not, sorry! That’s one of those recipes I’ve never attempted. I feel like the texture and flavour are something I’m not sure how to replicate!

      Reply

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