Thailand: the land of curries, pad thai and mango sticky rice. Thailand is an easy country to eat healthy and delicious vegan dishes. In this article from vegan in Thailand, we talk about the tastiest vegan dishes, the best vegan restaurants in Thailand and tricks to make sure a dish is vegan. Off to vegan Thailand!
Content of this blog:
The best vegan restaurants in Thailand
There are many vegan (friendly) restaurants to be found in Thailand. Below we list our favorites by destination!
Bangkok
- Vistro-Vegan Cafe & Restaurant – classy restaurant in Sukhumvit
- Ethos Vegetarian and Vegan Bangkok – delicious vegan dishes
- Govinda – always a wide range of vegan semi fast foods
- Mango Vegetarian and Vegan – wide range of different cuisines
Ao Nang
- Tasty Cafe – lots of vegan smoothie bowls etc.
- Ali Baba – delicious Indian food
- Cafe 8.98 Ao Nang – assemble your own healthy vegan bowls
Koh Lanta
- Sweetsoul – the entire menu is vegetarian and 90% vegan. Many Asian choices with tofu and tempeh
- Dox – the Vietnamese banh mi with jackfruit is extremely delicious but also the pita falafel is very good
- Le Colibri – extremely large pizzas. You can ask for a pizza marinara (without cheese). Very tasty.
- Hidden tree – very good tofu dishes, also the smoothie bowls are delicious and well filled
Koh Chang
- Pizzeria Spaghetteria Toscana Koh Chang – amazing pizzas. The marinara pizza without cheese is great
- Poke bowl Koh Chang – good vegan poké bowls with lots of vegetables and tofu/tempeh
Koh Phangan
- Pure Vegan Heaven – Asian and Western vegan dishes. Very good quality
- Eat.Co – fresh fruit juices, dishes with fruits and vegetables. Healthy and delicious
- Karma Kafe – both Asian and Western vegan dishes. Very tasteful and cozy
Vegan Thai Curries
We start right off with Thailand’s most delicious dishes, curries. There are different types of Thai curries. The most common are:
- Red curry
- Massaman curry
- Green curry
- Yellow curry
- Tom Yam curry
Most Thai curry pastes are based on fresh herbs and vegetables. Sometimes shrimp paste or oyster sauce is added to curries. It is always smart to check with the restaurant. The best way you can check is to type it into the Google Translate app and have it translated into Thai. That way you can be sure the cook understands you.
The filling of the curry is always with fresh vegetables. You can often get tofu instead of meat/fish. Also, don’t forget to specify if you don’t like spicy. If you don’t say anything, the curry will often become very spicy. We ourselves always specify that we like “light” spicy, then it’s good to go!
Sweet and sour & coconut soup
In addition to the above curries, you will also see “sweet and sour” on the menu in many places. This is often very easy to make vegan and very flavorful. The sauce is made from a sweet and sour chili sauce combined with a little water. Other ingredients include fresh vegetables and pineapple. Sometimes tofu is also available. A very tasty vegan Thai dish as a change.
Furthermore, the dish coconut soup is also on the menu almost everywhere. This is a soup made from coconut milk with a strong flavor. The soup contains various fresh vegetables and different kinds of mushrooms. It has a special taste which you don’t often taste in Thailand. It’s worth a try! Coconut soup is almost always completely vegan. Very occasionally the curry paste may be made with shrimp paste, check in advance via Google Translate.
Vegan Pad Thai
Pad Thai is another famous Thai dish. These are dry-fried rice noodles with soy sauce, bean sprouts, spring onion and tofu. The original pad thai always has egg in it and often chicken. The pad thai is always made fresh so you can easily specify that you don’t want egg in it. Pad thai is a tasty dish that is prepared differently in every place. In addition, it is also easy to make vegan. You will taste many different types of pad thai during your trip in Thailand.
Mango sticky rice
The world-famous dessert mango sticky rice. If you like sweet, this is a good choice anyway. The sticky rice is cooked in coconut milk giving it a full flavor. Coconut milk is a plant-based milk. It is then topped with a mixture of coconut milk and sugar and served with fresh mango. Mango sticky rice has actually always been vegan. Very occasionally condensed cow’s milk is used. Check this beforehand by using Google Translate to indicate that you do not eat animal products.
Other Thai vegan dishes
In addition to these classic Thai dishes, of course, you can get many other dishes in Thailand. Yet we have found that other vegan Thai dishes are a lot less flavorful. In fact, tofu is not everywhere in Thailand (many places do haved it), but sometimes you get a plate of cooked vegetables with rice and a little soy sauce. We ourselves love all the different Thai curries so we have alternated a lot with this.
Vegan in the Thai supermarket
The 7/11 is the supermarket of choice in Thailand. Literally on every street corner you will come across a 7/11. Unfortunately, the 7/11 is not a vegan friendly supermarket. Almost all snacks you can buy ready-made contain animal products. One product is a favorite of ours from the 7/11, though, and that is a protein drink from Tofusan. This serving contains 26 grams of protein and usually costs around 45 baht (€1.25). It’s an easy drink as a snack to supplement your protein a bit. In fact, if you are in a place in Thailand where there is no tofu, it can sometimes be difficult to get enough protein in a day in Thailand.
Vegan cooking course in Bangkok
Do you enjoy learning how to make the delicious curries, pad thai, spring rolls and mango sticky rice yourself? Then take this fun cooking course in Bangkok. In advance you specify that you want to make it completely vegan and then the owner makes sure every ingredient is gathered. It is a super fun cooking course where you will learn to make 8(!!!) dishes. Read all information about the cooking course in Bangkok and contact details here.
