Easy Malaysian Vegetarian Laksa

Vegetarian Laksa inspired and adapted to be vegetarian friendly from a recipe from the Food Safari cookbook.

I have made a beautiful laksa with laksa pasta I made from scratch. It was so delicious. However this is a great alternative, very easy and quick and can become a regular week night meal. I have always found it difficult to find a vegetarian laksa paste. However fairly recently I discovered Charmaine Solomon's Vegetarian Laksa Paste- I was stoked! It can be tricky to get. My local supermarket stocked it and then it disappeared. I have recently found it in Thomas Dux and bought a few of them as I find it is great to have handy for when I feel like a laksa fix.

Ingredients

6-8 schallots roughly chopped

6-8 garlic cloves roughly chopped

Thumb sized piece of ginger, peeled and roughly chopped

1 red chilli roughly chopped

125 mls of water

Rice vermicelli noodles

Egg noodles (I sometimes just use rice vermecelli and pad thai noodles or whichever I have!)

4 tbsp extra virgin coconut oil

2 heaped tbsp of Charmaine Solomon's Vegetarian Laksa Paste

2 carrots chopped

1/2 small broccoli

1/4 cauliflower chopped

2 handfulls of small mushrooms, halved or left whole

Bunch of asian greens e.g. bok choy, choy sum, gai lan roughly chopped

1 litre vegetable stock

1 can coconut cream

Fried *tofu puffs or chopped firm tofu

1 tsp sugar

Salt to taste

Juice of 1 lime

Bean sprouts

Spring onions, chopped

Red chilli, sliced

Coriander leaves

Deep fried shallots

Fresh lime wedges

* You can get tofu puffs from Asian grocery stores

Method

1) Place schallots, garlic cloves, ginger and chilli in a food processor, add water gradually and blend until it becomes smooth.

2) Prepare rice noodles by blanching them in boiling water. When softened refresh in a colander under cold water.

3) Heat coconut oil in a large pot and add fresh paste and gently fry for a few minutes Add laksa paste and fry for a couple more minutes before adding the carrot, mushrooms, broccoli and cauliflower.

4) Saute vegetables for a few more minutes until coated in paste and fragrant.

5) Add vegetable stock, bring to the boil and add coconut cream and tofu. Add sugar and salt to taste and the stalks of the asian greens and simmer for a few minutes to bring out flavours. Squeeze in fresh lime and stir through the leaves of the Asian greens.

6) Divide the noodles amongst bowls.

7) Spoon over some vegetables and broth

8) Top with fresh bean spouts, freshly chopped coriander, chopped red chilli and lime wedges to serve.