Vegan Thai Fish Cakes

If you’ve ever had fish cakes, you ought to try these flavourful thai ‘fish’ patties that are incredibly addictive – paired with spicy sriracha and lime.

These Vegan Thai Fish Cakes (Tod Mun Pla) are surprisingly easy to make – all you need are mushrooms, sweet potatoes, nori sheets, breadcrumbs and spices.

These fish cakes are one of my favourite appetizers in thai cuisine and I thought it was time to veganize it!

I found that lion’s mane mushrooms worked really well in this dish because of their firmness and flaky texture. Thai Fish Cakes are much firmer and has a ‘spongey’ like texture compared to regular fish cakes or fritters.

What You Need to Make This

• lion’s mane mushrooms – I used a dehydrated version as I couldn’t find a fresh one. Here are the steps to rehydrate them successfully to ensure perfect texture.

1. Rinse your mushroom heads thoroughly.
2. Soak in warm or hot water for about 5 hours or overnight. You can speed up the process by boiling the mushrooms for 10 minutes and soaking them for about 30 minutes to 1 hour.
3. Squeeze out the extra water from the mushrooms and drain them.
4. Fill the bowl with fresh water and squeeze the mushrooms until the water changes colour to a dark or light brown.
5. Squeeze out the extra water from the mushrooms and drain them.
6. Repeat this process until the water runs clear. Squeeze the mushrooms as much as possible and dry them with a towel. They are now ready to use!

• sweet potato – you could use regular potato as well but I use sweet potato to get an orange hue for the patties.
• nori sheets – for that fishy flavour
• thai red curry paste – you can use store bought but I used fresh spices for a stronger flavour.
• breadcrumbs – helps to bind the mixtures
• extra spices!