Dried lily flowers substitutes

The companion ingredient in almost every dish that uses lily buds, so doubling it is the natural move. Wood ear is crunchier and snappier where lily buds are softer and more fibrous, and it is even more neutral in flavour. Sliced into thin strips it looks similar in a filling or a soup and behaves the same way.

Best for

cha gio and spring roll filling, hot and sour soup, steamed chicken and pork dishes, clear soups

Slice the soaked wood ear into narrow ribbons rather than leaving it in flaps, so it reads as strands. Soak twenty minutes in warm water and trim off the hard knobby centre.

The right shape once sliced into matchsticks and much easier to buy. What changes is flavour rather than texture: shiitake is emphatically savoury and a little smoky, so a delicate clear soup made with it turns brown and deeply mushroomy instead of light. In a rich pork filling that is an improvement, in a clear chicken soup it is a different dish.

Best for

cha gio and dumpling fillings, braises, hot and sour soup, when you want more flavour, not less

Save the soaking liquid and use it in the dish. If you want to keep a clear soup clear, use fresh shiitake instead, which is far milder.

The closest visual and structural match on the list: long, pale, slim strands with a mild flavour and a slippery-springy bite. They are wetter and much more delicate than lily buds and they go soft in a long simmer, so add them in the last five minutes rather than at the start.

Best for

clear soups, hot pot, steamed dishes, garnishing

Trim the root end and separate the bundle. Enoki should always be cooked rather than eaten raw, and it needs only a couple of minutes.

A non-traditional swap that works better than it sounds when the lily buds were mainly adding slender bite to a filling. Cut lengthways into thin strips, green beans give a firmer, snappier, distinctly vegetal bite and they add green colour that lily buds do not. Fine in a spring roll, visibly wrong in a pale clear soup.

Best for

cha gio and spring rolls, stir-fries, when there are no dried goods in the house

Blanch for a minute and drain very dry before adding to a fried spring roll filling. Any extra water in the filling makes the rolls burst in the oil.

In a spring roll filling, glass noodles occupy the same slot: pale, slippery strands binding everything together. They have no flavour at all and they go softer than lily buds, and they absorb a lot of liquid, so use about half as much or the filling turns pasty.

Best for

cha gio and spring roll filling, steamed dishes, when they are already in the recipe anyway

Soak in warm water rather than boiling, then cut them into inch lengths with scissors. Uncut they wrap around everything and make the filling impossible to portion.

Genuinely the right answer more often than not. Lily buds are a background texture in dishes that already have several textures, and unlike wood ear they are not even providing a distinctive crunch. Omit them, add a little more of whatever else is in the pot, and the dish is complete. This is the one ingredient on a Vietnamese soup list you can drop without apology.

Best for

hot and sour soup, cha gio, clear soups, avoiding a special shopping trip

If the dish has no wood ear either, add a handful of thinly sliced mushrooms of any kind, so the texture is not entirely soft.