Last updated on August 21st, 2022 at 09:58 am
This vegan chicken noodle soup recipe is from my cookbook Great Vegan Meals for the Carnivorous Family. With a flavourful and authentic broth and shredded jackfruit this plant-based bowl of comfort is a dead ringer for traditional chicken noodle soup.
I have a Plant-Based Articles and Resources page here on the blog - if you haven't checked it out, please do - and one of the articles offers my 10-Tips for Becoming (and staying) Vegan. Tip No.7 is Be a Cup Half-Full Person.
By that I mean focus on the food you can eat rather than all the things you can't on. Writing a list of all the foods you can eat is useful when you are beginning your vegan journey, particularly if you are feeling frustrated. Making the list is useful for longer-serving vegans too. All those ingredients can only inspire your cooking.
If that fails, get nostalgic! The recipe for this vegan chicken noodle soup came about because I had a weird hankering for chicken noodle soup. Proper, as-I-remember-it-from-my-childhood, chicken noodle soup. So, I set about "plantifying" a traditional recipe. A few tweaks, additions, head scratches and POOF! Vegan Chicken Noodle Soup.
About 80% of the meals my family eats are created because I wanted, needed (hello, Best Vegan Classic Chocolate Cake) to create a vegan version of foods we enjoyed BIWV (before I went vegan). My family even prefers the vegan version sometimes - my Carnivore-Approved Vegan Pot Pie Recipe creates pies better than traditional chicken pies, hand to heart. And no-one was harmed in the making.
Kid-Tested Soup
To make this soup I first needed to decide on a chicken substitute. Jackfruit was an obvious choice but I've also made this soup for a fundraiser at my daughter's kindy using shredded oyster mushrooms. Both are perfect substitutes for chicken - check out the mushrooms in action in an awesome Mushroom & Chickpea Tikka Masala - and are cheap as chips.
The stock was a no-brainer - vegetable. However getting the rich, deep flavours of traditional chicken noodle soup required a little playing but where there is a will there is a way. Tamari, nutritional yeast and white pepper came to the party to impart body and oomph. Add traditional herbs, a little lemon zest and soup is served.
Not only does my family love this vegan chicken noodle soup, the kindy kids did too. We got cleaned out! I am not sure anyone even realised it was vegan. How cool is that!
But really, what's not to love? This soup is:
- Traditional
- Flavourful
- Super simple to make
- Inexpensive
- Authentic
- Carnivore-approved
How To Make Chicken Noodle Soup Vegan
It's all in the ingredients. To make this soup vegan we begin with a standard soup base.
- olive oil
- garlic
- yellow onion (or white or shallots - whatever you have!)
- celery
- carrot
Then we add the aromatics and flavours..
- bay leaves
- thyme
- lemon zest
- vegetable or vegan chicken stock
Finally we add the "chicken", noodles and add-ins...
- canned jackfruit
- nutritional yeast
- white pepper
- tamari or soy sauce
- dried spaghetti
- baby spinach
- sea salt
While I haven't included them in the recipe, I sometimes add a cup of cooked chickpeas or a cup of green peas for protein.
Simple and so delicious. This vegan chicken noodle soup is super authentic and comes together using ingredients most of us have in our kitchen.
Recipe Note: Canned jackfruit is easily found at your local Asian grocer.
Enjoy, x.
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Vegan Chicken Noodle Soup
Equipment
- Soup Pot
Ingredients
- 400 grams young jackfruit 14-oz can
- 2 tablespoon tamari or soy sauce
- ⅛ teaspoon white pepper
- 1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
- 1½ tablespoon olive oil
- 4 garlic cloves minced
- 1 yellow onion finely diced
- 2 celery ribs diced
- 1 carrot peeled and diced
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 sprigs of thyme
- 2 tablespoon water plus 2 cups for the broth
- zest of half a lemon
- 1 litre / 1 quart vegetable stock
- handful dried spaghetti (around 3 oz) broken up
- 1 cup finely sliced baby spinach
- a good pinch of salt
Instructions
- Drain and rinse the jackfruit and cut each piece in to thin slices from the longest point of the triangle. Put the sliced jackfruit in a bowl with the tamari, white pepper and nutritional yeast and stir to combine. Set aside.
- Add the olive oil to a large soup pot or saucepan and heat over low heat. Add the garlic, onion, celery, carrot, bay leaves and thyme and sauté for 5 minutes. Add 2 tablespoons of water and cook, covered, for around 5 minutes or until the vegetables have softened.
- Add the jackfruit and sauté for 3 minutes pulling it apart gently with a fork as you cook.
- Add the lemon zest, stock and 2 cups of water and bring the soup up to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 20 minutes.
- Add the brokent spaghetti, cooking for another 7 minutes.
- Remove the bay leaves and thyme, stir in the baby spinach and season with salt to serve.
Mia says
Seems Delicious, But what about the "Chicken Noodles"? Are you sure these chicken noodles are 100% Vegan? If yes please do let me know then I would go and give it a try.
Amanda says
Hi Mia,
Thanks for your note. If you have a look at the recipe there are no "chicken noodles'. The noodles are simply dried spaghetti (egg-free) and the "chicken" part is shredded jackfruit or oyster mushrooms if you prefer. This is a plant-based version of the classic chicken noodle soup. All vegan, I promise. 😉 I hope you enjoy it. A
Braden says
The photos in this post are stunning! Thanks for sharing Amanda!
Amanda says
Thanks so much Braden!