This Vietnamese Vermicelli Noodle Salad with Tofu is a fresh, easy and healthy meal that comes together in under 20 minutes! A simple noodle salad with a ton of flavour thanks to the vegan vietnamese salad dressing.
I'm on a high noodle kick this summer, specifically cold noodle salads. These past couple weeks have been super humid and hot, and my body has just been craving all the fresh produce! This simple vietnamese vermicelli salad ticks off everything I look for in a delicious cold noodle salad: lots of texture, A TON of contrasting flavours and heaps of health.
Traditional Vietnamese Salad
If you ever go to any Vietnamese restaurant and order a vietnamese vermicelli salad or vermicelli noodle bowl, you will typically find the following: rice noodles, fried spring rolls, grilled proteins, cucumbers, carrots, lettuce, mung bean sprouts, cilantro, mint and lime.
What makes this salad even more epic is the vietnamese noodle salad dressing, which usually contains fish sauce. To make it vegan friendly, we're going to be using vegan fish sauce but it can also be made without the fish sauce by using light soy sauce. However, please note that the flavour is slightly different so I do highly recommend hunting down some vegan fish sauce or making your own.
How to make Vietnamese Vermicelli Noodle Salad with Tofu
This salad starts with the base of the salad: vermicelli rice noodles. You can get the super thin kind or ones with a bit more body (they are slightly thinner than pad thai noodles). This can easily be found in any asian grocery store. Make sure you find vermicelli made with rice noodles and NOT other starches! Soaking the rice noodles for around 15 minutes helps speed up the cooking time and while you're waiting you can prep the dressing, vegetables and tofu. Whisk together the dressing, chop up all the vegetables, cube the tofu. Then finish cooking the noodles in a pan for 1-2 minutes. Since this rice noodle salad can be enjoyed cold or at room temperature, once the noodles are drained you can either transfer it to a large mixing bowl as is or rinse it under cold water. Then add in all the other prepped ingredients and there you have it! A simple Vietnamese Vermicelli Noodle Salad with Tofu that took like less than 20 minutes to make!
If you liked my Vegan Bun Chay recipe, you'll LOVE this Vegan Vietnamese Vermicelli Noodle Salad with Tofu! I promise you, it's as good as it looks and sounds!
More healthy noodles to love!
- Pad Thai Zucchini Noodles with Jackfruit
- Vegan Bun Chay
- Vegan Japchae
- Thai Drunken Noodles
- Sesame Miso Noodle Salad
- Vegan Yakisoba
If you recreate this Vietnamese Vermicelli Noodles with Tofu recipe let me know how you liked it by leaving a comment and rating below or by tagging me on Instagram @Okonomikitchen, I love seeing all of your tasty recreations!
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PrintVietnamese Vermicelli Noodle Salad with Tofu
This Vietnamese Vermicelli Noodle Salad with Tofu is a fresh, easy and healthy meal that comes together in under 20 minutes! A simple noodle salad with a ton of flavour thanks to the vegan vietnamese salad dressing.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 2 minutes
- Total Time: 17 minutes
- Yield: 2-3 servings 1x
- Category: Entree
- Method: Stove top
- Cuisine: Vietnamese
Ingredients
Dressing:
- 3 tbsp rice vinegar
- ¼ cup lime juice
- ¼ cup vegan fish sauce*
- 2 tbsp coconut sugar
- 2 garlic cloves, finely minced
- 1 red chilli, deseeded and sliced
Bowls:
- ½ package vermicelli rice noodles (200g)
- 1 block smoked tofu (250g)
- 1 large carrot, julienned (160g)
- 2 cucumbers, julienned (160g)
- 8 lettuce leaves (120g)
- ½ cup cilantro (20g)
- ½ cup mint leaves (18g)
- ¼ cup chopped roasted peanuts (36g)
- lime wedges to serve
Instructions
- Soak: the rice noodles in a large bowl of water for 15 minutes or until softened.
- Dressing: add all the ingredients into a small bowl and combine.
- Tofu: Cube the tofu into ½ inch pieces.
- Vegetables & Herbs: Julienne the carrots and cucumbers. Shred the lettuce. Roughly chop the herbs.
- Noodles: Over medium heat, add in the noodles with a bit of the soaking water to finish cooking. Drain and rinse with cold water. Transfer to a large mixing bowl.
- Assemble: Add the vegetables, herbs, tofu, peanuts and dressing into the bowl with the vermicelli noodles. Toss until everything is evenly distributed.
Notes
- Sub even fish sauce for light soy sauce
- For a warm noodle salad, do not rinse the rice noodles in cold water. Instead of cooking the noodles in the soaking water, cook with some of the dressing and then transfer to a large mixing bowl.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: ⅓ of recipe
- Calories: 538
- Sugar: 13.6g
- Sodium: 2301mg
- Fat: 14.5g
- Saturated Fat: 2.4g
- Unsaturated Fat: 5.3
- Trans Fat: 0
- Carbohydrates: 77.5g
- Fiber: 6g
- Protein: 24g
- Cholesterol: 0
Keywords: vegan vietnamese vermicelli rice noodle salad
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Jasmine Hui says
This was suuuuper refreshing and seriously the SAUCE really makes the dish perf. Been trying to find a vegan substitute to fish sauce so I used the substitute suggestion of soy sauce. It tastes perf!
★★★★★
Kerry Starkey says
I was looking for a vegetarian and gluten free Vietnamese salad recipe for a bbq with friends. After searching for recipes I chose this one. The prep took me longer than the recipe said but the final dish was worth it - bursting with flavour, fresh and delicious. It was a hit with everyone. It makes a large quantity, so much so that we had leftovers. Thank you for such a delicious dish.
★★★★★
Archana says
Hello, where do you get your vegan fish sauce from? Which brand do you use? Thank you!
★★★★★