Vegan Dan Dan Noodles Recipe - Crowded Kitchen (2024)

Published: Apr 2, 2020 · Modified: Aug 11, 2020 by Lexi

These Vegan Dan Dan Noodles with a crispy, caramelized tofu-mushroom-walnut "meat" are heavenly. Served in a spicy, broth-y sauce over rice noodles with boy choy and green onion, I can't imagine a better weeknight dinner!

If you've never had dan dan noodles, drop what you're doing, gather up ingredients and make these ASAP. They're life-changing. SO flavorful, warming, spicy, and just delicious.

The recipe consists of a crispy, pan-fried vegan meat mixture (tofu, mushrooms and walnuts), seasoned with a spicy peanut sauce. Green onion and boy choy add some refreshing green, and everything is served atop rice noodles and drenched in more of the broth/sauce/deliciousness.

Sound good?? Let's get started!

What are dan dan noodles?

First things first, let's start with the recipe's origin.

To be completely transparent, our version of this recipe is not 100% traditional. We were unable to find some of the traditional ingredients that are less common in US grocery stores, but we did our best to replace them with similar, more commonly available options!

Plus, of course, our recipe is vegan, whereas the original recipe is not.

Traditionally, dan dan noodles are a spicy Chinese noodle dish with caramelized crispy, minced pork, chili oil, pickled vegetables and a flavorful sauce. It's spicy (but not too spicy), packed with complex flavors and perfectly saucy.

Ingredients for Vegan dan dan noodles

There are 3 components to this recipe: the vegan meat + vegetable mixture, the sauce and the noodles + garnishes. We'll break it down into all three sections and try to answer all of your questions about substitutions below!

Vegan meat + vegetable mixture

• Tofu: Extra firm tofu is crumbled into small bits and caramelized in the pan for a pork-like texture. Firm tofu works, too –just make sure to drain and pat dry before using to remove as much moisture as possible.
• Mushrooms: finely minced mushrooms add meaty flavor to the meat mixture. You don't want any huge pieces – they should be equal in size to the tofu crumbles. Shiitake or button mushrooms will do.
• Walnuts: chopped, raw walnuts add a bit of texture and fat to the mixture to better mimic meat.

All three of these items get added to a hot pan along with sesame oil, minced garlic, minced ginger and green onion. Once they've started to cook, you'll also add in ¼ cup of the sauce (ingredients below) to add flavor and help the mixture get caramelized and crispy.

Once the vegan meat mixture is cooked, we also add in chopped bok choy for some refreshing green. Cook until wilted.

Sauce

The sauce is probably the most important component of these vegan dan dan noodles. It adds so much flavor to both the meat and noodles! Whisk everything together well and use in both the meat mixture and for the noodles.

• Mirin: mirin is a slightly sweet, tangy rice wine that's a key ingredient in homemade teriyaki. It's similar to sake and has a distinct flavor that's hard to replace, so we suggest picking up a bottle! If you don't want to, you can sub with rice vinegar.
• Tamari: If you're not gluten free, use soy sauce instead. We opt for low-sodium in this recipe, so if you're using regular, use a bit less.
• Rice wine vinegar: rice wine vinegar is much sweeter and less acidic than regular white distilled vinegar. The closest substitutes would be white wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar, but both are still much more acidic so we wouldn't suggest unless absolutely necessary.
• Coconut sugar: brown sugar or regular sugar work, too.
• Creamy, unsalted peanut butter: traditional dan dan noodles are made with Chinese sesame paste (which is not all that similar to tahini). If you can find it, great! If not, peanut butter is a great alternative.
• Chili oil: make your own (this is a great recipe by Omnivore's Cookbook) or grab a jar at the store (what we usually do).

Noodles and toppings:

Once the sauce is made, get your noodles boiling. Once the noodles are cooked, you'll add them to a pan with the rest of the sauce, let it cook down for a minute, then serve in a bowl topped with the crispy vegan meat mixture.

• Noodles: a traditional recipe calls for dried white noodles, but since we're gluten free, we had to improvise with rice noodles instead. Feel free to opt for any noodles you'd like –just make sure they're long and thick.
• Toppings: we always top with more sliced scallions, chili oil, and chopped peanuts or sesame seeds for a bit of texture.

More favorite vegan Asian-inspired recipes

• Homemade Miso Soup
• Miso Glazed Roasted Eggplant with Coconut Rice and Chili Garlic Cashews
• Teriyaki Mushroom Bowls
• Cauliflower Fried Rice
• Tofu Katsu Curry via Cupful of Kale (I've made this before and it's fantastic!)

If you make this Vegan Dan Dan Noodles recipe, we’d love for you to leave a comment and rating below! We also love to see your creations on Instagram – tag us at @crowded_kitchen so we can see what you’ve been cooking.

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