This colourful and delicious noodle soup is creamy, rich in flavour, and packed with veggies and plant-based protein from tofu and edamame beans. A nourishing and comforting meal that's ready in 25 minutes.
Table of Contents
We're big fans of those wonderful spicy/sweet/sour flavours of Thai food here at Vegan on Board. We've already shared our vegan versions of popular dishes like Thai curry and pad Thai.
And so we created this Thai-inspired noodle soup that's not traditional, but still celebrates these vibrant tastes!
This recipe is easy to make and can be customised to suit your preferences.
Ingredient tips
Here's what you'll need to make this yummy Thai red curry noodle soup recipe:
Thai Red Curry Paste: This is the flavour base for the soup. It brings spiciness, as well as important aromatics such as galangal, lemongrass and kaffir lime.
Choose a vegan curry paste to be sure that there's no shrimp paste or other non-vegan ingredients. Two good brands to look for are Thai Taste and Thai Kitchen.
Vegan fish sauce: This brings umami and saltiness. You can also use soy sauce, or a mix of half soy sauce and half white miso paste as a substitute.
Noodles: You can use any vegan noodles of your choice. We used vegan ramen noodles in the soup pictured. Udon noodles or rice stick noodles are also a great option!
The noodles are cooked separately from the soup so that they can be cooked easily for the right amount of time and have the best texture.
Step by step pictures
Here's a visual guide on how to make this vegan Thai red curry soup. For the full, adjustable and printable recipe, see the recipe card at the end of the post.
Step 1 - Fry tofu in oil for about 4 minutes until light golden brown. Season with salt and pepper.
Step 2 - Add mushrooms and continue to fry for about 2 minutes.
Step 3 - Add the red curry paste and a small amount of coconut milk and stir fry for another 1 minute.
Step 4 - Stir in the sugar and briefly let it melt. Then, add coconut milk, vegetable broth, vegan fish sauce, and lemon juice.
Step 5 - Bring to a boil, add frozen edamame, carrot sticks, and thinly sliced red pepper and simmer until vegetables are tender.
Step 6 - While the soup is simmering, cook the noodles in a large saucepan of boiling water until done, or to package instructions.
Step 7 - To serve, portion up the noodles in bowls, add the soup, and sprinkle on toasted peanuts and sliced scallions.
Substitutions and variations
For a gluten-free Thai noodle soup: Use rice-based noodles and check to make sure your other ingredients such as curry paste, vegetable broth and vegan fish sauce are all gluten-free.
For a lower carb option, use zucchini noodles.
Instead of tofu, you can use other plant-based proteins such as vegan chicken, tempeh, soy curls or chickpeas.
Edamame beans can be swapped for peas, sugar snap peas or mangetout.
Other veggies that work well in this noodle soup include:
- Bok choy / Pak choi
- Broccoli
- Sweet corn
- Beansprouts
- Shiitake or oyster mushrooms
Serving
Shallow bowls work well for serving this noodle soup.
If you want to make it easier to eat, you can break the noodles in half before cooking them.
To garnish this soup, we like to use a mix of the following:
- Lime wedges
- Fresh cilantro / coriander
- Thai basil
- Spring or green onions
Storage
Noodle soup is generally best enjoyed freshly cooked, but you can store it in the fridge for up to 3 days.
If you plan on having leftovers, store the noodles and soup separately for the best results.
We don't recommend freezing this soup.
More soup recipes
Try these other delicious vegan soups:
📖 Recipe
Vegan Red Thai Noodle Soup
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
- 5 oz (140 g) extra firm tofu pressed and cubed
- salt & pepper
- 1 cup (100 g) mushrooms sliced
- 2 tbsp red Thai curry paste vegan
- 1 tbsp palm sugar grated
- 1 can coconut milk 14oz/400ml can
- 2 cups (480 ml) vegetable broth
- 2 tbsp (30 ml) vegan fish sauce
- 2 tsp lemon juice
- ½ cup (75 g) edamame beans frozen
- 1 carrot cut into thin sticks
- 1 pointed red pepper thinly sliced
- 5.5 oz (150 g) noodles
- ¼ cup (75 g) toasted peanuts see notes
- 2 scallions / spring onions sliced
Instructions
- In a large saucepan, heat up vegetable oil over medium-high heat.
- Add the cubed tofu and fry it for about 4 minutes, until light golden brown. Turn over and season with salt and pepper about halfway through. The tofu might stick a bit to the pan but that's ok.
- Add the sliced mushrooms, and continue to fry for about 2 minutes, until the mushrooms have started to shrink.
- Add the red curry paste and 2 tablespoons of the coconut milk (the creamy part if possible). Stir and fry for 1 minute.
- Stir in the grated palm sugar (or brown sugar) and briefly let it melt. Then, add coconut milk, vegetable broth, vegan fish sauce, and lemon juice.
- Bring to a boil, add frozen edamame, carrot sticks, and thinly sliced red pepper.
- Simmer for 3 - 4 minutes until the vegetables are just tender to the bite. Remove from heat.
- While simmering the soup, cook the noodles in a large saucepan of boiling water until done, or to package instructions.
- For serving, portion up the noodles in the bowls, then add the soup with vegetables and tofu. Sprinkle on the toasted peanuts and sliced scallions.
Notes
Oven: Place peanuts on an oven sheet and cook in the fan oven at 375℉ (190℃). After 5 minutes, start to check them every minute to make sure they don't get too dark, as they can suddenly go really quickly. Remove from the oven when the peanuts have browned significantly or to your preference. Noodles You can make this Thai noodle soup with a variety of different types of noodles. We've made it with udon noodles, wholewheat noodles, and rice noodles, all with great results. Soba noodles (made from buckwheat) and ramen style would also work. Different noodles require different cooking methods and times. Check the packaging for instructions. For long cooking times around 10 minutes, you can start cooking the noodles before making the soup. For shorter cooking times under 5 minutes, you can cook the noodles in the soup. You will need to add an extra ½ - ⅔ cup of water to make up for the liquid absorbed by the noodles.
Nutrition
This information is calculated per serving and is an estimate only.
Loved our recipe? Have a question we can answer? We'd love to hear from you! Sophie and Paul 💚