Vegan Tom Kha Gai – Low FODMAP & Healing

Vegan Tom Kha Gai.

This Thai and fully vegan Tom Kha Gai (Coconut Chicken Soup) is made from whole foods, plant-based, and low FODMAP ingredients. This recipe is ultra healing and gentle on your gut.

What is Low FODMAP?

If you are familiar with my content, you’ve probably heard me talk about low FODMAP diets. Essentially, if you are suffering from digestive issues such as IBS, SIBO, or leaky gut, a low FODMAP diet can get your gut back to a healthy place. I developed IBS after eating an abundance of the same high FODMAP foods daily – beans, cashews, avocados, and chickpeas were the culprit for me.

To get my gut back to normal, I ate a diet consisting of low FODMAP foods only for about three months. I was then slowly able to reintroduce high FODMAP foods back into my diet, and make sure not to eat them in massive portions or daily. It’s difficult to find low FODMAP vegan recipes out there, so many vegans have turned back to meat and fish not thinking they had another solution.

If you relate to any of this or are on a low FODMAP diet, I HIGHLY recommend downloading the Monash University FODMAP app to find out exactly which foods you can and can’t eat. Some foods are high FODMAP in large portions, and low FODMAP in smaller portions. For example, a full banana is high FODMAP but 1/3 banana is low FODMAP.

Low FODMAP Ingredients

For this recipe, I utilized the app to create a soup that is fully vegan and low FODMAP friendly. Here are the highlight ingredients:

• Pearl Oyster & Shimeji Mushrooms. As far as I know, these are the only two mushrooms that are low FODMAP friendly and can be eaten in abundance. If you’re not on a low FODMAP diet, feel free to add as many more mushrooms as you’d like! Options include shiitake, button, bella, and so many more.

• Light Coconut Milk. Light coconut and regular coconut milk are different and can’t really be used interchangeably. You CAN use a full fat coconut milk here to make the soup creamier, but the fat content will sky rocket. If you want this soup creamier, I recommend adding in a thickener like oat or coconut flour, a more intense thickener like arrowroot flour, or mixing in raw rice and letting it soak up some of the liquid.

• Red Bell Peppers. Unlike green bell peppers, red bell peppers are low FODMAP and will not irritate your gut.
• Carrots. I used baby carrots for the sake of convenience, but you can totally peel and dice a regular size carrot. Rainbow carrots would be great here too!
• Tofu. Any tofu works in this recipe, but I went with Trader Joe’s High Protein Tofu with contains 70g of protein in just one block. If you don’t live near a TJ’s, try these high protein tofu’s:

Lemongrass

Lemongrass is such an easy way to add flavor to your soup, you just need to know how to prepare it correctly. Take these exact steps:

• Chop the majority of the stalk off. You’ll only need the bottom 2-3 inches or so. Discard the large stalk.
• Peel the tough layers off the lemongrass. This should be fairly easy. Continue until your lemongrass piece is soft.
• Use the back of a large knife to pound the lemongrass. This will help the flavors and aroma release.
• Add the lemongrass to your soup. When you’re done cooking, be sure to remove the lemongrass, don’t eat it!

{Related Recipes: If you like this recipe you’ll love my STICKY SESAME TOFU BITES and my RAINBOW MACRO BOWL.}