Vegan Pad See Ew 

This easy vegan Pad See Ew brings all the delicious saucy, smoky goodness of the classic, just made plant-based and weeknight-friendly.

The special thing about this stir-fried noodle dish, which is influenced by Chinese cuisine, is that the noodles are marinated with black soy sauce and pan-fried a little until they’re slightly charred on the outside, before being fried with the sauce and other ingredients.

When everything is cooked quickly together over high heat, a chemical reaction occurs, giving the noodles a unique fragrance and slightly smoky taste. Called the Maillard reaction, this is also the principle of the Cantonese cooking technique “wok hei”, which translates to “breath of the wok”.

Preparation time: 30 minutes

Cooking time: 10 minutes

Serves: 2

Ingredients

• 400 g fresh flat rice noodles (sen yai) or 200 g dried rice noodles (width 1 cm)
• 2 tablespoons black soy sauce
• 400 g tender or semi-firm tofu, sliced
• 60 ml light soy sauce
• ½ teaspoon ground white pepper
• 1 tablespoon Golden Mountain seasoning sauce
• 1 tablespoon vegan oyster sauce
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 90 ml canola oil
• 200 g gai lan (Chinese broccoli), cut into 3-cm lengths, leaves separated from stems
• 3 garlic cloves, chopped
• 2 tablespoons chilli flakes

Method

1. If you’re using dried noodles, soak in lukewarm water for 30 minutes, then drain. Skip this step if you’re using fresh noodles.
2. Meanwhile, mix the tofu with 2 tablespoons of light soy sauce and white pepper and set aside to marinate for 30 minutes.
3. Mix the noodles with the black soy sauce.
4. Mix remaining light soy sauce, the Golden Mountain seasoning sauce, vegan oyster sauce and sugar in a bowl.
5. Heat a wok over high heat and, once hot, add half the oil and the marinated tofu. Pan-fry until both sides are slightly brown and crispy then remove from the wok.
6. Add remaining oil to the wok with gai lan stems and garlic and cook, stirring, for 30 seconds. Add the noodles and stir for 1–2 minutes until the noodles are slightly charred on the outside. Add the sauce and pan-fried tofu, then mix everything. Keep tossing and stirring for about 2–3 minutes, being careful not to break the noodles.
7. Add gai lan leaves and stir for 1 minute or until the leaves are slightly wilted. Serve the noodles with chilli flakes on the side.

Other recipes you may be interested in:

• Vegetarian satay noodles
• Vegetarian Pad Thai
• Vegetarian san choy bow (tofu and mushroom lettuce wraps)

This is an edited extract from Vegan Asian Street Food by Yang Liu, published by Hardie Grant Books. Photography by Katharina Pinczolits.