Simple Vietnamese pho Recipe

12 Nov Simple Vietnamese pho Recipe

So the biggest excitement of my recent trip to Vietnam was trying the traditional pho! For those who haven’t been lucky enough to try pho soup, its a traditional Vietnamese breakfast (yes) and lunch recipe which involves beautifully fragrant beef broth spiced with fresh sliced beef, noodles, and fresh herbs. It is light fragrant and actually full of goodness.

The base is a traditional bone broth, which is rich in minerals and healing components such as collagen, glutamine, glycine and proline. Bone broth is thought to repair gut lining via its ability to reduce intestinal inflammation, and is also thought to boost immunity. However if anyone has ever tried to drink straight bone broth for breakfast might be faced with a cup of unappetising meaty oily broth.

Thanks to the Vietnamese cooking class I took in Hanoi. This is a much tastier alternative. Enjoy.

One of the amazing pho soups I ate for breakfast!

My Vietnamese cooking class; Pho (of coarse), spring rolls, melon salad, pork meatballs with noodles and egg coffee

Simple Traditional Vietnamese Pho Recipe 

Ingredients 

.5kg beef brisket

.5kg beef rib bone

.5kg lean beef

1/2 onion

1 knob of fresh ginger

4 shallots

1 teaspoon of coriander seeds

3 coriander roots

1 cardamon pod

2 star anis

1 bar of cinnamon

pho noodles or zucchini spirals

Spring onion (chooped) for serving

Chill. and lime for serving

Method 

1. Soak beef brisket and one in lightly salted water for 2 hours
2. After 2 hours grill or bake bone
3. Gill or bake onion, shallots and ginger (unpeeled). You can add them into the oven until fragrant, peel and chop
4. Stir fry star anis, cinnamon, cardamon, coriander seeds lightly till fragrant. Put into cloth bag and tie tightly
5. Add spices, bone, and brisket to 4-5 cups of water. Cook for 1-1.5 hours or place into slow cooker overnight for a deeper flavour
6. You can choose to marinate lean beef in 1 tbsp of crushed ginger, 1 1 tbsp of crushed garli, 1 tbsp of fish sauce and 1 tbsp of oyster sauce (or leave plain)
7. After 1.5 hours take out brisket and slice
8. Add pho noodles and allow to cook
9. Add finely chopped spring onions, and coriander
10. While soup is warm use a slotted ladle dip lean into broth until it cooks
11. Add brisket, lean beef, spring onions, coriander to bowels
12. Serve with lime and chill

About the author

Lauren Surridge is the Acupuncturist, Chinese Herbalist and owner of Balanced Life Health Care. To find out more about Lauren click here and to make an appointment to see Lauren at her clinic in Ferntree Gully click here