Vegan Vietnamese Recipes

If you're brand-stinkin' new to Vietnamese cooking, start with banh trang cuon. These summer rolls are no-cook, super-fresh, and teach you how to work with rice paper without any pressure.

From there, branch out to make vegan pho or vegan lemongrass tofu (my wife's all-time fave), both of which are easy AF and insanely flavorful.

Once you've got a few basics down, branch out into a tofu banh mi for sandwich vibes, or rice paper salad with tart green mangos. Don't be scared. Both are still ridiculously easy to whip up.

Mostly, nope! Vietnam is actually one of the easier places in Asia to travel as a vegan. Buddhist culture means there's a strong tradition of plant-based eating, and you'll find vegan restaurants (look for "chay" or "an chay" signs) in pretty much every city and town.

Street food can be trickier since fish sauce sneaks into everything, but once you learn to ask for it without ("không nước mắm"), you're usially in much better shape.

The bigger challenge is just communicating what you want, especially if you don't speak Vietnamese. Download a Google translator, learn a few key phrases, and don't be shy about pointing at ingredients or showing pictures of what you're after.

And if you're nervous about navigating it solo, join a food tour or hit up one of the many vegan-friendly spots in cities like Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, or Hoi An.