Vegan Thai Kanom (Thai Desserts)

A top favourite snack amongst Thais and foreigners alike, the best time of year to enjoy mango sticky rice is April through June, when the fruits are at their sweetest and juiciest. This rice portion is made by steaming glutinous rice and then finishing its cooking in sweetened coconut milk.

The stinky cousin to mango sticky rice, durian sticky rice is the king of sticky rice desserts.

Also cooked in sweetened coconut milk, this is a more fun and colourful partner to mango (or durian) in the country’s famous dessert dish. When coloured naturally, turmeric, butterfly pea, pandan, and black sticky rice, impart shades of yellow, blue, green, and purple, respectively, to the rice. You might also see a dish with 5 colours of sticky rice served with a set of sweet and savoury toppings that are not vegan.

Also made by cooking par-steamed glutinous rice with sweet coconut milk, this sticky rice sweet also contains green pandan water (extracted from the leaves of the pandan plant, called bai toei in Thai).

Caramelised palm sugar mixed with sticky rice and topped with toasted sesame seeds.

Also made by cooking par-steamed glutinous rice with sweet coconut milk, this sticky rice sweet also contains green pandan water (extracted from the leaves of the pandan plant, called bai toei in Thai).

Typically this has black beans and banana, but in practice khao tom mat (Khao Dtommat) is any banana leaf steamed parcel with coconut sticky rice inside.

Popular fillings include banana, black, bean, and taro.

The perfect snack for a long bus or train journey, these tubes of sticky rice are made by mixing glutinous rice with coconut, sugar, and salt, and roasted over flame. Beans, taro, and other ingredients are often also mixed in. The gooey bits at the ends are everyone’s favourite.

Khao mao, or pounded young green rice, can be made from jasmine or glutinous rice. Available for only a few weeks a year, these bright green grains have a slightly yeasty and breadlike aroma. Khao mao kluk is made by mixing the young rice with freshly grated coconut and toasted sesame seeds.

A Lanna (Northern) khanom made by pounding sticky rice until it is like fluffy mochi, then coating it with sesame (and perilla seed, I think).

Taro root cut into chips, fried, and then cooked a second time in a sugar syrup so that it forms a white snowy effect on the surface of the root vegetable. The taro is fried here with pandan leaf for fragrance.

The dough is made from rice and sticky rice flours and the filling is a paste made with mung beans. Much like with the snow taro above, the sugary coating is achieved by cooking the fried doughnuts in sugar syrup until crystalised.

Despite its non-vegan name, this kanom is made from a mixture of flours and starches that could include rice and/or sticky rice flours, tapioca starch, cornstarch, and wheat flour. This is mixed with ingredients like beans, pumpkin, and sweet potato before being deep fried. These are served with a tamarind dipping sauce.

Popular and with good reason, you will find these fried rice cakes with cane sugar drizzle in various forms throughout the country.

Young green rice wrapped around banana and deep fried. Any time you can eat khao mao in any form, I recommend you do.

Typically white or green (pandan), these deep fried pancakes puff up in the middle and the sugars caramelise around the edges. I have seen some recipes with egg, but have not found this in practice.

Similar to German rosette cookies, a metal flower shaped mould is dipped in hot oil and then a slightly sweet and salty sesame batter. When the mould is placed back in the hot oil the cookies shake off and fry up. Then they are removed from the oil and placed on a round surface to make them look like blooming flowers.

Bananas dipped in a batter made with rice flour and slaked lime solution and fried, these goodies stay crispy for hours. The odd vendor may untraditionally use egg, so best to ask.

Usually not vegan, you can find packets like this sold during the annual vegetarian festival. Thin rice noodles are deep fried and then mixed in a sweet and sour sauce. It lasts for a little while and makes a great gift to bring back home.

Popular in many Asian countries and called jian dui in Chinese, these glutinous rice flour balls are filled with a paste (common fillings are mung bean, red bean, and black sesame among others), rolled in sesame seeds, and fried.

Made with both yellow and purple sweet potatoes, these moreish balls are commonly available street snacks made by making a dough of cooked sweet potato and tapioca starch before deep frying. Want to try it? Here’s a recipe.

This Tai Yai (Shan Thai) sweet is made of sticky rice flour rings dipped in sesame seeds, fried slowly on low heat, and then simmered in a sugar cane syrup. Mae Hong Son is a good place to find them.

An ideal accompaniment to congee, pa thong ko is a type of deep fried dough fragrant with ammonia. This may not sound appetising but it is a welcome flavour. The crullers are also eaten with custard, either plain or pandan (not vegan unless indicated otherwise) and with fresh soy milk at breakfast time. Khanom see kha (four legs) is a version local to Phuket that is coated with sugar before frying.

Typically associated with the Autumn Buddhist festival Saat, these bars are made with popped rice (not dissimilar to popcorn), sesame, peanuts, sugar (in this case cane sugar), and coconut milk. Think of them like a Thai granola bar of sorts.

Fried disks made with glutinous rice flour that are then cut up and rolled in a sesame, peanut, and sugar coating.

Many of the sweets I mention below in this section will be found at a nam kaeng sai business. Vendors have a dozen or more (sometimes many more) toppings to be served with ice, coconut milk, and syrup. Most items are vegan.

Found frequently at nam kaeng sai (iced sweet stalls) vendors, this is made from simmering cassava in sugar syrup. Here I am eating it with lod chong. You can try making candied cassava with my recipe. You can also find other fruits and vegetables cooked this way, like pumpkin and pineapple.

There are many types of banana in Thailand. I believe these are gluay (also kluay) kai, or egg bananas, named for their small size. They are simmered in coconut syrup and served with salted coconut cream. You may also see red bananas in syrup, their colour obtained by from a chemical reaction with hydrolysed lime they are soaking in before cooking.

Diced water chestnuts are soaked in red dye or syrup, coated with tapioca starch, and boiled to resemble large pomegranate seeds. This is then served with ice, coconut milk, and sugar syrup. The liquid make have been smoked with a beeswax candle or made with jasmine syrup. Young coconut and plain water chestnuts frequently accompany this dessert, which can also be found at nam kaeng sai stalls.

Dessert noodles made with mung bean starch, served with coconut milk,, sugar syrup, and ice. Also part of the nam kaeng sai mix.

These glutinous rice triangles are made by wrapping and boiling sticky rice in pandanus leaf, hence they are fragrant with grassy, nutty pandan.

Snake fruit in salted sugar syrup.

Pieces of taro are coated in tapioca starch and boiled. This achieves an effect similar to the tab tim grop above, only soft and not crunchy. My favourite place for this is at Gateway Ekkamai shopping centre in Bangkok, from the sweets stall in the food court.

Sticky rice balls mashed with vegetables like taro and sweet potato, rolled into balls, simmered, and served with warm coconut milk sweetened with palm sugar. This may include a poached egg, so ask. Try my recipe for bua loi if you’d like.

Yes, the name of this dish translates to plaa grim (a type of fish) and turtle eggs. There are two halves to this dessert, a sweet palm sugar syrup and salty coconut cream. This dish illustrates perfectly how salt and sugar complement each other.

The Thai version of what is called Cendol in Singapore and Malaysia, lod chong is a dessert of short pandan noodles in palm sugar sweetened coconut milk. My favourite lod chong in all Bangkok is dished up by a small stall in Chatuchak market and here is a map link. Here you have an option to have it with black sticky rice, which I recommend.

Pumpkin cooked in sugar (usually palm) sweetened coconut milk.

Sago pearls with pandan, served with salted coconut milk. Sometimes the sago is very firm and cut into squares, or served soupier as in the Chinese style.

Fresh coconut caramelised with palm sugar inside of glutinous rice dumplings. You might also find kanom ko, which is the same dessert but the balls are rolled in freshly grated coconut instead of being served in coconut milk.

Tapioca and rice dumplings affected with a grated paddle to create an almost gnocchi like appearance, krong krang are also served in fresh coconut milk.

Also called khanom rung rai (ขนมรังไร), these rice flour noodles are made with a special wooden press for making this particular dessert. The noodle bundles are served with shredded coconut, sugar and toasted sesame seeds, and fresh salted coconut cream.

Kanom tuai can be made with different flavours (e.g. pandan). The white sweet here is with coconut milk (kanom tuai gati ขนมถ้วยกะทิ). The yellow sweet is khanom fak tong, which is made with pumpkin.

Steamed banana pudding cups. There is a recipe for kanom kluay here.

Made from the fruit of the same palm that produces palm sugar. The batter was traditionally left to ferment slightly to let natural yeasts develop so it would rise naturally, but nowadays many people use leavening agents to speed up the process. Either way they taste good.

The custard in question here is pandan flavoured. This was bought in Phuket during the vegetarian festival, so was vegan. This custard would often contain animal products otherwise, so ask if in doubt.

Also known as khanom sot sai (ขนมสอดไส้). Caramelised balls of palm sugar shredded coconut inside of sticky rice dough inside of salted coconut cream.

Yes, the literal translation of kee noo is mouse droppings. Steamed jasmine infused sweet rice flour crumbles served with fresh coconut.

Beautiful and fun to eat, kanom chan is made by steaming individual layers of batter made with various starches (depending on desired consistency).

This is a speciality of Phuket. Steamed rice flour treats made with brown sugar, then topped with salted coconut.

Steamed rice flour treats made with jasmine scented water.

Made in the same way as the kanom dok mai above, this is more savoury than sweet. This isn’t uncommon with kanom, which is more an indication of a snack than a sweet. Giam goi are steamed rice flour cakes with various toppings. Often they are not vegan, so look out for these at vegan businesses and during the vegetarian festival. The toppings here are fried shallots with a sweet, sour, salty, and spicy sauce.

Also called fa gao (Chinese), these colourful steamed cupcakes often contain animal ingredients. Again, look for them at vegan establishments or during the vegetarian festival.

Made by steaming grated cassava (tapioca) with coconut milk, flour, and sugar. They can be steamed in cups or trays (and then cut into squares, seen here). After they are coated in coconut.

The yellow dot in the middle is a sweet-savoury mashed mung bean mixture (that could include meat) with coriander root, white pepper, salt, and sugar. Surrounding this is a mixture made from sticky rice flour, sugar, and water.

Palm sugar caramelised coconut wrapped in sticky rice dough, boiled, and rolled in salted coconut.

Rice flour dumplings rolled in freshly grated coconut, served with sesame seeds, sugar, and salted coconut milk.

Dough made with sticky rice is flattened into a disk, boiled, and then rolled in/stuffed with a coconut and mung bean mixture. This is served with sugar and sesame seeds on top.

Hello, I am the first person in the room to call bullshit on charcoal, but these are delicious. The alkalinity of hydrolysed lime imparts an eggy flavour and the coconut husk charcoal is used for the black version gives a pleasant gritty texture. The green is made with pandan.

Also called fa gao (Chinese) and Tee Nya Kuih (Malay), this sweet is yellow from the addition of alkaline water, which also imparts an eggy flavour. It is served with a dark palm sugar syrup.

This favourite can come in many forms, with the most well known perhaps being tapioca with corn. Taro (pictured), sweet potato, pumpkin, and other ingredients can also feature. Ta ko are topped with rich coconut cream.

Sticky rice flour, palm sugar, and coconut milk are stirred together until cooked down into a taffy like consistency.

Made with mung beans instead of almonds, these sweets are shaped into fruits and vegetables much like marzipan. Formerly enjoyed only by the royal family, luk chup is now available on the streets. It can be made with agar or gelatin.

Think of lemon basil seeds as the chia of Thailand. They don’t impart any flavour, but the texture is nice.

While this is typically made with agar, I have seen some recipes using gelatin, so double check ingredients on this should you find some.

This kanom is made with wheat flour, coconut milk, sugar, and food colouring. The mix is cooked until thicken and then piped into shapes. Finally these are left to sun dry for a few days to obtain a crispy outer shell.

Shredded coconut is stirred in coconu sugar until crystalised slightly. Then it’l shaped and left to dry.

Khanom baa bin is often sold in this round shape, but this coconut sweet also comes in other forms. Sometimes it is made by baking, or a combination of stovetop and baking methods. You can try my recipe for individual caramelised kanom baa bin pieces here. The variation that is square and baked may or may not contain eggs.

Banana and cassava are slow grilled and then served with a warm coconut syrup. These are easily found in Bangkok’s Chinatown. The syrup may or may not contain butter, so check first.

Shredded coconut, sticky rice flour, and palm sugar are wrapped in nipa palm leaves and grilled. The leaf, in combination with cooking process, imparts a smoky pine-like aroma.

Roti in Thailand are typically not vegan because of use of butter or ghee, and the addition of condensed milk. During the vegetarian festival, however, you might be lucky enough to find someone making a vegan version. You can also find this brand of dairy free condensed milk at 7-11 during the festival.

While the roti above was thin, large, and rolled, these are Pakistani roti found in Hat Yai during the vegetarian festival. I had mine drenched in vegan condensed milk.

These disks are made with palm sugar, coconut, flour, and sesame seed. They are cooked and dried, and then grilled until crispy.

Various fillings such as black bead, red bean, taro, and more are wrapped in a dough that is moulded in a ring and fried. Also called kanom pia tod (ขนมเปี๊ยะทอด). Ask if the dough contains egg.

Pancakes with custard filling that may or may not be vegan. During the vegetarian festival you are more likely to find a vegan version. Sausages or pork may also be inside.

Steamed cassava, coconut cream, and sugar are mashed together, formed into balls, and grilled over a low heat. These contain corn too.

Luk tao means dice, a description based on the cubed shape of this kanom. There are many fillings (e.g. mug bean, sweet potato, etc…), but black sesame is my favourite. The dough may contain egg so ask.

Thick rice flour and coconut milk pancakes folded with various fillings like fresh coconut and sugar, corn, and more. Custard fillings are typically not vegan unless specified during the vegetarian festival. The batter may also contain egg outside of this scenario.

The famous Thai pancakes everyone goes mad for in Thailand, these are made with rice flour, jasmine rice, and coconut milk. Toppings range from sweetcorn to spring onion, with many items in between (gingko, taro, sweet potato, and more)

Based on an ancient dessert, khanom beuang are typically non-vegan. Egg is often used in the batter and the filling often contains egg based ingredients like meringue. During Teetsagon Kin Jay, however, you might be lucky enough to find vendors making vegan versions with coconut fillings.t

Especially famous in Ayutthaya, this hand pulled candy floss (not spun, as many references state) is wrapped in a thin roti and eaten like a burrito.

Chao kuai is made with the Chinese mesona plant, which is left to oxidise in the sun. The dried plants are then boiled with an alkaline liquid and mixed with a starch to solidify into a jelly. In Thailand chao kuai is often served with brown sugar, but can be found at nam kaeng sai (iced dessert soup) stalls as well.

Tup tap is the onomatopoeic word signifying the sound made while making this khanom. Warm peanut taffy is pounded with wooden mallets before it is flattened, sprinkled with more peanuts, and rolled. The tubes are then cut and sold.

This Chinese peanut filled sweet is wrapped in hand pulled cotton candy made with maltose syrup and sugar. Sometimes vendors will say it’s honey. I don’t know if it’s literally honey or not, so best to ask.

Another snack with a custard filling that is often not vegan, soft white bread smeared with sweet stuff is a favourite snack in Thailand. Look for them during the vegetarian festival for vegan versions.

Worthy of its own mention are kanom pang you can purchase at convenience stores like 7-11 and Family Mart during Teetsagan Kin Jay. These are filled with coconut taro and coconut pandan custards.

Sweet and tart candied tamarind fruit.

As simple as it sounds, this mixture of coconut and corn (with a bit of salt and sugar) is sometimes all a person needs to refuel on a warm morning stroll.

Your standard candy floss, but with some tropical twists. For instance, banana, lychee, coconut…

These apple sized mini pineapples are like pineapples amplified. Very sweet and acidic.

While not a specific dessert on its own, it isn’t unusual to dip fruits in various seasonings. The standard is prik gap glua, which is made from sugar, salt, and fresh chilies. Others include shrimp and fish sauce.