Drunken Noodles (Vegan)

There’s something about drunken noodles that hits every craving at once: chewy rice noodles, spicy aromatics, sweet Thai basil, and just enough umami to make you keep going back for more. This vegan version has all the restaurant-style flavor without fish sauce or complicated ingredients. It’s quick, colorful, and one of my favorite dinners when I want something saucy and satisfying. Inspired by the endless number of Thai restaurants in my university town, check out this recipe to make your own drunken noodles at home!

What you will need:

For the Sauce:

3/4 cup soy sauce

1/2 cup hoisin sauce (or vegetarian oyster/mushroom sauce)

1/4 cup packed brown sugar

1/4 cup chili garlic sauce

optional: 1-2 tablespoons of pickled jalapeno juice/brine

For the noodles:

14 oz packet of rice flakes (or rice noodles)

3-4 tbsp vegetable or sesame oil

1 medium white onion

6 cloves of garlic

1 red bell pepper

1 green bell pepper

2 medium carrots

1/2 cup of cherry tomatoes

2 cups of Thai basil

Fried tofu (soy chunks)

1-2 tbsp of pickled jalapeno juice (optional)

Chili flakes (optional)

Preparing the noodles:

Prepare the sauce by combining all the ingredients listed (excluding the pickled jalapeno juice) in a bowl and put it aside. Won’t be needing this till the last step.

Prepare the rest of the ingredients: Mince the garlic cloves. Cut up the vegetables to your desired bite size–I prefer a long cut for the onions, peppers, and carrots. Cut the cherry tomatoes in halves. Cut the tofu chunks in halves. Roughly chop the Thai basil leaves.

In a large pot start boiling water for the noodles and cook by instructions on the package. I prefer to go a few minutes beyond the time listed till the noodles are soft and chewy. Make sure to test the texture of the noodles before draining them so that they are the texture that you prefer.

While the water is boiling for the noodles, start heating up your oil in a separate pan with a large base or wok, sauté the onion and garlic in the oil on medium heat. Let the onions become almost translucent but do not let them burn.

Add the rest of the vegetables and half of the Thai basil to the pan and let everything cook covered for a few minutes allowing for steam to build up in the pan.

Drain the water from the noodles and quickly give them a rinse under cold water so they are not too hot.

Once the vegetables are cooked, add in the drained noodles by separating them to prevent giant clumps of noodles in the pan. Add in the sauce, tofu pieces, and a little bit of pickled jalapeno juice/brine.

After the noodles have been combined well with the sauce and vegetables, toss in the tomatoes and turn off the heat.

Add the remaining Thai basil leaves and give the noodles one last mix!

Some additional tips about the recipe:

• If you want to swap out the rice flakes for the rice noodles, I recommend cooking them just slightly under perfect because as they cook in the sauce, they will start to break if they become overcooked.

• Aim to immediately add the noodles once they are drained into the veggies so that you can avoid large clumps of noodles. This may require to you start cooking the veggies a few minutes before starting to boil the noodles.

• If you cannot find fried soy chunks, you can also use regular firm tofu and pan fry that. For a healthier alternative, you can bake the tofu pieces or air fry it!

• Feel free to swap in mushrooms or plant-based chicken instead of tofu for protein variation.

• Leftovers reheat well, but add a splash of water to loosen the noodles when warming.