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
- Sweet & Spicy Asian Cucumber Salad
- 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.
Print📖 Recipe
Vegan Dan Dan Noodles
- Total Time: 35 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
Description
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!
Ingredients
- 3 tbsp toasted (or regular) sesame oil
- 1 tbsp finely minced garlic
- 1 tbsp finely minced or grated ginger
- 14 oz. extra firm tofu
- 1 ½ cups shiitake or button mushrooms, finely minced
- ½ cup scallions, minced + more for garnish
- ½ cup raw walnuts, finely chopped
- 1 ½ cups baby bok choy, sliced thinly
- 10 oz white rice noodles (wide)
Sauce:
- ¼ cup mirin
- ⅓ cup low sodium tamari or soy sauce
- 2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
- 1 tbsp coconut sugar (or brown sugar)
- 3 tbsp creamy, unsalted peanut butter
- 2 tbsp chili oil
Instructions
Sauce:
- Whisk together peanut butter and chili oil until well combined. Add in remaining sauce ingredients and whisk until smooth.
Noodles:
- Remove tofu from packaging, drain well, and pat dry. Wrap in a few pieces of paper towel (or a clean dish towel) and lay something heavy on top, like a few cookbooks. Let sit for 30-45 minutes to press out as much moisture as possible.
- Using your hands, crumble tofu into small pieces into a mixing bowl so it resembles ground meat. Add in minced mushrooms, walnuts, scallions and ¼ cup of the sauce. Stir well.
- Heat sesame oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Once heated, add garlic and ginger and cook, stirring frequently to prevent burning, for 2-3 minutes. Add tofu mixture to the pan and cook for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Let the mixture get crispy – you may have to crank up the heat a bit to achieve this. Just watch it carefully so it does not burn.
- Meanwhile, start cooking the noodles according to package directions.
- When tofu mixture is done, add in bok choy and cook for a few more minutes until wilted.
- When noodles are finished cooking, drain and then toss in remaining sauce, letting it cook for a minute or two.
- Serve noodles in bowls, top with vegan meat mixture, more sauce and thinly sliced scallions. Enjoy hot.
Notes
Ingredient substitutions in blog post.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: Chinese
Nutrition
- Serving Size:
- Calories: 589
- Sugar: 13.9 g
- Sodium: 662.5 mg
- Fat: 38.5 g
- Saturated Fat: 5.4 g
- Trans Fat: 0 g
- Carbohydrates: 43.6 g
- Fiber: 3.8 g
- Protein: 19.7 g
- Cholesterol: 0 mg
Aly says
This is, honest to god, one of the best recipes I have made. So so good. The “meat” element is to die for.
Lori says
I pressed the tofu about 90 minutes and I could not get it to crisp up at all. Even put in oven and u see broiler and it’s just mush. Not sure what I was doing wrong.
Lexi says
Hi Lori, I'm sorry you had an issue with the tofu. Do you mind me asking what kind of tofu you used? Extra firm is definitely best here.
Rachael says
Unbelievably good. I didn't have onions or many of the sauce ingredients to just used soy sauce, fresh chillies and brown sugar. Used broccoli and carrots as had no pak choi. Will be making this again. Thank you!
Brent Harrison says
Love to hear it! Thanks Rachael!
Hannah says
LOVE this recipe. Definitely takes me close to an hour to make (I'm slow at chopping I guess?) but it's worth it every time.
The tofu "meat" is amazing -- the walnuts add such a great texture to it all.
I think I'd like to make extra sauce next time or maybe add some of the rice noodles water to keep it a bit more liquidy. Things get sticky pretty quickly but it's all delicious!