Bánh Canh Chay
Banh canh chay is a light vegetarian noodle soup topped with various mushrooms, fried tofu puffs and fried tofu. This version will have a light-tasting broth but packs amazing flavors in the broth from all the vegetables that are slowly simmered.
Ingredients
Chay Broth
- 2.5 litres water
- 3 stalks celery roughly chopped
- 3 carrots roughly chopped
- 1 lbs daikon radish roughly chopped
- 2 lbs Chinese cabbage cut into quarters
- 1 onion cut in half
- 20 g dried mushroom rehydrated
- 1½ tsp vegetable stock powder
- 2 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp sugar or rock sugar
- 3-4 tsp cornstarch slurry
Toppings
- fresh mushrooms any type you like
- 1 pack fried tofu puffs
- 1 pack fried tofu comes in 4 pieces per pack
- 1 tsp vegetable stock powder
- 1 tsp salt
Noodles & garnish
- fresh Banh Canh noodles Use Japanese udon noodles if you can not find fresh banh canh
- 1 green onion finely chopped
- cilantro finely chopped
- fried shallot
- lemon/lime wedges
- thai chili pepper optional - But a nice kick
Instructions
- Char Onion. Char the onion by either baking in the oven at 400F for 15- 20 minutes or over the stovetop. Scrape off the charred parts. Set aside.
- Simmer the broth. In a large stockpot, bring to boil the water (2.5 litres) and add celery, carrots, daikon radish, Chinese cabbage, onion and shiitake mushrooms. Turn the heat down to simmer for 1.5 hours. Once the broth is ready drain the vegetables and set aside.
- Cook the toppings. In a large pan heat up oil. Add the mushrooms and fried tofu and stir fry for 3-4 minutes. Add the medium-firm tofu, vegetable stock powder and salt. Gently stir for 2-3 minutes. Avoid stirring to hard otherwise, the tofu will break apart. Set aside.
- Prepare noodles. Follow the instructions on the noodle package. For this recipe I used Japanese udon noodles. I bring a pot of water to boil and add the udon noodles. Using chopsticks I loosen the noodles and let it boil for about 1-2 minutes. Drain the noodles and set aside.
- Flavor the broth. Add the vegetable stock, salt and sugar to flavor the broth. Add the annatto oil if you are adding to the broth. Turn the heat to medium high and pour the cornstarch slurry. Stir continuously until the soup thickens. Adjust the flavoring to your preference.
- Put together your noodle bowl. Add the noodles to the bowl. Top with a variety of vegetarian toppings. Ladle the thickened broth and top with green onions, fried shallots and squeeze some lemon/lime juice. Enjoy!
Notes
Add cornstarch. Adding a cornstarch slurry to thicken the soup. Traditionally banh canh gio heo tom or banh canh cua which is made with bone broth and topped with pork and shrimp use cornstarch slurry to thicken the soup. It gives it a nice bite and goes down really nicely while you slurp the tapioca noodles.
Fresh vegetables. Using fresh ingredients for the broth to get the best flavors. Fresh ingredients makes the broth taste better, and the broth is the heart of the dish.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!