I love making these Vietnamese pandan waffles, and they are amazing, but also wanted a version to share with my vegan family members, and you vegans out there too!
The texture of these vegan waffles
This recipe was formulated to have an extra crispy exterior and a soft and chewy mochi-like interior. This is a vegan take on my original pandan waffle recipe. Just to clarify, these are NOT dense and bready like the boxed premade mixes you can buy at American supermarkets. It includes tapioca starch and rice flour, and still has some normal all purpose flour, but this balance yields a chewier interior. The exterior crisp rating is HIGH, like ultra satisfyingly high, but not bursting through the charts. If you are looking for some glass-shattery type of waffle, check out my crispy Belgian waffle recipe. Those waffles are so light with a crazy crispy exterior crust that they seem like they were deep fried.
How these waffles are made vegan
The only thing in my original recipe that made the recipe not vegan was eggs. Eggs are found across all types of baked goods like cookies, cakes, pancakes, and waffles because they are excellent at creating and holding structure in the food. During testing, I tested various different ingredients to substitute for eggs.
Apple sauce
Apple sauce is a big egg replacement for many vegan recipes. I used Santa Cruz brand apple sauce for a one to one ratio with the original egg amount. I didn’t like this substitution because the apple sauce smell and flavor overpowered the coconut and pandan flavors.
Flax seed
Flax seed was my next trial and it gave me a super thick batter and I had to dilute with more coconut cream. Like the apple sauce, the flax seed completely overpowered the coconut and pandan flavors–something I did not appreciate.
Aquafaba
I used aquafaba from a can of chickpeas and added the liquid straight to the batter (I did not need to whip it up or reduce it over the stove). The aquafaba surprisingly gave me a comparable flavor and texture to the traditional pandan waffles. This was a good substitution.
Just Egg
I replaced the egg in this recipe with a product I happened to find at the grocery store called “JUST Egg.” A ridiculous and confusing name to have to use in normal sentences–I’m not sure what their branding team was going for, but all I can say is it works. Just Egg is made of plant-based proteins, with mung bean being the main ingredient, with carrot and turmeric included to give it the yellow color. Note: Just Egg says that this product is technically not supposed to be for egg substitutions for baking (based on their company marketing), but it works well for this recipe because it gives the waffles structure and doesn’t change the way the waffle tastes.
Pandan leaves: the best aroma
These leaves are EVERYTHING. I’m very sensitive to smells, and tend to be really averse to chemically ones like artificial sprays, perfumes, etc. However, I absolutely love certain ones like the smell of rice cooking, yeasty breads or doughs, beer (yeasty!), coffee, and of course the pandan leaves that dominate this waffle recipe. The flavor of pandan (and coconut) is found throughout all sorts of southeast Asian cuisine and desserts, including Vietnamese, Thai, and Filipino foods. Check out more of my recipes that use pandan leaves!:
flat & crispy pandan pizellespandan waffles (not vegan)chè bắp (Vietnamese corn pudding dessert)chè ba màu (Vietnamese three color dessert)pandan sticky rice (xôi lá dứa)
Cooking tips & troubleshooting
Waffles sticking to the iron: for some reason, this vegan version is stickier and requires brushing more oil on the iron so the waffles release smoothly. I use a silicone basting brush to get the job one.Wait until the waffles are done cooking: use the indicator light on your iron before opening it. Opening the iron too early can split the waffle since it’s still stuck on both sides of the iron.Remove the waffle quickly to prevent it from deforming too much: again since this waffle is gooey even when it’s finished cooking, if you pull the waffle away too slowly it will stretch and not bounce back. Use chopsticks or waffle tongs to pull them away. If you care about reshaping it you have a few seconds to do so before they set.
Serving and storage
After cooking, each waffle only needs to cool for about half a minute before serving, which is sufficient to let it crisp up a bit too.
