The Viet Vegan

Vegan. Feminist. Nerd.

Vietnamese Dishes

As someone who grew up in a Vietnamese household, I have a lot of ties to my root. I’ll admit, Vietnamese recipes tend to be difficult for me to develop. But over the years, access to vegan fish sauce and different mock meats have made things a lot easier. Hopefully I’ll be adding more veganized traditional Vietnamese dishes soon!

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Catherine Tchen says

    Cam On…. Thank you… It is so nice to find Vietnamese Chay recipes in English.

  2. Amber ̣(liên) Meyer says

    Cảm ơn. Em rất vui! I’m a vegetarian who’s learning tiếng việt, so its really great to find some recipes I can try.

    • Lisa Le says

      That’s awesome! Khong co gi! (My computer doesn’t have the accent keyboard installed right now and I’m too lazy to do it). What made you want to learn viet?

  3. Diem says

    Chào! I am Vietnamese and am wondering if you could post a list of naturally vegan traditional Vietnamese dishes? I am really interested in the dessert section of Viêt foods. Cỏn Ơn!

  4. Prethmanaba Rajan says

    Amazing Vegetarian recipes that are a must for me to visit Vietnam next year. Please inform me of the best time of the year to visit and WHAT TO BUY AND SHOP.

  5. keteau says

    Do you make a vegan Dau Sot Ca Chua? Dau Sot Ca Chua Chay? I had this years ago when a Vietnamese friend’s mom had made it and I’ve dreamed of a comparable vegan version. Thanks in advance!

  6. Naren says

    Need some Vietnamese restaurants near Philadelphia and Jersey City area that serve vegetarian Vietnamese cuisine – any help appreciated. I knew a few vegetarian Vietnamese restaurants back in Sunnyvale, CA

    • Lisa Le says

      Hi Naren! I don’t know any restaurants around there, I’m from Canada myself and I’ve never been to Philadelphia or Jersey City. I recommend checking out Happy Cow because they have listings for cities all over the world!

  7. Dona says

    Hello Lisa,
    I visited a buddhist temple not to long a go, and they sold this delicious vegan meat, but I couldn’t find out what it was. The lady who sold it/made it was vietnamese and called it Bo nuong chay. I think it was seitan, but it was cut in thin slices, marinated so it looked brown and it had sesame seeds on it. Do you know what that is? It was really delicious and I asked for the recipe, but she told me it was very difficult to make and also had trouble explaining it to me in english unfortunately :S.

    • Lisa Le says

      Hi Dona!

      If you look up the Gentle Chef’s cookbooks, he has some excellent recipes for seitan with lots of different recipes to mimic different textures. And then if I were you, I would reference the meat-based bo nuong recipes to get the marinade they use (to veganize of course).

      Unfortunately I’ve just gone GF for a few months to see if gluten is the root of my skin issues, so I’ll be steering clear of seitan for the foreseeable future (I’m bummed. I love seitan).

      Sorry I can’t be of more help at the moment!

  8. Mrs E says

    I just adopted a plant based diet and would love to try my hand at some vegan fried egg rolls…do you think you can get your grandmothers recipe?…I have been looking at vegan restaurants around so cal and they seem to have mushroom, taro, carrot. Thanks! My goal is to make a vermicelli dish with all of the fresh veggies and serve this cut up on top of the noodles :)

  9. My Chi says

    Em cam on rat nhieu! I’m Vietnamese living in England and I can never find vegetarian viet recipes in English so thank you so much!

  11. Rohit Punamiya says

    Hi Lisa,

    Thank you for the great Vietnamese recipes. I am in love with Vietnam with such beautiful locations and people that I got to see from Vietnam during my postcard exchanges.. I am looking forward to travel there, but I was worried about being able to find Vegetarian food in Vietnam. Thanks to you, I do have some vegan dishes I can look for.

  13. PA says

    OMG! I am so happy to have found your blog. I follow you on YouTube, but didn’t think to look up your blog!

  14. Anh says

    Cam on that nhieu!!! My husband has recently gone Vegan, and I’ve been raised on a highly carnivorous Vietnamese diet by my mom. This has really helped me to get some ideas for feeding my family. Please post more!!!

  15. MHoa says

    Hi chi,

    I came across your site by chance while looking for some vegan recipes to add into my kids’ menu so that they are used to have more Viet’s food than Aussie’s food :D

    I’m a long term vegetarian but this year marked my time to turn to be a vegan from a massive change in my life late last year.

    I just want to thank you for creating this AMAZING blog with your love for food, eithical for animal and kindness to planet Earth to create this great combination of Viet and Western Vegan Food.

    Keep doing your good work chi, I’m sure I’ll check on your blog very regular as I’m a foodies and firm believer of ethic diet, healthier, happier life :D

    Cam on chi va chuc chi mot nam moi nhieu suc khoe, nhieu nhiet huyet trong doi de tao nen mot the gioi tot dep hon va hanh phuc hon.
    (Trying to test if you can read Vietnamese without ‘dau’ :D LOL – cheeky me!)

  16. Jill says

    xin chao chi,
    Thank you so much for your website ~ it is great! ~ I was wondering if you have a recipe for banh mi xiu mai chay?

    Cam on nhieu!
    ~Jill

  17. Jen says

    I’m so happy to have found your blog via your YouTube channel! I’m also a Vietnamese-Canadian in Mississauga and have just recently starting moving toward veganism, or how I like to call it “environmentally sustainable and socially responsible diet” (not as catchy but less sigmatized). Glad to be able to recreate some of my favourite home-cooking the chay way.

    Would you consider doing a recipe for vegan bi heo? My mother gets it from the temple when she visits and it’s so much better than the meat version.

  18. Amy says

    Hello, I am in search of an easy receipe for my first time cooking Vietnamese food, however I am in search of authentic Vietnamese vegetarian food to try to learn to cook for my husband’s parents that is Vietnamese. I want to make sure they feel welcomed.