January 14, 2026
The Best Vegan Menudo
This is the BEST vegan Menudo! A comforting plant-based take on a classic favorite – made with snow mushrooms for an authentic tripe-like texture!
Table of Contents
what is menudo? why you’ll love this recipe step-by-step instructions tips and faqsVegan Menudo (with Snow Mushrooms)
This Vegan Menudo recipe has been part of my kitchen and my blog since 2017! At the time, we were newly vegan and experimenting with ingredients we had never cooked with before. When my wife came across a video about the benefits of snow mushrooms, she immediately noticed how much they resembled tripe. A few days later, she tested them in a vegan version of menudo, and it worked beautifully and the rest is history!
Back then, vegan menudo made with snow mushrooms was unheard of. What started as curiosity turned into a recipe that has stood the test of time. This version keeps all the deep, comforting flavors of traditional menudo while using thoughtfully chosen plant-based ingredients that honor both texture and tradition.
A Brief History of Menudo:
Menudo is a traditional Mexican soup most commonly made with beef tripe and hominy, simmered in a red chile broth. Its origins date back centuries and are deeply rooted in working-class cooking, where tougher cuts of meat were transformed into nourishing, communal meals.
Beyond Mexico, many historians point to African culinary influences introduced during the colonial era, many specifically theorizing that its roots can be traced to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It’s said that enslaved Africans from this region brought the practice of simmering cow stomach – a protein source they were often limited to – into a stew named after the town. In many parts of Latin America, the dish is still called mondongo.
Another perspective suggests menudo is a variation of the Spanish tripe dish callos, which was introduced to the Americas by Spanish and Portuguese colonizers.
In the Philippines, Filipino menudo is a beloved dish that looks very different from the Mexican soup. Instead of tripe and hominy, Filipino menudo is typically a tomato-based stew made with meat, potatoes, carrots, and sometimes bell peppers. It’s hearty, comforting, and often served at celebrations and family gatherings.
Modern menudo is definitively Mexican, traditionally made with beef tripe in a red chili base with hominy, garlic, and onions. It likely evolved during Mexico’s colonial period (16th–18th centuries) when Spanish cattle ranching introduced beef to the region.
All of the above-mentioned techniques and flavor philosophies influenced cuisines throughout the Americas, contributing to dishes like menudo as we know it today. This vegan version pays homage to those roots while reimagining the dish through a plant-based lens!
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Authentic texture, but fully plant-based: Snow mushrooms mimic the chewy, tender bite of tripe incredibly well.
- Deep, chile-forward flavor: Guajillo, California, and pasilla chiles create a rich, layered broth.
- Naturally comforting: Warm, hearty, and perfect for slow weekends or special gatherings.
- Customizable garnishes: Make every bowl your own with fresh toppings!
- A tried-and-true recipe: This is a long-standing favorite that’s been enjoyed for years!
How to Make Vegan Menudo
1. Rehydrate the Mushrooms:
Cover the dried snow mushrooms with room-temperature water until fully submerged and set aside for 35 to 45 minutes to rehydrate.
Once softened, trim off and discard the woody base. Chop the mushrooms into small, bite-size pieces and set aside.
2. Prep the Base:
Add the broth, California chiles, and Chile de Arbor (if using), onion, jalapeño, to a pot over medium-high heat. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 5 to 7 minutes until the chiles are softened. Remove from heat.
Transfer everything to a blender with 1 teaspoon Mexican oregano and 1 teaspoon ground cumin. Blend until smooth. Taste and season with salt and pepper as needed. Set aside.
3. Build the Menudo:
Heat the vegetable oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add the diced onion and jalapeño and cook for 1 to 2 minutes, stirring often.
Add the garlic and cook for another 1 to 2 minutes until fragrant.
4. Simmer:
Pour in the prepared menudo base, remaining broth, hominy, and chopped snow mushrooms. Stir to combine.
Season with Mexican oregano and cumin. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for 20 to 30 minutes, until the hominy is just tender.
Add the carrots and continue simmering for 10 to 15 minutes, until carrots are crisp-tender. Taste and adjust seasoning as needed.
5. Serve and Enjoy!
Serve hot with your preferred garnishes and toppings, and enjoy!
Tips and FAQs
- Don’t rush rehydrating : Fully softened snow mushrooms give the best texture.
- Blend the base until very smooth: This creates a rich, smooth broth!
- Let it rest: Like traditional menudo, the flavor improves after sitting.
- Great for leftovers: The soup thickens and deepens in flavor overnight.
What are snow mushrooms?
Snow Mushrooms (also known as Snow Fungus, Snow Ear, and White Jelly Mushroom) are one of the most popular fungi in the cuisine and medicine of China. It is essentially tasteless, but valued for its gelatinous texture and its supposed medicinal benefits.
Where can I get snow mushrooms?
Obviously, this is dependent on your location, but I live I California, and I have Always found them at my local Asian markets. You can also purchase them online through markets like amazon!
Do snow mushrooms really taste like tripe?
Snow mushrooms don’t taste like tripe, but their texture is remarkably similar, which is what makes them such a great substitute in menudo.
Is this vegan menudo spicy?
It’s moderately spicy. California Chiles and guajillo chiles are pretty mild. You can reduce heat by omitting the Chile de Arbor and/or the jalapeño.
Can I make this ahead of time?
Yes! This soup tastes even better the next day and the next couple days after! I suggest consuming within 3 to 4 days of making it!
Is this vegan menudo freezer-friendly?
Yes. Let it cool completely, then freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight and reheat over the stovetop gently over medium-low heat.
More Cozy Soup Recipes
Vegan Menudo for the Win!
This vegan Menudo is more than just a recipe, it’s a reminder that tradition and innovation can coexist beautifully. By using snow mushrooms, this dish honors the texture, comfort, and history of classic menudo while making it accessible to everyone at the table!
If you give it a try and enjoy it, I wanna know! Snap a photo, take a video, or make a story and post it to Instagram or TikTok, and tag me at @eat_figs_not_pigs and #EatFigsNotPigs. I love seeing your recreations of my recipes! xx!
Vegan Menudo
Ingredients
- 2 ounces dried snow fungus mushrooms
Base:
- 4 cups vegan beef broth or vegetable broth
- 4 dried guajillo chiles, stems and seeds removed
- 3 dried Cailfornia chile, stem and seeds removed
- 1 dried chile de arbol, optional, stem and seeds removed
- 1 small white onion, roughly chopped
- Jalapeno, halved
- 6 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 teaspoon dried Mexican oregano
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- Salt and pepper, to taste
Menudo:
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1 yellow onion, diced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 8 cup vegan beef broth or vegetable broth
- 1 28-ounce can of white or yellow hominy, drained and rinsed
- 1 tablespoon dried Mexican oregano
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 3 large carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
- Salt and pepper, to taste
Garnishes (optional):
- Thinly sliced radish
- Thinly sliced avocado
- Fresh cilantro
- Mined Jalapeno
- Thinly sliced cabbage
- Minced red onion
Instructions
- Cover dried mushrooms with enough room temperature water so that they are fully submerged. Set aside for 35 to 45 minutes to rehydrate.
- Once the mushrooms have rehydrated, trim off and dispose the woody base.
- Chop into small bite-size pieces and set aside.
- Meanwhile, prepare the base for the menudo.
- Place the broth, chiles, 1 onion, jalapeno, and 6 cloves garlic in a pot over medium-high heat.
- Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low and simmer until the chiles are softened, 5 to 7 minutes.
- Remove from the heat.
- Transfer everything to a blender with 1 teaspoon dried Mexican oregano and 1 teaspoon ground cumin. Pulse until smooth. Taste and adjust seasonings, adding salt and pepper, if necessary. Set aside.
- Heat the vegetable oil in a large pot over medium-high heat.
- Once the oil is hot, add the diced and cook, stirring often, for 1 to 2 minutes.
- Add the garlic and cook for another 1 to 2 minutes.
- Pour in the reserved menudo base, broth, hominy, and rehydrated snow mushrooms.
- Season with the dried Mexican oregano and ground cumin, mixing to combine.
- Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to medium-low, partially cover and simmer until the hominy is just tender, 20 to 30 minutes.
- Add the carrots and simmer until the carrots are crisp-tender, 10 to 15 minutes.
- Taste and adjust seasonings, if necessary.
- Serve hot with preferred garnishes and enjoy!
Where can I get the dried snow mushrooms?
Hi Mariah!!! You can find dried snow mushrooms at most Asian stores!!!
So I’m prepping for our New Year’s Day menudo again using this recipe. It’s amazing and identical to the OG menudo minus the stinky tripe when cooking. We went vegan 7 years ago. I’m going to try adding the carrots to the blender. Last year I left them out because I was going for authentic that I had growing up. Also I will double the recipe from the start. I had to make a second pot last New Year’s Day because my husband wanted more and ny sons who still eat meat ate it it all up! Thank you for an amazing authentic recipe. Happy 2023!
I have found some on Amazon but I would love to have a tip from Ashley if she is familiar with any of the brands/types they advertise. Some might be much better than others. Snow fungus mushroom, Cauliflower mushroom, tremella mushroom – they all come up in the search.
Ashley… or anyone else who tried Ashley’s recipe – do you have a tip on any of those? Thanks!
Hi Mariah!
This recipe calls for dried Snow Fungus Mushroom. I find it at most specialty Asian markets, as well as Amazon. Hope this helps!
You are my holiday she-ro, Ashley! My thanks to your wifey for sharing!
Thanks so much, Candice!!! Hope you enjoy!
Thanks so much, Candice!!! So happy you enjoyed the recipe ❤️
I am currently sitting here watching my husband eat a giant bowl of menudo lol my mouth is watering. LMAO. So I decided to find a vegan recipe since I have been vegan for months now and luckily I found this. I’m also from the central valley, Madera. So I know anyone from the central valley has a great sense of taste when it comes to authentic Mexican food. So when I try this recipe out I will let you know, I’m sure it’s going to be great!!
to broil the chili, what temp did you set the oven? this recipe looks amazing!! i cant wait to try it!!
Hi Bree! Our oven broiler is set to only 2 features…high and low. We usually broil on high, but keep a very close one on the chili to ensure they don’t burn. It will severely affect the taste of your menudo.
When do you add the carrots?
Hi, Connie! Add the carrots when you add the hominy 🙂 We really hope you enjoy the recipe!!!
I made this for Christmas and I was told that it was amazing. Thank you for the recipe!!
I actually finely chopped the carrots and blended them in the chilie sauce, they desolved into the sauce and the kids didn’t know they were there. I made this in the crockpot. Reheats great too!
Connie, so happy you enjoyed the recipe! Good idea sneakin’ those veggies in 🙂 I’ll have to try making it in our crockpot next time, so smart!
Just tried this recipe yesterday and it was insanely good! I had a difficult time finding the fungus mushrooms, visited 4 different asian markets and none had them. Finally decided to buy it off amazon so ill be making some more this coming weekend!
That’s so great to hear Joy!!! Thank you so much for the feedback ❤️ Hopefully you love the recipe even more with the snow mushrooms ????
I went to a local vegan/vegetarian Chinese restaurant and had the snow fungus in a stir fry and immediately thought that it could potentially be a good tripe substitute for a vegan/vegetarian menudo. Glad I found this recipe! I’m definitely give it a try someday soon! My husband scoffs at the idea, but I think he might like it.
I hope you love it, Rene!!! It’s one of my favorite recipes on the blog ????
This menudo is absolutely incredible. It is so worth ordering the mushrooms and the mushrooms surprisingly hold their texture for days of yummy leftovers! Even if you don’t feel like finding this special ingredient the soup base is sooo flavorful you could put literally anything in there and it would be a banger
I totally agree Ashley — the broth is sooo flavorful! It’s not of my favorite recipes!
Is tripe what makes it menudo?? This is like having chicken noodle soup without chicken. Perhaps you should just call it something else.
Hi Rena. Thanks so much for your feedback. I like to call it vegan menudo as it’s my blog and my recipes — plus it’s a VEGAN version, and the snow mushrooms replicate tripe.
This recipe is pure genius and absolutely delicious. I made this for a friend, I have never had menudo because the thought of tripe nauseated me but with the mushroom (purchased at local Asian market) I was willing to try it. My friend is not veggie but had 3 bowls. I will make this again!
Barbara, I’m so happy you loved it!!! And even happier that your friend who isn’t vegan loved it too!!!
I love this recipe! Been making it religiously for my family and I and the meat eats in my family love this as well! I was unable to find the mushrooms I went to several Asian markets and haven’t came across them yet but I swapped it with some canned jack fruit and it’s amazing!!
Joy, I’m so pleased to hear you enjoy this recipe — and that your family enjoys it too! If you’re able to order the mushrooms on amazon, I highly recommend! They’re seriously a GAME CHANGER!
I have made this recipe 3 times now and each time it is amazing. I am vegan but my husband is not. He enjoys this more than normal menudo with tripe (he would trade his tripe for his brothers hominy). Each time I make it I skip a few steps to make it easier, like blending all the garlic together omitting one or so (I was low on garlic that time). I found a lot of the ingredients for the soup can be blended with the base to save on time finely chopping ingredients. We add extra hominy and carrots to ours as well. Again, beautiful recipe and I plan to keep making this at least once a month
I’m so happy you and your husband love the recipe, Molly!! Great idea to blend more of the ingredients together to save time 🙂
You may find this weird, but I totally made this to have for breakfast this past Thanksgiving. Usually, anything with hominy in it I refer to as pozole, but I know some recipes for menudo call for hominy. I dubbed it menu-pozole. I prepared the menudo base the night before. The snow mushrooms really grow a lot, so I only used two of them. Once rehydrated, they retain a slightly soft cartilage-like (sorry) texture, and they really hold broth nicely for a good wholesome spoonful. I also added pieces of pan fried oyster mushroom, as well as some canned oyster mushrooms I got at the Asian grocery store (which really have a weird texture–as does regular menudo). I loved it!
DUDE!!! This is amazing, I’ve been looking for a replacement for tripe. I appreciate you so much. Thank you for your inspiration!
You dont have a video? That would be extremely helpful
Hey Dominique! Unfortunately I don’t have a video.
I am currently switching to plant based diet and was worried I’d have to give up menudo only eat posole. Then I found this recipe. Thank you so much for sharing this. I do have a question though. In NM we usually don’t put carrots in out menudo. do they serve a specific purpose or just used to make it a more filling dish?
Hey crystal!! I know carrots aren’t traditional in Menudo, but even before we were vegan, my wife and I would always add them into my menudo, so that’s how we decided to keep the recipe. If you’d like, you can omit them ???? I really hope you love this recipe as much as we do!
Holy S**t! Is all I really have to say. I’ve had vegan menudo (that was REALLY good btw) but I’ve never had menudo like this before. The way the recipe builds the flavor from beginning to end is beautiful and honestly artistic af. The menudo was amazing, beat I’ve eve had vegan or not.
Hi, i found this recipe, and cant wait to try it! I feel like im totally over looking something. The instructions says to add bullion, but the ingredients doesn’t say bouillon. I really don’t use bullion, and since there’s already broth to the recipe would salt be fine? If not do i use vegan bouillon?
Hi Danielle! I just recently updated the recipe and must’ve made a mistake, sorry about that! That broth is fine … and you don’t need bouillon at all. Hope this helps ????
Is it the dried snow fungus mushrooms that look like tripe? Are you using those for texture or does it add a distinct flavor?
Hey! They add a nice texture, but they also absorb a bunch of flavor! Hope this helps 🙂
My cousin sent me this recipe knowing that I’ve been doing my pozole with mixed veggies. She wanted to know if I had tried the mushrooms in this recipe. I had not. I went out and searched for them and finally found them. This made me think of beef tendons when I first tried it wow! I love this recipe it was amazing!!
Amazing! Thank you for the tip! These mushrooms made all the difference ❤️
Hi there, I am curious to try this recipe (now that I know where to look for snow mushrooms!) my question is- is there a type of root that replaces the ham knuckle? I could have sworn I saw a recipe with something called kujac root or something but I can’t remember! Anyways- I’m going to make this recipe how it is and let you know! So far positive reviews, so hoping my wife loves it!
Hey Rebekah! I haven’t heard of a root that replaces ham knuckle, but if you find one, I’d love to know 🙂
This is the third recipe I have made from Ashley’s blog. I can truly say I will continue to make this menudo recipe for my family. Loving the depth of the flavors. I used Not Beef bouillon (according to their measurements) for the broth. Loved it!
Thank you, Ashley. Can’t wait to buy your recipe book!
It got below 80 degrees so of course I made soup and this was delicious!! So flavorful and not spicy at all which is nice so I can control the heat with the jalapeños I added as a topping. I actually didn’t go out to get the mushrooms so I used yellow potatoes. I know this is totally not the same thing but with the carrots it was so hearty and filling. 100% recommend!
Your recipe inspired me to try my own vegan menudo. The snow fungus really looks like honeycomb tripe! That was key. I also added slices of oyster mushrooms which have a very similar texture to flat tripe and are much more “meaty” than the snow fungus. The combination is awesome.
I used my own usual menudo recipe, which is very similar to yours. I didn’t add the other ingredients which aren’t typical of menudo (carrots, avocado, cabbage), but I can see how they would help make the meal more substantial. I might try it next time.
Some additions I added to really pump up the flavor and texture; though some of these ingredients might be controversial to some: 1) adding more oil really improved the broth, 2) MSG…need I say more, 3) I dissolved some cornstarch in water and added that just to thicken the broth a bit.
Thank you for this recipe! I never would have thought a vegan menudo was possible.
So good!!! And very authentic. We live in a border town and my husband said it tastes just like what he used to eat but veganized. Super recommend. I didn’t have snow mushrooms but I did use carne de soya. I’m about to go eat like 3 more bowls of it. Lol.
Highly impressed with how creative and flavorful this came out!! My moms favorite soup is menudo and she really enjoyed this recipes take on it😍😍😋
Thank you Cynthia! So happy you and your mom enjoyed the recipe!
Hi! I am curious what you would add if you wanted to bump up the protein in this? Would any beans be especially good? Or maybe some frozen beyond something?
Hi Sarah!
I’ve added soy protein chunks for extra protein (many readers have as well!), and it’s a nice addition!
The soup was very close to the texture w/o the animal fat taste! The carrots made a nice touch and I loved the flavor and it was a hit with the family! We will definitely make it again!!!
So happy this recipe was a hit with you and your family Debbie!