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549 recipes

Dau hu non hapSteamed silken tofu

Steamed silken tofu is a fast, gentle dish cooked in homes from Hanoi to Saigon, especially on vegetarian days at the start and middle of the lunar month, when many families eat chay. A whole block of silken tofu is steamed until wobbling and hot, then topped with sizzling spring onion oil, a light soy dressing, chilli and crisp fried shallots. It is soft and savoury, and goes with rice and a stir-fried green. Each portion has about 150 kcal and roughly 10 g of protein, from the silken tofu, so it is a light dish rather than a high-protein one. The common mistake is turning the block out roughly so it cracks; slide it gently onto the plate. Chef's tip: pour off the water that gathers on the plate after steaming, or it thins the sauce.

15 minVietnameseVegetarianVegan
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Bánh tro (bánh gio, amber glutinous rice cakes in leaves)Lye water glutinous rice cakes

On Tết Đoan Ngọ, the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, families in northern and central Vietnam eat bánh tro first thing in the morning, believing it cools the body as summer heat arrives. Glutinous rice is soaked in alkaline water, which was once made by steeping plant ash, then wrapped in leaves and boiled for hours. It turns amber, translucent and jelly-soft with a clean, faintly mineral flavour, and is eaten cold, dipped in sugarcane molasses or palm-sugar syrup. Bánh tro is naturally egg-free: the alkali softens the rice grains so their own starch melts together into a firm, sliceable cake. We use food-grade lye water (an alkaline solution of potassium carbonate and sodium bicarbonate sold in Asian shops for noodles and mooncakes). Handle it with care: wear gloves, keep it away from children, never use drain cleaner or caustic soda, and always dilute it as written. Chef's tip: the common mistake is skipping the rinse; wash the soaked rice twice so the cakes taste clean, not soapy.

600 minVietnameseDessertsVeganGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Kem chuối (Vietnamese frozen coconut banana)

Kem chuối is the frozen treat of Saigon's alleys and the Mekong towns, sold from home freezers and school gates through the long hot season. Small, very ripe bananas are pressed flat, coated in thick sweet coconut cream, rolled in roasted peanuts and frozen on a stick; you can also wrap them and slice them into coins. The banana freezes dense and chewy rather than icy, and the coconut coating stays soft and rich. It is naturally egg-free and dairy-free: the coconut cream is cooked with a spoonful of tapioca starch, which thickens it so it clings and holds a thin layer around the fruit, and the banana's own sugar keeps the middle from freezing rock-hard. Kids love making these. Chef's tip: use bananas with plenty of brown freckles; the common mistake is using firm yellow ones, which freeze bland and starchy.

260 minVietnameseDessertsVeganGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Bánh phu thê (Đình Bảng 'husband and wife' cakes)Mung bean tapioca cakes

Bánh phu thê, also called bánh xu xê, comes from Đình Bảng in Bắc Ninh, and it is still part of the gifts a groom's family brings to a Vietnamese wedding, with its paired leaf boxes standing for husband and wife. The dough is tapioca starch cooked with sugar and fresh coconut shreds and tinted golden with gardenia seeds; it steams clear and chewy, almost like amber jelly, around a soft ball of mung bean paste, and the top is scattered with toasted sesame. Eat them the day they are made, with green tea. The cake is naturally egg-free: tapioca starch thickens and turns elastic when heated, so it wraps and holds the filling on its own. Small ramekins lined with banana leaf can stand in for folded leaf boxes. Chef's tip: the common mistake is not part-cooking the dough; stir it on the hob until half of it turns clear, or it runs out of the boxes in the steamer.

120 minVietnameseDessertsVeganGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Canh rau ngot with tofuKatuk leaf and tofu soup

Canh rau ngot is one of the plainest and most loved soups on a Vietnamese family table, served at dinner in Hanoi and the Mekong Delta alike, in a shared bowl beside rice, a braised dish and a dipping sauce. The leaves of the katuk shrub are bruised and simmered briefly until soft and sweet. It is usually made with minced pork or dried shrimp; this vegetarian version uses cubes of tofu and a little fried shallot for savouriness. Each bowl has about 110 kcal and roughly 10 g of protein, from the tofu, so it is a light side soup. Katuk can be found frozen in Asian shops; young spinach is the nearest stand-in. The common mistake is overcooking the leaves, which turn khaki and slimy. Chef's tip: rub the leaves between your palms before cooking; bruising them lets them release their sweetness in just a few minutes.

20 minVietnameseSoupsVeganGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Cá hấp gừngGinger steamed whole fish

Cá hấp gừng is a family dish across Vietnam, from Hanoi to the Mekong Delta, put in the middle of the table for a weekend lunch or a Tết dinner and shared with rice and greens. A whole fish is steamed over ginger, then heaped with ginger and spring onion shreds and dressed with sizzling oil and a light soy and fish sauce. The flesh comes out silky and delicate. A portion has about 25 g of protein from the fish. The common mistake is oversteaming: thin parts go dry and woolly. Take it off as soon as the flesh at the thickest point pulls cleanly from the bone. Chef's tip: score the fish to the bone on both sides so it cooks evenly and the sauce gets in.

30 minVietnameseFish
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Helado de dulce de leche (Buenos Aires dulce de leche ice cream)

Dulce de leche is the flavour Buenos Aires heladerías are judged by, and on a summer night the queues at neighbourhood ice-cream shops stretch out onto the pavement well after dinner. Locals order it plain, with a ripple of extra dulce de leche (dulce de leche granizado adds chocolate flakes), often by the kilo to take home. It is dense, chewy and deeply caramel. This home version is egg-free with no custard: a little cornflour cooked into the milk thickens it the way yolks would, and the dulce de leche itself is milk and sugar cooked down, its sugar and milk solids keeping crystals tiny so it stays smooth and scoopable. Churn it, or still-freeze and stir it every 45 minutes. Chef's tip: chill the extra dulce de leche before rippling it in; the common mistake is folding in a warm one, which melts into the ice cream instead of leaving ribbons.

295 minArgentinianDessertsGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Reshteh khoshkar (Gilani rice-flour walnut rolls in syrup)

Reshteh khoshkar is the pastry of Gilan on Iran's Caspian coast, made in Rasht and Lahijan homes and bakeries for Ramadan, when a plate of it with tea breaks the fast at iftar. A thin rice-flour batter is drizzled in a lacy criss-cross over a hot griddle to make a fine net, which is filled with walnuts, sugar, cardamom and cinnamon, folded into a neat roll, fried until crisp and soaked in rose-scented syrup. It is crunchy, then soft and sticky, with a fragrant, nutty filling. Serve it at room temperature with strong black tea. The dish has always been egg-free: the rice-flour batter sets on the hot griddle into a net by itself, and the sugar in the filling and syrup glues the rolls together, so there is no need for any other binder, and nothing in it contains gluten. Chef's tip: test the griddle with a few drops of batter first; the common mistake is a griddle that is not hot enough, which lets the batter spread into a pancake instead of setting into a lacy net.

75 minPersianDessertsVeganGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Hoa quả dầm (Hanoi fruit cup with yoghurt and condensed milk)

On sticky summer afternoons, Hanoi's young people pack the little stools along streets near Hoàn Kiếm Lake for hoa quả dầm, a cup of diced fruit buried in crushed ice, plain yoghurt and condensed milk. The fruit follows the season, usually mango, papaya, jackfruit, dragon fruit and avocado, and the whole thing is stirred together before eating, so it turns cold, creamy, tangy and sweet at once. Serve it immediately, with a long spoon and toasted coconut on top if you like. No cooking and no egg here: condensed milk and yoghurt dress and bind the fruit, and the crushed ice chills it, so there is nothing to set. Chef's tip: dice everything to the same small size, about 1.5 cm, so each spoonful gets a mix; the common mistake is adding the ice too early, which melts and floods the cup before it reaches the table.

15 minVietnameseDessertsGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Bông bí xào tỏiGarlic stir-fried pumpkin flowers

From the Mekong Delta to the market gardens outside Hanoi, pumpkin vines are picked for their flowers and tender shoots, and bông bí xào tỏi is the everyday way to cook them: a few minutes in a hot wok with lots of garlic, served beside rice and a bowl of soup at family dinners. The flowers are soft and sweet and the shoots slightly crunchy. Some cooks add a splash of fish sauce; this version is seasoned with salt and a little soy, so it is vegan. It is a light side with about 3 g of protein per portion. The common mistake is leaving the stamens and the stringy skin on the shoots: both make the dish bitter and tough. Courgette flowers work well instead. Chef's tip: put the shoots in first and the flowers only for the last 30 seconds, so the delicate petals don't collapse into mush.

20 minVietnameseSidesVegan
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Ab doogh khiarChilled yogurt and cucumber soup

On the hottest afternoons in Tehran, Shiraz and Isfahan, ab doogh khiar is lunch: thick yoghurt thinned with iced water, packed with crunchy cucumber, walnuts, raisins and dried mint and rose petals, then filled at the table with torn pieces of dried flatbread that soften like croutons in a cold soup. It is cooling, tangy and faintly sweet, and is eaten with a spoon and plenty of fresh herbs alongside. A bowl gives about 12 g of protein from the yoghurt and walnuts, so it is a light meal rather than a high-protein one; strain the yoghurt yourself or use thick Greek-style yoghurt to push it a little higher. The common mistake is adding the bread too early: it turns to mush, so serve it on the side and let everyone add their own. Chef's tip: rub the dried mint between your palms over the bowl; the warmth releases its oils and the flavour is twice as strong.

15 minPersianSoups
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Bánh cốm (Hanoi green rice-flake cake with mung bean filling)

When the new crop of young glutinous rice comes in, in early autumn, Hanoi smells of cốm: green, flattened rice flakes from the village of Vòng. The shops on Hàng Than street press them into bánh cốm, square cakes that are still carried as betrothal gifts in their paper wrappers. The outside is soft, chewy and jade green, tasting faintly of grass and pandan; the inside is a mellow paste of mung bean and coconut. Serve them at room temperature with green or lotus tea. Bánh cốm is naturally egg-free: a hot sugar syrup and a spoonful of tapioca starch turn the rice flakes into a sticky mass that binds itself, and the mung bean paste is bound by its own starch. Use frozen or dried cốm from an Asian grocer; soak dried flakes briefly first. Chef's tip: the common mistake is cooking the cốm too hard; stop as soon as it pulls together into a sticky ball, or the cakes go rubbery when cool.

120 minVietnameseDessertsVeganGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Kem xôi (Hanoi coconut ice cream on sticky rice)

In the Old Quarter of Hanoi, kem xôi shops on Hàng Bài and around Hoàn Kiếm lake serve it from late morning to late at night through the hot season: a bed of warm, salty sticky rice, a scoop of coconut ice cream melting into it, then crisp toasted coconut and crushed peanuts. The contrast of warm and cold, chewy and creamy, is the whole point. This is a no-churn ice cream with no eggs and no custard. Sweetened condensed milk is the base: its sugar and milk solids lower the freezing point and keep crystals tiny, while whipped cream folded through traps air so it freezes soft without stirring, and coconut milk gives the flavour. Make the ice cream the day before and steam the rice just before serving. Chef's tip: whip the cream only to soft peaks; the common mistake is overwhipping it until stiff, which turns grainy and buttery once it freezes.

420 minVietnameseDessertsGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Dal adasRed lentil curry with dried lime

Along the Persian Gulf coast in Bushehr, Bandar Abbas and the towns of Hormozgan, centuries of trade with India gave rise to dal adas, a red lentil curry that is now a favourite lunch and a popular vegetarian dish in Muharram nazri cooking. The lentils cook down with onion, garlic, turmeric and warm curry spices into a thick, golden stew, sharpened with tamarind and the musky sourness of dried lime, and are eaten with rice or flatbread. A portion gives about 21 g of protein from the red lentils, with a little more from the potato. The most common mistake is leaving the dried limes in too long or uncracked: they turn the dal bitter, so pierce them and lift them out once the sourness is right. Chef's tip: fry the spices in the oil with the onions for a full minute before the lentils go in; the curry flavour depends on it.

50 minPersianCurriesVeganGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Bánh mì ốp la (Vietnamese fried eggs with baguette)

All over Saigon and Hanoi, street stalls serve bánh mì ốp la for breakfast: two or three eggs fried in a little iron pan, brought to the table sizzling, with a split baguette for scooping and a splash of dark seasoning sauce on top. The whites go lacy and crisp at the edges while the yolks stay soft, and the cucumber and chilli on the side keep it fresh. The usual mistake is frying the eggs on a fierce heat until the bottoms burn before the whites on top have set; a medium heat and a lid fix that. For pregnant people, young children, older or vulnerable people, cook the yolks until fully set. Chef's tip: warm the baguette in a hot oven for 3 minutes first so the crust shatters the way it does at the stall.

10 minVietnameseBreakfast & Brunch
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Tôm rim (caramelised prawns)

Tôm rim is a homely dish cooked in kitchens from Hanoi to the Mekong Delta and eaten at the family rice tray with boiled greens and a clear soup: prawns simmered down in fish sauce, sugar and shallot until the liquid turns to a sticky, salty-sweet glaze. The mistake is walking away in the last few minutes, when the sauce goes from glaze to burnt very quickly. Chef's tip: leave the shells on if your prawns are small, as many Vietnamese cooks do; they turn crisp and caramelised and add flavour.

20 minVietnameseFishGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Bánh patê sôPork puff pastries

Bánh patê sô (from the French pâté chaud) are what Hanoi and Saigon bakeries pull out of the oven at dawn: round, flaky puff pastries with a juicy filling of seasoned pork mince, shallot, garlic, wood ear mushroom and plenty of black pepper. People eat them warm on the way to work with a glass of iced coffee, and boxes of them go to the family at Tết. The pastry shatters, the pork inside is savoury, slightly sweet and peppery. For a vegetarian version, swap the pork for crumbled firm tofu and chopped shiitake, seasoned with soy sauce instead of fish sauce. Warm pastry is the common mistake: it won't rise into layers, so keep the circles cold until they go in. Chef's tip: shape the filling into flattened balls a little smaller than you think, leaving a clear 1.5 cm rim to seal.

80 minVietnameseSnacks & Starters
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Dopiazeh alooPotatoes fried with onion and tomato

Dopiazeh means 'two onions', and in Shiraz this potato dish lives up to the name: cubed potatoes are fried with a generous heap of golden onions, turmeric and tomato paste until the edges catch and the sauce clings to every piece. Shirazi families eat it as a side with rice and kebab or, on busy evenings, as the main dish rolled up in flatbread with yogurt or fresh herbs. The usual mistake is crowding the pan, so the potatoes steam and break up instead of browning; use your widest pan. Chef's tip: fry the tomato paste in the oil for a full minute before adding water, so it turns brick red and loses its raw edge.

30 minPersianSidesVeganGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Mì xào rau (Vietnamese stir-fried noodles with vegetables)

Mì xào rau is what Hanoi and Saigon households cook when there is a packet of egg noodles in the cupboard and a few greens in the fridge: a fast, smoky plate for a weeknight dinner or a late lunch. The noodles turn slightly crisp at the edges, the cabbage stays sweet and crunchy, and a light soy glaze holds it all together. The most common mistake is dumping everything into a lukewarm pan at once, which steams the vegetables and leaves the noodles soggy and clumped. Serve it with a dish of sliced chilli in soy sauce and a fried egg if you want more protein. Chef's tip: loosen the cooked noodles with a teaspoon of oil while they drain, so they hit the wok as separate strands instead of a block.

20 minVietnamesePasta & Noodles
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Nan-o panir-o sabziBread, white cheese and fresh herbs

Nan-o panir-o sabzi, 'bread, cheese and herbs', is laid out on Iranian tablecloths from Tabriz to Mashhad for breakfast, for a light summer supper and before dawn during Ramadan: warm flatbread, salty white cheese, a big plate of fresh herbs, walnuts and crisp radishes, all wrapped into little bites. There is no cooking beyond warming the bread, so it is ready in ten minutes. The common mistake is serving herbs that are still damp from washing, which wilt and make the bread soggy; wash them earlier and let them dry fully. Iranian white cheese (lighvan) and most feta are made with animal rennet, so choose a vegetarian feta-style cheese if needed. Chef's tip: soak the walnuts in cold water for 10 minutes; it softens their bitterness the way Iranian cooks like.

12 minPersianBreakfast & Brunch
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Bò xào cần tây (beef and celery stir-fry)

Bò xào cần tây is a weeknight stir-fry found on family tables all over Vietnam: thin slices of beef, seasoned with fish sauce and pepper, flashed in a hot wok with crunchy celery, onion and plenty of garlic, then eaten with rice. The usual mistake is cooking the beef and celery together from the start, so the beef stews while the celery softens; sear the beef first, take it out, and add it back at the end. Chef's tip: slice the beef across the grain and as thin as you can, so it is tender after only a minute in the pan.

18 minVietnameseMeat
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Bò lúc lắc (Vietnamese shaking beef)

Bò lúc lắc, shaking beef, is a Saigon dish from the French-influenced south, ordered at family dinners and celebrations: cubes of tender steak seared in a smoking pan and shaken with garlic and onion, then tipped over peppery watercress and tomato with a lime, salt and pepper dip. The mistake almost everyone makes is crowding the pan, which boils the meat grey instead of searing it; cook in two batches. Chef's tip: let the cubes sit untouched for a full minute before the first shake to build a dark crust.

25 minVietnameseMeat
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Omelet-e gojeh farangiTomato and egg omelette

In Iran the word omelet means something quite different from a folded French one: ripe tomatoes are cooked down in oil with a little onion and turmeric until jammy, then eggs are stirred through so they set in soft streaks of red and gold. It is the classic quick dinner of Tehran apartments and student dorms, eaten from the pan with lavash and a plate of herbs. The mistake that makes it watery is adding the eggs before the tomato juices have cooked away; wait until the sauce is thick and the oil sizzles again. Chef's tip: grate the tomatoes on a box grater and throw away the skins, so the base melts down in minutes.

20 minPersianBreakfast & BrunchGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Nan-e keshmeshiSaffron raisin cookies

Ask an Iranian child which Nowruz sweet they reach for first and many will say nan-e keshmeshi, the little raisin cookies with crisp golden rims and soft, chewy centres. Confectioners in Tehran make them by the thousand in the run-up to the spring new year, and they turn up again whenever there is tea and company. The dough is a simple butter-sugar-egg batter warmed with saffron and vanilla, spooned out in small dabs that spread thin in the oven. Spooning them too big or too close is the common slip: they run into each other and bake into one sheet. Chef's tip: soak the raisins in hot water for 10 minutes and dry them well first; plump raisins stay juicy instead of burning on the surface.

44 minPersianBaking
by KrazyBadal 0 views

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