There’s little I like more than settling in for a ginormous bowl of pho, the classic Vietnamese soup of long-simmered broth, rice noodles, thinly sliced meat and fresh herbs. It’s hydrating. It’s nourishing. It tastes delicious. And, like all really good traditional foods, it’s relatively simple to make.
Pho’s Secret is in its broth.
Pho’s broth is richly savory, deliciously silky owing to the large volume of gelatin beef bones give the broth, and wonderfully fragrant with spices like clove, cinnamon and star anise. Developing these flavor typically takes plenty of time. You need to simmer bones and spices together over a period of several hours and up to a day, but you can take a short cut and still dole out a gorgeous bowl of pho – only quickly.
The secret is to prepare (or purchase) a gelatin-rich, long-simmered bone broth in advance, and then drop in your spices and simmer them in the hot broth as you prepare your quick pho’s garnishes and other ingredients. It’s a technique I write about in this book on broth and stock making.
| Quick Pho | Print |
- 1 1⁄2 pounds top sirloin
- 1 yellow onion, halved
- 1 (3-inch) knob fresh ginger, halved
- 2 pods star anise
- 1 cinnamon stick, about 3 inches long
- 1 teaspoon whole coriander seeds
- 1⁄2 teaspoon fennel seeds
- 2 whole cloves
- 2 quarts Long-Simmered Roasted Beef Bone Broth (recipe here or purchase it here)
- 1⁄4 cup fish sauce (I recommend this additive-free version)
- 8 ounces dried Vietnamese-style flat rice noodles (Find them here.)
- 4 green onions, cut on the diagonal into 1-inch-wide slices
- 1 bunch cilantro
- 1 bunch Thai basil
- 1 bunch mint
- 2 limes, quartered lengthwise
- 2 jalapeños, thinly sliced
- 1⁄4 cup hoisin sauce
- 1⁄4 cup Sriracha sauce
- Place the meat in the freezer, this will make the meat easier to slice thinly.
- Drop the yellow onion and ginger along with the star anise, cinnamon, coriander, fennel seeds, and cloves into a 4-quart pot and then pour the broth over the vegetables and spices. Add the fish sauce and bring it all to a simmer over medium-high heat.
- While the broth simmers, set the rice noodles in a deep mixing bowl and cover them with boiling water. Leave them in the hot water until tender but not mushy, about 10 minutes. When tender, drain them in a colander.
- While the rice noodles soak in the hot water and the broth simmers, arrange the green onions on a serving platter. Separate the leaves of cilantro, Thai basil, and mint from their stems. Arrange the herbs and bean sprouts, as well as the limes and jalapeños, on the serving platter alongside the green onions.
- Take the meat from the freezer, and then slice it against the grain into wafer-thin pieces. Arrange the sliced meat in a small bowl. Spoon the hoisin sauce and Sriracha sauce into separate bowls.
- Arrange about one-quarter of the noodles into a nest in each of four individual bowls and then strain about 1 1⁄2 cups broth over the noodles into each bowl, taking care that no spices from the simmering broth make their way into the bowls.
- Serve the bowls of steaming-hot noodle soup. Encourage everyone at the table to add herbs, peppers, meat, and hoisin sauce, individualizing the seasonings and additions in their bowl as it suits them.
Good Broth is Good for You
Long-simmered bone broth is particularly rich in easy-to-absorb protein, and contains traces of minerals, too. If you’re making your own, use a variety of bones. Meaty bones, like neck bones and shanks, will give your broth its flavor while jointed bones, like oxtails or knuckle bones, will imbue your broth with gelatin which not only gives you a great source of easy-to-absorb protein, but also good broth’s characteristic silkiness.
You can get recipes (and tips) for making bone broth at home here or, if you don’t have time or interest, you can order it online here.
Other Broths and Soups You’ll Love
A staple of traditional cuisines across the world, broths are rich in protein, as well as easy and economical to make. You can find plenty of broth-making tips and techniques, as well as recipes, in Broth and Stock or check out the plentiful soup recipes here, but I’ve included some of our favorites below.
We recommend making your own broth, but you can also order traditional, long-simmered bone broth online here.
This Thai-Style Chicken Soup is made by simmering fragrant herbs like lemongrass and lime leaf in chicken stock, before dropping in chicken and chiles and swirling it altogether with coconut milk.
Vietnamese Beef Stew is made with flavor-forward spices like star anise and clove, simmered together with inexpensive beef chuck and potatoes.
Korean-Style Seafood Soup is always a favorite, with plentiful vegetables, hot chiles, fish, clams and shrimp.
Yum! For a more complex and traditional flavor, I recommend charring the onion and ginger over an open flame before halving and putting in the pot. Thanks!
Definitely! When you have the time to make the true, long-simmered broth brimming with spice and charred ginger and onions it’s incredible.
Thank you for this recipe. I wonder how it can be adjusted for the Instant Pot?
Hi Amparo,
There’s really no need to adjust it for the instant pot because the broth is already made, and the noodles, meat and herbs don’t handle extended or high-pressure cooking well. If you like, you can make your broth in the instant pot though, in advance.
This sounds so yummy. However, do you not cook the meat at all? Or did I miss something?
Hi Cheryl,
Traditionally, raw beef is served as an accompaniment to pho. When you add it to the hot broth at the table, the heat from the broth cooks it. That said, I do eat (and enjoy) raw meat in dishes like carpaccio or tartar.
So… what can one substitute if commercial hoisan sauce and sriracha sauce cannot be on the menu?
I find hoisin sauce to entirely unnecessary. The broth is so flavorful, you just don’t need . If you can’t use sriracha but you want some heat, just use plenty of the sliced jalapenos suggested the recipe.
Have you found any clean versions of hoisin sauce and Sriracha sauce?
I use these this hoisin sauce and this sriracha.
The hoisan sauce contains soy — which causes anaphylactic shock in yours truly. I happen to be strangely fond of breathing. The Sriracha contains xanthan gum and sugar which I also cannot have. I am guessing that red Tabasco (which is just fermented tabasco peppers) or a version of your own fermented pepper sauce (http://nourishedkitchen.com/fermented-hot-chili-sauce-recipe/) would work here. What can be used in lieu of the hoisan sauce?
Hi Marilyn,
I’d recommend you avoid it.
Hoisin sauce isn’t necessary. The broth very flavorful on its own. Just use plenty of sliced jalapenos if you want heat.
I have a question? I’m assuming the top sirloin is pre-cooked? How do you recommend doing this?
Oops, I just saw the comment to Cheryl from the day before.
Jenny,
Which Hoisin do you use? Every hoisin I’ve seen has undesirable ingredients. I’d love to know of a decent hoisin brand!! Please share!
Any suggestions on how to make this meatless. I know it ain’t Pho unless a bone broth is used, but any suggestions on to enhance the flavors if no bone broth is used?
You can char the onion and ginger over open flame (stovetop or broiler) before adding them to some pre-made vegetable stock; this adds extra depth of flavor. Substitute soy sauce for the fish sauce. Use mushrooms (raw or cooked) instead of meat. It won’t be “traditional” but it will still very tasty.
I had an opportunity to stay in Vietnam and enjoyed Pho. Its flavour is so unique, and I absolutely love it. Thanks for your recipe. I think I will have great bowls of Pho to treat my family.
My first pot of Pho stock has been simmering for a couple of hours now, and the smell is driving me nuts! I could not find Coriander seeds locally anywhere, so substituted 1/2 tsp. of ground coriander. Ditto for the cinnamon stick. For broth, I used Tone’s beef base and added three small uncooked chicken breast tenders, removing them after they were cooked. They’ll be sliced and added to the meat & vegetable tray. My local Pho restaurant included thin sliced chicken & ham with their Pho. My broth tastes quite similar to theirs. I also quartered my onion and charred all faces on a very hot griddle before adding it to the stock. I also like Vietnamese chili garlic paste in my Pho, so have it handy. 😀
So is the meat raw when it goes into the soup?
Yes.
So if I’m understanding correctly, the meat is raw? Does the hot broth cook it?
Yes, the hot broth cooks it.