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.