It was while buying the ingredients to make this dish that I discovered that laksa is not vegetarian (!). For the past few years I’d been enjoying my vegetable laksa whenever we went to a Vietnamese/Malaysian restaurant, and it didn’t even occur to me that it might have animal parts in it. It was only by accident that I was standing in the queue to buy the laksa paste, and happened to read the ingredients while I was waiting. I nearly cried when I saw shrimp paste in there! But never fear, you can buy vegetarian laksa paste from specialty stores or online (that reminds me that I must add some links to cruelty-free shops in my blog somewhere).
If you love laksa, you will love this dish. You could even add some fried tofu to make it more authentic (but that was a bit too much effort for me!)
Roast Pumpkin Laksa
Ingredients:
- 400g pumpkin
- Sesame oil, to drizzle
- 12 cherry tomatoes
- 150g rice stick noodles
- 3 tbs vegetarian laksa paste
- 1 Cup vegetable stock
- 400mL coconut milk
- 3 lime leaves
- Juice of 1 lime
- 200g bean sprouts
- 1/2 cup coriander leaves
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 200c.
- Cut pumpkin into cubes.
- Place on tray and drizzle with sesame oil.
- Season with salt cover and bake for 15 minutes until tender.
- Add tomatoes to tray and bake uncovered for 5 minutes until tomatoes begin to soften.
- Place Laksa paste, stock, coconut milk and lime leaves in saucepan over medium heat cook for 3 minutes.
- Place rice sticks in boiling water stand for 5 minutes and drain.
- Add pumpkin & lime juice to soup and heat through.
- To serve, divide noodles among 4 bowls, ladle over soup top with tomatoes, bean sprouts and coriander.
Source: whyveg.com website
Hmm, not a vegetarian but have friends and rels who are so it’s interesting to know that.
I love laksa and that one looks particularly good.
There are quite a few Asian dishes that seem vegetarian but use fish or oyster sauce and you wouldn’t know it from looking at the menu at a restaurant. We only know becasue Di has cooked a few.
Yes it’s a bit tricky… and the Asian culture seems to have a different definition of vegetarian too – many times I’ve had the conversation with Yum Cha staff that goes like this:
Me: What’s in this?
Wait staff: Ahhh, I don’t know.
Me: Any meat?
Wait staff: No, no meat. Just prawns.
Me: Right. Do you have anything without animals in it?
Wait staff: It’s ok, there’s only a little bit of prawns.
Me: I’ll have the bok choy please.
Delicious recipe! My father in law had a similar problem when he became vegetarian, my husband’s Nan from Blackpool didn’t understand vegetarianism and asked is finely sliced ham ok?”
Well, only if it’s thinly sliced… oh dear!
oh my! I love everything about this! I want to make this RIGHT NOW.