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With Lunar New Year around the corner and the Year of the Horse about to begin, many home cooks are thinking about dishes that feel celebratory without turning dinner into a full-day project. In a recent video, Wil Yeung, the creator behind Yeung Man Cooking, shares three approachable vegan Lunar New Year dishes that keep tradition in mind while making room for plant-based flexibility.
Yeung is a self-taught chef, filmmaker, and cookbook author whose work blends classic Asian flavors with modern plant-based cooking. Across his channel and books, he focuses on building confidence in the kitchen, breaking dishes down step by step, and showing how simple techniques can deliver restaurant-style results. That mindset runs through this Lunar New Year menu, which centers on vegetables, tofu, and pantry staples, nothing overly complicated or intimidating. For anyone planning a festive spread, these vegan Lunar New Year dishes are designed to feel special without being stressful.
Read more: How To Make These Stuffed Chinese Eggplants
Buddha’s Delight (lo han jai)
Yeung opens with Buddha’s Delight, a traditional Buddhist vegetable dish often served during the Lunar New Year because it’s meat-free and symbolically associated with cleansing and good fortune. While the ingredient list looks long at first glance, Yeung reassures viewers that “the cooking process is actually very, very simple.”
The dish starts with rehydrated dried shiitake mushrooms and wood ear mushrooms. Bean curd sticks bring added depth and texture. Fresh vegetables follow: broccolini, carrots, red bell pepper, napa cabbage, water chestnuts, tofu puffs, and corn. These ingredients create layers of crunch and softness. A glossy sauce made from mushroom soaking liquid, soy sauce, and dark soy sauce brings the flavors together. Potato starch is added to thicken the sauce and give it a smooth texture.
Yeung makes one intentional departure from tradition by adding chickpeas. He flags it, saying, “Chickpeas are not traditional in Buddha’s Delight, but I really like them, and they add just a little bit of meatiness to the dish.” The result is a vegetable-forward centerpiece that feels generous and celebratory, not austere. When it’s finished, he tells viewers they can “make this delightful dish with absolute confidence.”
Chili oil dumplings with tofu crumble
Next up are dumplings, an undeniable Lunar New Year staple. Yeung builds his filling around extra-firm tofu, mashed into a crumble. He then sautés it with garlic, ginger, and green onions until fragrant. Soy sauce and dark soy sauce deepen the flavor, while chopped water chestnuts add texture. He stresses patience here, noting, “It’s crucial that you wait for the mixture to cool completely before wrapping them in the dumpling wrappers.”
Store-bought wrappers keep things accessible, and Yeung walks through tips for filling, folding, and freezing, emphasizing that perfection isn’t the goal. Recalling a visit to Hong Kong, he laughs that the dumpling pros could pleat “eight or ten dumplings at a time that I could do one.” He reassures home cooks not to stress if theirs look homemade.
The dumplings are finished with his smoky chili oil sauce made with chili oil, soy sauce, and black rice vinegar, which he calls “the best part.” Once plated and spooned with sauce, Yeung says you can “enjoy these chili oil dumplings with absolute confidence.” This recipe is ideal for sharing with family or freezing ahead for New Year gatherings.
Chow fun–style stir-fried noodles
The final dish is a plant-based take on the traditionally meaty chow fun. It features wide rice noodles, sliced tofu, king oyster mushrooms, broccolini, bean sprouts, and green onions. Yeung partially cooks the noodles first. He then finishes them in the pan with a sauce made from soy sauce, dark soy sauce, hoisin, rice vinegar, and potato starch.
That starch is key. During the tasting, Yeung explains that the sauce looks loose at first. He adds, “because you add that potato starch, it glazes those noodles,” creating a deep caramel color and sheen. Everything is sautéed in chili oil, adding a subtle smoky heat that carries through the dish.
As he digs in, Yeung calls the noodles “mind-blowing.” He describes how the tofu absorbs flavor, the mushrooms bring chew, and the vegetables add contrast. To sum it up simply, he says, “[These are] simple, humble ingredients [that] can literally turn your kitchen into a restaurant.” It’s the kind of main dish that anchors a Lunar New Year table while staying firmly in weeknight-friendly territory.
Taken together, these three dishes offer a clear template for anyone planning a plant-based celebration. They honor tradition, lean into texture and umami, and stay true to Yeung’s core message: good food doesn’t have to be complicated to feel meaningful. For cooks looking to ring in the Year of the Horse with vegan Lunar New Year dishes that actually feel doable, this menu hits the mark.
For more plant-based global recipes, check out Wil Yeung’s YouTube channel.
Read more: Mushroom Chow Fun
