Introduction: Vegetarian Vietnamese Banh Xeo + Vegetarian Fish Sauce

By
About: Hobbies include creative writing, reading, and gaming.

Learn how to make a vegetarian Vietnamese "pancake-omelet" dish and vegetarian fish sauce. This recipe comes from my mother. Listed below are the ingredients necessary to make them.

Banh Xeo Ingredients:

  • 12 oz banh xeo pancake flour mix
  • 2 cups coconut milk
  • 2 tsp turmeric flour
  • 1 cup water
  • three stalks green onions
  • bean sprouts
  • mushrooms
  • white onion
  • leafy vegetables of your choosing
  • tumeric powder
  • 5 tsp vegetarian fish sauce
  • vegetable or olive cooking oil
  • granulated chicken-flavor soup base mix (optional)

Fish Sauce Ingredients:

  • 5 Tbsp vegetarian fish sauce
  • 2 tsp sugar
  • 3 lemons or limes
  • 1 garlic clove, diced
  • 1 red chili, diced

Step 1: Prepare the Vegetables

Wash and dry all the vegetables thoroughly. Set the leafy vegetables aside to serve as a side. Slice the mushrooms, green onions, and white onion thin. For the green onion, cut the roots off and then separate the “white” and “green” colored halves. Cut the halves into small pieces. Save these ingredients for the following steps:

For Step 2 - green-colored slices of green onions.

For Step 3 - mushrooms, white onions, white-colored slices of green onions, and beansprouts.

Step 2: Blending a Batter

Blend the pancake mix with water, coconut milk, tumeric, vegetarian fish sauce, and the green-colored green onion slices together until the mixture is pale yellow. (Adding the chicken-flavored soup base mix is optional.)

Step 3: Frying and Filling

Pour two tsp of cooking oil into the pan. Heat the pan to medium-high. Place the white onion in the pan and fry it for a minute, then pour the mixture in to form a thin cake. Spin it around as needed to cover the bottom, and then add mushrooms, bean sprouts, and white-colored green onions on one half of the pan. Continue to heat the pan for one minute and a half, and then lower to medium heat. Cover with a pan lid. Continue to heat for at least two minutes.

Step 4: Transfer to Plate

Continue to heat until it turns crispy. Watch for the pancake to turn a golden-yellowish brown color. Once crisp, fold the cake over the vegetable and then transfer it to a plate.

Step 5: Squeezing

For the vegetarian fish sauce, begin by cutting the lemons or limes in halves. Squeeze their juices into a bowl or container.

Step 6: Mixing

Mix vegetarian fish sauce, sugar, lemon / lime juice, diced garlic cloves, and diced red chilis together in a bowl. Feel free to increase size of ingredients for more servings. Serve as a dipping sauce with the banh xeo and leafy vegetables.