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Vegan bun rieu (bún riêu chay) is a classic Vietnamese noodle soup that has a super-nourishing tomato and tamarind broth, jam-packed with rice noodles, mushrooms, tofu, and fresh herbs. No crabs harmed in bringing the bustling energy of Vietnam's street stalls and Vietnamese restaurants straight to your kitchen in one unforgettable, very easily preppable bowl.
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This popular noodle soup is beloved across Vietnam, but most people think of it as a crab/seafood thing. You don't need to harm sea creatures to dig this Vietnamese soup's Northern Vietnam roots, though, and the tomato-rich broth that made bún riêu famous long before Anthony Bourdain even said it was "the greatest soup in the world".
To be clear, he famously stated, "in the hierarchy of delicious, slurpy stuff in a bowl, bún riêu is at the very top." Would he approve of a vegan version? I'd say pretty firmly, definitely not, and I don't really care.
While my daughter's all-time fave is vegan pho, this vegan bún riêu, one of the best Vietnamese soups EVER, pulls up the heat and subtle funkiness I prefer. It pairs ridiculously well with, and might just make one of the best meals on earth alongside a vegan banh mi or some banh trang cuon.
Okay, enough chit-chat. Let's cook this before your goofy, capri, or dungaree-wearing dad comes down wondering why there's still no dang broth cookin'.
I made this for non-vegans and nobody noticed it was vegan, which is honestly surprising.
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🥰 Why you'll adore this vegan bún riêu recipe
✊ Vegan AF & GF: You get full Vietnamese vegan crab noodle soup energy without dragging any animals into your dinner plans (other than your kid feeding some tofu under the table to your doggo) just like the rest of my vegan Vietnamese recipes. If you skip the vegan ingredients like vegan ham you've got yourself a gluten-free vegan recipe too.
🔥 Real Depth, No Fussing Around: The broth builds itself with daikon, ginger, apple, and aromatics doing all the heavy lifting like the authentic version while you loiter around the stove pretending this was difficult.
✅ Tester Crew Approved: All of my vegan recipes have all gone through pretty critical evaluation from my enormous recipe tester team (and I mean HUNDREDS of home cooks from all around the world).
🙌 Learn to make restaurant-quality Vietnamese food
This guide to my most popular vegan Vietnamese recipes is 100% FREE, & you'll love the actual heck out of it 🥰
🍲 Bún riêu chay ingredients
Daikon
Daikon is pretty crucial for the rich flavor of traditional Vietnamese bún riêu. But if your grocery store fails you, Korean radish (the same thing you would use to make Kkakdugi with) will work fine.
Dulse Flakes
Dulse brings that ocean-adjacent umami I also use for veg-seafood-flavor-on-demand in my vegan kewpie mayo. If the flakes are MIA, toss in some kombu or another sea veg.
Vegan Fish Sauce
You can make your own by following my vegan fish sauce recipe. Otherwise, if you are going to buy some, I love Ocean's Halo vegan fish sauce because it brings the salty-fermented oomph I want on for nuoc cham, khao pad, and bánh tráng trộn.
If neither homemade or store-bought is realistic, soy sauce with a touch of rice vinegar works surprisingly well, or use a spoonful of my vegan shrimp paste.
Coconut Sugar
Coconut sugar is important for sweetening and balancing the flavors in the broth. Brown sugar and palm sugar, are both totally fine swaps.
Shallot
Shallots are used in the soup (like after the initial broth is made). Red onion is the easy backup, and honestly, regular yellow onions are fine to use here too.
Annatto Powder
Annatto, also known as achiote, is the same stuff I use in my pancit bihon and it gives that signature red color. It unlocks best in hot oil. Kashmiri red chili powder or paprika can cover the color if you can't get your hands on annatto.
Tamarind Concentrate
Grab a tamarind concentrate with a smoothie-style consistency and avoid the dark, thick Tam Con tamarind paste stuff. It's a great ingredients to keep on hand to fling into Thai salad dressing, nam prik pao, and nam jim jaew. Lime juice or a little tart cherry juice will come close enough in a grocery crisis.
Dried Rice Noodles
Use the same thin vermicelli noodles as you would use to serve with ca ri chay because they nicely absorb broth and seasonings. Always check package instructions so you won't overcook them. If gluten is not an issue just about any noodles (yes, even spaghetti) can be used instead. Fresh rice noodles are an option but aren't super convenient to keep on hand.
Beech Mushrooms
Beech mushrooms hold their shape even when the broth is piping hot. Enoki or oyster mushrooms can take their place if you can't get beech.
Vegan Ham
Use my vegan ham recipe but grab the inner part that has not been maple glazed. Any mock meat works here though, including the canned stuff from Asian grocery stores.
Tofu Puffs
Tofu puffs are tiny flavor traps that soak up broth. If you have some left over after making this, you can toss them into mee rebus or vegan curry laksa. Air-fried or pan fried tofu cubes work (but itn't as absorbent) if you can't find them.
Perilla Leaves
Totally optional but they bring that minty herby extra flavor that shows up on basically every Vietnamese herb plate. I toss a little bit on coconut jasmine rice and green curry fried rice too.
*See the recipe card at the bottom of the page for exact quantities, nutritional info, and detailed cooking directions.
📖 How to make vegan Vietnamese crab noodle soup
If you're hangry enough to jaywalk across a Saigon roundabout for a traditional Vietnamese noodle soup, the recipe card below is your fast lane, beb. But if you want the full auntie-in-your-ear commentary with messy wisdom and nonsense energy, come hang with me right here.
Step One
Stock Options:
Place the daikon, carrots, apple, scallions, onion, ginger, dulse flakes, vegan fish sauce, coconut sugar, water, and salt into a large stockpot. Bring it to a full boil over high heat, then lower the temperature and let it simmer steadily for 60 minutes.
Step Two
Drain to Busan:
Pour the flavorful broth through a wire-mesh strainer, removing all solids, and return the clear liquid to the pot.
Step Three
Sautébraham Lincoln:
Heat the olive oil in a separate pot over medium heat. After about 90 seconds when the oil is hot, add the shallot and cook for 3 minutes.
Step Four
Annattional Geographic:
Stir in the tomatoes, bird's eye chilies, and annatto powder. Continue cooking over medium heat for 4-5 minutes until the tomatoes soften and begin to break down.
Step Five
Tamarindiana Jones:
Mix in the tamarind concentrate and cook for 1 minute. Pour in the strained tangy tomato broth and let it simmer over medium heat for 10 minutes.
Step Six
Nood, Where's My Car:
Prepare the rice vermicelli according to package directions. Rinse under cold water afterward and drain well.
Step Seven
In Beech of Contract:
Add the beech mushrooms, vegan ham, and tofu puffs to the simmering broth. Continue to cook for 5 minutes over medium heat until the mushrooms feel tender and the tofu has absorbed some broth.
Step Eight
Riêu Kids on the Block:
Place the noodles into serving bowls. Ladle the hot broth, mushrooms, vegan ham, and tofu puffs on top. Finish with additional toppings like Thai basil, sliced bird's eye chilies, perilla leaves, scallions, and lime wedges.
50+ of my own family's fave recipes. Carefully concocted to win over even your most anti-vegan friends.
💡Serving Ideas
A platter of bánh tráng cuon or lemongrass tofu comes in with that fresh-herby crunch that balances the tomato-tamarind weirdness that, shockingly, works.
If you have some folks eating with you who want a dry noodle dish instead of a tomato noodle soup, mi xao xi dau is fast and easy to make for them. If you want a super dope sidepiece, bánh bao chay or stir fried water spinach is the way to go.
Then the second your savory-broth fog wears off and your sweet tooth starts knocking, chè ba màu, banh flan, and kem chuoi are all naturally vegan Vietnamese dessert options.
👉Top tips
- Do a Taste Test After the Tamarind Move: Tamarind brands be out here making things up as they go along, so once the broth is made, take a quick sip and adjust with salt, sugar, or a splash of acid until the sweet-sour-salty combo tastes great to you.
- Cook the Tomatoes Till They Collapse: Do not rush this, babe. Let those ripe tomatoes fully break down so the broth gets that gentle red color and doesn't have mealy chunks of barely cooked tomato in it.
- Rinse the Vermicelli: After boiling, give the noodles a strong cold rinse or they glue themselves together.
🤷♀️ Recipe FAQs
Bún riêu leans tomato forward with a tangy broth built from aromatics, tamarind, and annatto instead of the spice-heavy clear broth that pho uses. It's brighter, sharper, and meant to hit with a gentle sour edge.
You can skip annatto, but the broth will be pale instead of that classic warm red color. If you leave it out, the flavors of the broth stay fine, just less visually iconic. Some Kashmiri red chili powder can be a decent substitute if you have some in your pantry.
Traditional versions use crab paste and fermented shrimp paste, but you can build deep savory flavor with dulse flakes, vegan fish sauce, tomatoes, and aromatics. The combo still lands that classic vibe without animal stuff.
If you really miss the shrimp thick paste taste, you can add a spoonful of my vegan bagoong to the stock, but adjust the salt down a little to accommodate it.
🥶 Refrigeration
Pour the pot of broth into an airtight glass container and keep the noodles separate so they don't bloat. The soup will stay good for about 3 days in the fridge. Store the herbs and lime in their own little container so they stay fresh.
❄️ Freezing
The broth (without the noodles, tofu, herbs etc.) freezes well for about 3 months in an airtight container. Leave space at the top so it can expand.
🧊 Thawing
Move the frozen broth to the fridge and let it thaw overnight. If you forget, set the jar in a bowl of warm water and let it loosen gradually.
🔥 Stovetop reheating
Warm the broth in a pot over medium heat until it gently simmers. Add fresh noodles, tofu puffs, vegan ham, and mushrooms right before serving so everything heats evenly without turning mushy.
✌️You'll love these vegan Vietnamese recipes too:
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Vegan Bun Rieu Recipe
Ingredients
For the Broth:
- 3 cups daikon peeled and diced
- 2 cups carrots diced
- 2 cups apple cored and diced
- 1 cup scallions chopped
- 1 cup onion diced
- 2 teaspoons ginger grated
- 2 tablespoons dulse flakes
- ¼ cup vegan fish sauce
- 3 tablespoons coconut sugar or brown sugar
- 16 cups water
- 1 tablespoon salt or to taste
For the Soup:
- 4 teaspoons olive oil
- 1 cup shallot diced (or red onion)
- 1 ½ cups tomatoes diced
- 3 bird's eye chilies thinly sliced (or to taste)
- 1 teaspoon annatto powder
- 3 tablespoons tamarind concentrate
- 7 oz. dried rice vermicelli noodles
- 150 grams. beech mushrooms A.K.A. shimeji
- 12 slices vegan ham
- 12 tofu puffs cut in half
The Toppings:
- 1 cup Thai basil leaves
- Bird's eye chilies sliced (to taste)
- ¼ cup perilla leaves
- ¼ cup scallions minced
- 1 lime cut into wedges
Instructions
- Combine the daikon, carrots, apple, scallions, onion, ginger, dulse flakes, vegan fish sauce, coconut sugar, water, and salt in a large stockpot. Bring to a rolling boil over high heat and then decrease the heat to a steady simmer for 60 minutes.
- Strain the broth through a wire-mesh sieve and return the clear broth to the pot.
- Warm the olive oil in a separate pot over medium heat. After 90 seconds when the oil is hot, add the shallot and cook for 3 minutes.
- Add the tomatoes, bird's eye chilies, and anatto powder. Stir-fry for 4-5 minutes over medium heat until the tomatoes start to break down.
- Add the tamarind concentrate and stir-fry for 1 minute. Pour the strained broth into the pot and bring to a simmer over medium heat for 10 minutes.
- Cook the rice vermicelli according to package directions. Rinse under cold water and drain well.
- Add the beech mushrooms, vegan ham, and tofu puffs to the simmering broth. Cook for 5 minutes over medium heat.
- Divide the noodles among serving bowls. Ladle the hot broth, mushrooms, vegan ham, and tofu puffs over the noodles. Serve with Thai basil leaves, sliced bird's eye chilies, perilla leaves, scallions, and lime wedges.
Notes
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Monique says
I made this for non-vegans and nobody noticed it was vegan, which is honestly surprising.