Pho - Vietnamese Beef Noodle Soup
Is a favourite in our house. We all love it. I love it's aromatic spices with bone broth for essential amino acids which are great for gut healing & mineral intake.
I've been fortunate to have the real thing in a little stall in Hanoi years ago. And have loved it ever since.
Add any Asian greens, or even broccoli or spinach if you don't have access to Asian greens. I used pak choi, but also love choi sum or gai lan for this. A coriander is a must & is great for binding to toxins during liver cleansing.
I like to add some eye fillet, lightly frozen then cut paper thin added to each bowl raw. The hot soup cooks it.
Add fresh greens the next night to eat over multiple nights for easy dinners.
Any excess can be frozen.
Recipe
Ingredients
2 kg Beef on the bone, or a mix of bone & other. Any stewing beef if good. Cut into large dice
Small piece of eye fillet lightly frozen
½ medium daikon large diced
1 bunch Asian greens (pak choi, choi sum, gai lan)
3 jujubes (Korean red dates)
2 Chinese mushrooms broken up
1 decent piece of wakame or kombu broken up
2 pieces galangal
Dash Chinese rice wine or sherry, gin
Fish sauce
Black pepper
Salt
Spices
1 brown onion large diced, topped & tailed but skin on
2 cinnamon sticks
1 tbsp coriander seeds
5-6 star anise
1 tsp cardamon pods
1 tsp cloves
4 chunky slices ginger
Rice noodles
To serve
Sesame oil
White pepper
Fresh coriander
Spring onions
Mung bean sprouts
Garlic crushed
Chilli sliced
Squeeze of lime or lemon
Dry toast spices until browns; coriander seeds, cardamon, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, star anise, 1 brown onion large diced. This is great over gas or charcoal if you have for added smoky flavour. Remove onion skin.
Separate the small seeds (coriander, cloves, cardamon) & grind in mortar & pestle or toast separately.
Brown beef, I used beef rib flanks, short rib & brisket are also good options.
Cover with water, bring to the boil, skim off impurities.
Then add spices, plus add Chinese mushrooms, wakame, jujubes (Korean red dates), galangal, dash of Chinese rice wine, black pepper, fish sauce, half a medium daikon large diced, black pepper. Cover & simmer for hours (3-6) until beef falls apart.
3-5 mins before serving add greens to the soup to just blanch.
Soak rice noodles. Once ready to serve, cook noodles until just tender. Drain & set aside.
To serve
To each bowl add;
Dash of sesame oil
White pepper
Crushed garlic
Fresh coriander
Finely sliced spring onions
Mung bean sprouts
Thin sliced beef fillet
Top with noodles & soup making sure to get some beef & daikon, mushrooms etc in each bowl
Top with fresh chilli
Enjoy 💚
