Vegan Vietnamese tamarind pineapple soup (canh chua chay) is a homemade favourite full of tamarind flavour, sweetness from pineapples and tomatoes, and spice from dried chili flakes.
Every time I come home to my parent’s house, my mom asks me what I want to eat. I either request lemongrass tofu, or canh chua chay (translated directly into English is vegetarian sour soup). I love my soup extra sour, so my mom always adds extra tamarind for me. Back during my undergrad when I’d come home for the holidays, I loved watching my little brother (then around 3-6 years old) would pucker his lips every time he tried some of the soup.
My mom and I would snicker as he’d squint at the sourness of the first bite. You may think we’re being cruel, but he wanted to be “cool” like me and my mom so he’d try to eat it. But hey, he’s learned to love the punch my mom’s soup typically packs, and now my little nine-year-old bro bro loves eating this whenever I come home.
To see the recipe for vegan Vietnamese tamarind pineapple soup (canh chua chay), visit Produce Made Simple. Don’t worry, this soup isn’t as sour as my mom makes it, it’s just sour enough to be put in the sour soup category, not the Warheads soup category =)
Katie @ Produce on Parade says
Umm…lemongrass tofu! Heck yes! Recipe? :) :) :) Also, Iove anything sour too! I can’t seem to find tamarind paste up here in Alaska anywhere near me though!
Lisa Le says
That sucks! Do you live near a china town or a store that sells Chinese or Indian ingredients?
Haley says
I really enjoyed your tofu spring roll recipe but this was just entirely too sour! It reminded me of when you throw up and swallow it again. That extremely acidic burning sensation in your throat. Yah that is what this tasted like! I like sour stuff. A lot. And I have had this soup at many a Vietnamese reataurant before becoming vegan and it has never tasted like this! Did I do something wrong??
Lisa Le says
Yikes! That’s not good. I’m not sure why that would be. Maybe reduce the amount of tamarind paste? Maybe some tamarind paste brands are more sour than others. Or maybe the pineapple you used was quite sour? I’m so sorry this happened to you! I make this soup all the time and it’s never been like that before.
Haley says
I suppose it is possible that it was the pineapple or tomatoes I used. The soup was very acidic and way more sour than any soup I’ve ever tasted (worse than a warhead). It kind of reminded me of the time I put a whole lime into a soup when it was boiling (I suppose either the seeds or pulp ruined it). If I were to ever give it another go, I would absolutely dissolve the tamarind in a much smaller amount of water as this is a tremendous amount of water to both strain and try to mix and dissolve something in. I would also probably heat the water to allow it to dissolve more quickly. I got so frustrated with trying to break up the tamarind with a wooden spoon that I used my hands to squeeze the pulp and break it apart. Also when straining it in a sieve I used a wooden spoon to push down some of the thicker liquid (it was kind of consistency of wet sand). I am not sure if this is part of the pulp or not or if this affected how sour the soup was. I have never worked with tamarind paste before so it would be swell if some pointers were included in the recipe! Thanks!
Lisa Le says
Actually you’re so right. I usually use a sieve and put all the paste into the sieve and then dunk it in the water to dissolve. I should have made that clearer, but I’ll change it to a smaller amount of water in the Produce Made Simple recipe.
Thanks so much for your feedback Haley!
Noel says
Made this and it turned out like my favourite restaurant does it, out of all the possible recipes on google this one is the bomb, the perfect soup
Lisa Le says
So glad you enjoyed it!!
sam steven says
This has my mouth watering!! Will give it a try!!
vince says
I love this soup. I used to eat it at a Vietnamese restaurant in Phoenix Arizona, called Phở Thành.. they offered two versions of this soup one with fish and one for vegans. it was absolutely delicious. sweet and sour and . I couldnt get enough of it.
I now live in the Portland Oregon Vancouver Washington area and I cant find any Vietnamese restaurants that offer this wonderful soup.
Lara says
Hi! Where is the recipe? i’ve looked all over the page and clicked all the tags and I can’t find the actual recipe. As anyone seeing something I’m not?
Lisa Le says
It’s hyperlinked to Produce Made Simple :)