Our vegan take on a Taiwanese classic! Vegan Taiwanese Beef Noodle Soup. Tempeh and shiitake mushrooms in an aromatic spiced broth. Served with noodles and bok choy, garnished with Chinese pickled mustard greens, coriander and spring onions.
Beef Noodle Soup is considered the national dish of Taiwan. In our vegan version tempeh and shiitake mushrooms take centre stage in this hearty dish, offering a flavorful alternative to traditional beef while still capturing the authentic Taiwanese flavours. The rich broth, infused with fragrant spices like ginger, cinnamon, star anise, and Sichuan pepper, creates a deeply satisfying flavour base for the dish. This vegan version offers a nourishing, cruelty-free alternative that will delight vegans and meat-eaters alike.
Serving Vegan Taiwanese Beef Noodle Soup
Serve your Vegan Taiwanese Beef Noodle Soup in bowls with a portion of noodles and some tempeh, mushrooms, carrots, and bok choy. Pour over the delicious broth and add the toppings, freshly chopped coriander, spring onions and the Chinese preserved mustard greens.
Enhance your Vegan Taiwanese beef noodle soup by adding extra toppings like fresh tomatoes or shimeji mushrooms. Simply cook them in the broth for two minutes before serving. You can also experiment with other toppings such as bean sprouts, broccoli or sugar snap peas.
What you need to make Vegan Taiwanese Beef Noodle Soup
While the ingredients list may appear long and feature items less commonly found in Western supermarkets, we guarantee that the effort of sourcing them will be worth it when you taste the delicious result of this recipe. Vegan Taiwanese Beef Noodle Soup has become a true favourite of ours.
Asian supermarkets will generally have everything needed, however, if you don’t have one nearby then all the ingredients can easily be found online.
Sichuan Peppercorns give the broth a spicy and subtly numbing sensation with a citrusy flavour. Either the red or green variety can be used. The green has a stronger citrus flavour than the red so if all you have is the green variety use half of what’s listed in the recipe.
Sichuan Pepper is a unique and delicious ingredient, we suggest exploring it further in other recipes on our site. A dish that lets you experiment with how much of a numbing sensation you want is our recipe for Vegan Mapo Tofu. A delicious and easy-to-make Sichuan dish where Sichuan pepper plays a big role. Another is our Vegan Dan Dan Noodles another dish from Sichuan that comes together in no time.
Chilli bean paste (doubanjiang) is a spicy and savoury condiment made with fermented broad beans and chillies. It is usually named chilli bean paste. Look for labels that say Doubanjiang or Toban-djan.
It’s a key ingredient for Vegan Taiwanese Beef Noodle Soup that gives the broth a spicy umami kick. Make sure all the ingredients are vegan, some brands contain E numbers that are not always vegan.
Shaoxing wine is a rice wine that’s used extensively in Chinese cuisine. It adds a complex richness to dishes, similar to using white wine in Western cuisines. One thing to watch out for is salt level. Shaoxing wine sometimes has added salt. If yours has salt consider adding less soy sauce to dishes.
Chinese pickled mustard greens, also known as suan cai or xue cai, are a staple in Chinese cuisine. Made from mustard greens that are fermented with salt and sometimes other seasonings, these pickles offer a unique combination of tanginess and umami flavour.
Taiwanese Beef Noodle Soup is traditionally served with pickled mustard greens so don’t skip this ingredient if possible. Make sure all the ingredients are vegan.
Storing Vegan Taiwanese Beef Noodle Soup
This recipe can be made in advance and stored in the fridge for up to 4 days. Store the broth and the tempeh in a sealed container. Cook the noodles and bok choy fresh each time. The spice bag can be left in the broth while in storage, the flavour will continue to intensify.
Before serving portion out how much you need and then bring the broth to a simmer for 5 minutes before serving.
Vegan Taiwanese Beef Noodle Soup
Ingredients
Spice Mix
- 1 tablespoon red Sichuan peppercorns
- 4 star anise
- 1 teaspoon fennel seeds
- 1 teaspoon coriander seeds
Broth
- 4 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 400 g Tempeh
- 200 g shiitake mushrooms stems removed and cut into chunks
- 2 red Thai chillies halved lengthwise
- 10 cloves garlic thinly sliced
- 30 g ginger thinly sliced
- 6 spring onions white parts thinly sliced green parts thinly sliced for garnish
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 large piece Chinese cinnamon cassia bark
- 1 medium brown onion thinly sliced
- 4 tablespoons doubanjiang*
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 1 medium carrot sliced into rounds
- 125 ml Shaoxing cooking wine
- 50 ml dark soy sauce
- 80 ml light soy sauce
- 2 medium tomatoes cut into chunks
- ¼ teaspoon msg optional
- ¼ teaspoon Chinese 5-spice
- ½ teaspoon ground white pepper
- 50 g sugar
- 2 litres water
To Serve
- 6 portions fresh wheat noodles or ramen noodles
- 250 g bok choy (pak choi)
- Freshly chopped coriander (cilantro)
- Green parts spring onions thinly sliced
- 1 packet Chinese pickled mustard greens
Instructions
Spice Mix
- Toast the spices in a hot dry pan until fragrant. Remove from the pan and let cool before transferring to a spice bag.
Broth
- Heat half the oil in a large pan over medium-high heat. Once hot add the tempeh and cook until golden all over, turning frequently. This will take around 8 minutes.
- Remove the tempeh from the pan and set aside until later.
- Heat the remaining oil in a large stock pot over medium-high heat. Once hot add the shiitake mushrooms. Sauté for 4 minutes until starting to turn golden.
- Add the Thai chilli, sliced garlic, sliced ginger, the white parts of the spring onions, bay leaves, and Chinese cinnamon.
- Sauté everything until fragrant, around 1 minute.
- Add the sliced onion and continue to sauté until the onion starts to turn translucent, around 4 minutes.
- Add the doubanjiang and tomato paste. Mix and sauté until they become a deep red colour, around 2 minutes.
- Now add the carrots, Shaoxing wine, and dark & light soy sauce combine everything and add the spice bag with the toasted spices and submerge it fully in the liquid.
- Bring to a rapid boil and continue to cook on medium-high heat for 5 minutes.
- Add the remaining ingredients, tomatoes, msg(optional), Chinese 5-spice, ground white pepper, and sugar. Also, add to cooked tempeh.
- Pour in the water and bring to a boil before turning down the heat to a gentle simmer. Simmer with the lid on the pan for 20 minutes.
- Taste and adjust the seasoning. We didn’t need to add anything at this stage. However, if you find the broth to be too salty you can add more water.
To Serve
- To serve your Vegan Taiwanese Beef Noodle Soup, cook the noodles according to packet instructions. You can cook any extra topping in the simmering broth, like the bok choy, extra tomatoes or mushrooms.
- Add the cooked noodles to a bowl, add some tempeh, mushrooms, carrot and bok choy together with any optional topping. Pour over some broth to fill up the bowl then garnish with the Chinese pickled mustard greens, green parts of the spring onion and freshly chopped coriander.
Notes
Using a mortar and pestle or a knife on a chopping board, make sure there are no large lumps in the doubanjiang.
