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
