Vegan Vietnamese: Vibrant Plant-Based Recipes to Enjoy Every Day

by Helen Le

Learn how to make 70 classic dishes from every region of Vietnam—vegan-style—from Helen Le, the creator of the most popular Vietnamese cooking channel on YouTube, Helen's Recipes!

Whether you’re vegan, plant-based, vegetarian, or just looking to eat less meat, Vegan Vietnamese is for you. Let Helen Le guide you through seventy satisfying, traditional recipes for tasty plant-based versions of popular Vietnamese condiments, salads, rolls, soups, noodles, rice dishes, dumplings, desserts, and more,
  Pho Bánh Mì Crispy Spring Rolls Rice Pyramid Dumplings Spicy Tofu Thick Noodle Soup Broken Rice Plate Three-Color Sticky Rice Banana Cake with Raisins Roasted Garlic Chili Peanuts Vegan Fish Sauce
Complete with easy-to-follow instructions, stunning photos, and information for stocking your Vietnamese pantry, Vegan Vietnamese will have you enjoying this exciting cuisine right in your own home.

Genres: Cookbooks, Nonfiction, Food, Cooking, Vegan, Food and Drink

312 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 19, 2023

Reviews

[Marquise · Rating 4 out of 5]

You don't need to be a vegan to find this lovely cookbook very useful to vary your diet, it has everything from salads to desserts, with easy instructions and pictures that let you know what it will be like. Perfect for beginners in special, for how easy and accessible it is. Oh, and the author has a nice YouTube channel with more recipes as well!

I received an ARC through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Miss✧Pickypants ᓚᘏᗢ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Vegan fans of Vietnamese food, take note, this is a book you want for your collection! Non-vegans will also appreciate this lovely niche cookbook with it's gorgeous full-page color photos of almost every one of the 70 recipes. What's extra nice about this cookbook is it includes many traditional Vietnamese dishes but with meat alternative such as tofu, jackfruit and seitan.

Recipes tend to be a tad complex with many steps and are geared toward cooks with some experience. The author does indicate level of difficulty for every dish with most being labeled Moderate, so inexperienced cooks may want to get comfortable making the ones classified as Basic to start.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

The recipes sound amazing! The instructions look easy to follow. The rating will either increase or decrease depending on how the dishes turn out when I get around to trying some of them. Time to relearn where my local Asian food markets are again. The one I used to go to moved, but I'm not sure where it ended up.

[Christie K · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a gorgeous cookbook! It belongs on my shelf for the photos alone. The recipes are just uncommon enough to make this book very intriguing but not so unusual that American cooks and eaters will be in unfamiliar territory.

There is a wonderful variety of recipes; the five salad recipes are very different from each other, as are the three kinds of spring rolls and a wild betel leaf roll. The six soups are definitely not variations of each other and they range from lovely simple Pumpkin and Peanut Soup with six ingredients to an amazingly layered Pho that starts with using apples, pears, and daikon to make a broth then goes on to have a section of aroma ingredients, as well as a toppings section and serving section. I hope one day this fall I decide to make this pho. It looks amazing. It is very difficult to find good vegan pho broth at restaurants.

The book also has sections for rice dishes, breads and dumplings, and desserts each with plenty of flavors, textures, and forms to explore. Clear Mung Bean Dumplings are next on my list to make!

The pickled cabbage was fun to make and turned about better and more interesting than the sauerkraut
I've tried to make in the past. Rice rinse water! It uses rice rinse water. I was thrilled to use that.

My rating is down a star because anyone purchasing this book will want access to an Asian market (yay! That's me) or a well-stocked international grocery store to make use of many of the recipes. If you can't or do not want to purchase specialty ingredients, a third of the book won't be for you. The beginning of the book includes recipes for making sauces and condiments that can be used later in the book, so that does help with obtaining some ingredients for those who are excited to make their own chao (fermented tofu), annatto oil and other things.

I received an advance e-copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

The photos are gorgeous which is a requirement for me for a cookbook. There's a photo for each recipe. And, while I haven't made any yet, the recipes are appealing with clear step by step instructions. I'm looking forward to trying them. Also, while the cookbook is vegan, I think meat eaters would be able to sub meat in if desired.

Thanks to the publisher for sharing a copy with me. All opinions are my own.

[Christina Valastro · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very pretty cookbook! Every recipe has a picture of the food which is helpful in how to visualize the dish and get you excited for cooking!

[Justin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good cookbook but had a lot of ingredients I can't eat like mushrooms

[Jo · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a beautifully designed book. Every recipe has a photo which I really appreciated. Metric measurements were also provided which was great for me and made the recipes much more accessible.

There was a comprehensive section at the start which covered the essentials, sauces, and ingredients. It was a great reference and I learnt how to make sticky rice.

I have a lot of food intolerances which means I couldn't taste test all of the recipes, mostly the ones with tofu or seitan. It's still a great resource and such a pretty book.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy.

[Online Eccentric Librarian · Rating 4 out of 5]

More reviews (and no fluff) on the blog http://surrealtalvi.wordpress.com/

This is a nicely and cleanly presented book full of vegan versions of a large variety of Vietnamese dishes. There aren't too many exotic ingredients and the recipes are fairly easy to make. Of note, as with so many vegan cookbooks, these aren't necessarily health conscious and recipes can includes cups full of oils/deep frying and so might not be suitable for those looking to lose weight. There is no nutrition information given.

The book breaks down as follows: introduction, the Vietnamese pantry (a list of ingredients you'll want to keep stocked), sauces/condiments/pickles, salads/wraps/rolls, braised/fried/stir-fried/grilled dishes, soups/noodles, rice/sticky rice dishes, breads/dumplings, desserts/snacks, index. Recipes include: homemade chao, lemongrass chili tofu, pumpkin and peanut soup, quang noodles, crispy spring rolls, lotus stem and seaweed salad, broken rice plate, clear mung bean dumplings, green sticky rice with coconut, spicy cassava fritters, and many more. Recipes can be snacks, sides, main dishes, sauces, pickled items.

Each recipes comes with a full color photo of the finished product. There is a title, green colored text for a description, skill level, and yield. Ingredients are broken down in sections with a green title and then bold ingredients list. Steps are in small paragraph form of only 1-2 sentences - no bulky and clunky large paragraphs. There are tips and cal- outs in their own green boxes.

The book is beautifully presented and the recipes are very good versions of Vietnamese classics (from all over the country. There are the familiar dishes such as Pho but quite a few new/more interesting items you can enjoy exploring. The author has a really good YouTube channel as well to give you an idea of what to expect in the book.

There are a lot of recipes here so you definitely get your money's worth. In all, a very good cookbook. One that you don't need to be Vegan to enjoy. Reviewed from an advance reader copy provided by the publisher.

[L · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are a vast number of plant based recipe books on the market nowadays. Standing out has become essential – and this is exactly what the book Vegan Vietnamese by Helen Le does. It’s been many years since I’ve eaten Vietnamese dishes. It’s not common to find restaurant that cater for the plant based diet. For example, fish sauce is such a staple in many of the recipes. The author, however, has put together the most wonderful range of vegan Vietnamese recipes.

Fish sauce – but vegan#
I was very impressed to find that the book started with a selection of sauces – most importantly a vegan fish sauce. Surprisingly easy to re-create at home without any speciality ingredients, this will become an ingredient in many dishes you can make throughout the book.

Mouth Watering

The amazing images will make your mouth water – it would be a beautiful book to leave on your coffee table for inspiration.

From simple salads and spring rolls, to braised and fried dishes, soups, rice and noodle dishes, there is something for everyone – and for every occasion.

The sweet and sour seitan is one of my favourite dishes in the whole book – and you don’t need to make your own seitan for it to be delicious. It’s a very simple recipe, with ingredients I already had in the kitchen cupboards at home.

I’m excited to try making my own pho, and also the braised ginger mushrooms. Honestly, I’ve never been so excited to cook!

Desserts

Let’s not forget the dessert section – my favourite being the crispy banana spring rolls. These do call for Asian dwarf bananas, but I created them with the small bananas from the Madeira region of Portugal (which we get in abundance here). You could just as easily use any banana and cut it into smaller pieces.

I highly recommend this book to anyone wishing to explore the world of plant-based Vegan Vietnamese recipes and expand their repertoire. You can buy it from good bookstores and online.

[Poppy Marlowe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Synopsis (from Netgalley, the provider of the book for me to review.)
*********************************************************
Learn how to make 70 classic dishes from every region of Vietnam—vegan-style—from Helen Le, the creator of the most popular Vietnamese cooking channel on YouTube, Helen's Recipes!

Whether you’re vegan, plant-based, vegetarian, or just looking to eat less meat, Vegan Vietnamese is for you. Let Helen Le guide you through seventy satisfying, traditional recipes for tasty plant-based versions of popular Vietnamese condiments, salads, rolls, soups, noodles, rice dishes, dumplings, desserts, and more, including:

Pho
Bánh Mì
Crispy Spring Rolls
Rice Pyramid Dumplings
Spicy Tofu
Thick Noodle Soup
Broken Rice Plate
Three-Color Sticky Rice
Banana Cake with Raisins
Roasted Garlic Chili Peanuts
Vegan Fish Sauce
Complete with easy-to-follow instructions, stunning photos, and information for stocking your Vietnamese pantry, Vegan Vietnamese will have you enjoying this exciting cuisine right in your own home.

I have taken a lot of Asian cooking classes but never a vegan one --- and given my orthorexic, paleo, allergy-ridden, coeliac, alkaline (etc. etc. etc. as the King of Siam/Thailand would say in “The King and I”) extended family, this book just might work. None of the recipes are too hard to understand or make and one can easily add in animal products if you have non-vegans at your meal and want to make them happy. Great book. Of course, there is a lot of tofu in this book but given my love of it (and mushrooms - lots of mushrooms here..yummmmm.) it is a definite reader and keeper for me. #shortbutsweetreviews

[Sharon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Vegan Vietnamese: Vibrant Plant-Based Recipes to Enjoy Every Day has around 70 classic dishes that have been reconfigured without meat. The author has included pretty photographs of both the region and the finished dishes, giving the cookbook a very vibrant look. The introduction includes a good list of necessary ingredients and instruction on how to prepare certain essentials.

The recipes are separated in the following sections, listed below with some of the standout dishes.

Sauces, Condiments, & Pickles: Vegan Fish Sauce; Chili Jam; Scallion Oil

Salads, Wraps, & Rolls: Vegan Chicken Salad; Crispy Spring Rolls

Braised, Fried, Stir-Fried, & Grilled Dishes: Spicy Tofu; Oyster Mushroom Stir-Fry with Tumeric

Soups & Noodles: Thai-Style Sweet-and-Sour Soup; Spicy Noodle Soup

Rice & Sticky Rice Dishes: Pineapple Fried Rice; Black Bean Sticky Rice

Breads & Dumplings: Bahn Mi; Steamed Rice Cakes

Desserts & Snacks: Crispy Banana Spring Rolls; Crispy Macaroni

Vegan Vietnamese is a good cookbook overall and one that might entice even the pickiest eaters to have more plant-based foods.

Disclaimer: I was given an Advanced Reader's Copy by NetGalley and the publisher. The decision to read and review this cookbook was entirely my own.

[Joana Flauzino · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book begins with a list of the most used ingredients in Vietnamese cuisine, and how they should be prepared and stored. And then with each recipe we are introduced to it with a little culture.
These details and attention are what make the book more than a cookbook, they make it an ally in taking us into Vietnamese culture.

The images are stunning, and make your mouth water just looking at them. But after the smells of food preparation fill the kitchen, we are rewarded with tremendously tasty dishes.

As a vegetarian, I think there was a real lack of something like this. This way I can try traditional Vietnamese recipes made for me.

A huge thanks to
the author Helen Le
the publisher Quarto Publishing Group
and to Netgalley

[Farah G · Rating 4 out of 5]

Helen Le draws on her considerable experience as the star of the leading Vietnamese YouTube cooking channel, Helen's Recipes, to guide the reader through the preparation of 70 classic dishes from all the various regions of the country.

To be honest, the recipes showcased are heavily reliant on mushrooms and tofu. But I love both, so I am excited at the prospect of these dishes!

The photography is also stunning, making this book a perfect addition to the kitchen of any vegetarian food lover who enjoys Asian food, whether or not they themselves are vegan. The recipes look really good!

I received a free copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review

[Tanya Kelly-Hadley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This will be constant go to for me!! The recipes in this cookbook are so good. Pretty sure Pickled Mung Bean Sprouts might be a new staple in my house, I could just eat them by the spoonful. The pictures are beautiful.

Recipes are heavy on tofu and mushrooms but as a huge lover of both, I appreciated it.

Recipes I tried (and loved):
*Pickled Mung Bean Sprouts
*Braised Tofu with Pineapple and Mushrooms
*Crepes with Mushrooms
*Crispy Spring Rolls (Mine fell apart but were still delicious.)
*Lemongrass Chili Tofu

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read and try these wonderful recipes!

[meshell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I spent my time with this cookbook and really enjoyed testing a few recipes from it. The instructions are clear and easy to understand, ingredients are generally easy to find (though you should expect to visit either a well stocked grocery store or an east-asian market.) all the pictures were fantastic and mouthwatering which helped with deciding what to make. This is a great overarching cookbook for people interested in making vegan Vietnamese recipes - either to explore a cuisine new to them, or to veganize family favourites.

Thank you to the publisher and authour for access via Netgalley - it was a pleasure to review this.

[Keshe Chow · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you to Quarto Publishing Group and Netgalley for providing the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I love Vietnamese food, but as someone who doesn't eat meat, it can be difficult to find good plant-based versions. This cookbook looks incredible and I am absolutely drooling at the recipes within. I'm a diehard tofu lover, but my tofu dishes are feeling a bit repetitive lately (plus I have two picky kids to feed) so I'm so excited about the huge range of tofu ideas in this book! The photography is beautiful and the recipes are well explained. I can't wait to start cooking!

[Sean Briere · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just received an arc via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I personally have a lot of dietary restrictions due to Hashimotos and a histamine intolerance. I have recently turned to Vietnamese and vegan food as it usually doesn't have too much that disturbs my system. Which is why I requested this arc in the first place. I was vegan for 5 years in my 20s, and I would have killed for a book like this.

If you're looking to mix up your vegan food, this is most definitely a solid book to pick up.

[Dray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Vietnamese cuisine is delicious and varied and different than Thai or Cambodian. Most Vietnamese cookbooks have a couple of vegetarian recipes but are heavily biased to meat and fish. Even veggie dishes labeled as such often have sauces that contain fish.
This book is a refreshing change. Reflecting the diversity of Vietnamese meals as well as being purely vegan. These are recipes accessible to the home cook.

[Tove R. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finally a Vietnamese Vegan cookbook! Fantastic recipes! I honestly do not remember when was the last time I check out the recipes in a book and I feel like I want to use most of them. From roasted garlic chili peanuts to sweet-and-sour seitan, from lemongrass chili tofu to pho, and from stir-fried noodles to banh mi, you can't go wrong with this book! I love the pictures as well!

[(a)lyss(a) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is a beautiful cook book! It's fully of plant-based recipes for Vietnamese dishes and photos to reference. There's a variety of recipes throughout the book and highlights how versatile a plant-based diet can be, even if you're not vegan.

Overall a nice read.

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Vietnamese food, but there aren't many places by me to eat it, so a good cookbook is essential. I love the takes on making such delicious cuisine vegan. There is a good selection of meat replacements like tofu and seitan and purely vegetable dishes that all look absolutely delicious. Some new dishes to try and plenty of familiars with twists.

[Lucy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Absolutely beautiful photography, but too many recipes rely on mushrooms and tofu for my tastes. I loved the chapter on pickles, and definitely want to try a few - the bean sprout one looks like a highlight for me.

[Johanna Sawyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Certainly some favorite recipes in this book with a Vegan outlook in the Vietnamese recipe book. Nice cover and some yummy looking pictures to help you decide what to make for dinner. Meatless Monday’s is an event in our home so we love looking at Vegan recipes. Plenty here to appeal to everyone,

[Lila]

This book provides clear directions including information on ingredients to create vegan versions of Vietnamese dishes. There are substitutes offered for those ingredients which may be harder to source.

[adventuresinfictionland · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great vegan cookbook with great flavor profiles. The recipes are easy to follow, the pictures look amazing, and everything seems accessible. Since going vegan Asian flavors are my go to and this book makes it possible to do at home instead of needing to go out. I can’t wait to try these!

[Vjera · Rating 4 out of 5]

Grabbed this off the new book shelf. Lots of gorgeous photos and tasty looking dishes. I liked the difficulty ratings and bolder steps in the recipes. Lots of ingredients I'm not familiar with but she gave tips on where to find them and how to prepare them.

[Gloria · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Vietnamese food and this vegan version of some of my favorites is perfect. Beautiful photos and easy to follow recipes. I specifically like the pickled vegetables and soup section.

[Douglas Larson · Rating 4 out of 5]

An amazing collection of vegan Vietnamese recipes. It has clear step by step instructions and also discusses the background to the ingredients.

[Goth Radio Hour · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like how Le gives each dish a difficulty level in addition to the serving size and total time. Her seitan recipe looks simple and awesome. I am happy to have found this book!