Fast Pho Bo (Beef Pho)
This is a shortcut for when you want a delicious bowl of Vietnamese beef noodle soup and you don’t want to go out. A bowl of pho today is about $16-20. You can make enough for the whole family for about the same amount with this recipe. This was the food of my 20s when Vietnamese noodle shops started popping up in Vancouver. A bowl would cost about $5 and an extra $0.25-$0.50 if you wanted XL. Gone are those days for sure!With this recipe, you can adjust the ingredients to make just a bowl for yourself. I use the pre-sliced beef that is often available in the freezer section of Asian supermarkets. They are prepared for hot pot and can be found in various cuts ranging from round to rib-eye. You can also use the premade Vietnamese beef balls that are often available in Asian supermarkets as well.
Servings: 2 servings
Ingredients
For the Soup
- 4 cups beef broth
- ½ small onion sliced (put aside a bit for garnish, if desired)
- ½ oz ginger 1 inch knob, bruised
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- ¼ teaspoon ground coriander or ½ teaspoon whole coriander
- 2 whole cloves
- 2 star anise
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 1-2 tablespoons fish sauce
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
For Assembling
- ½ pound beef short rib thinly sliced
- 6 ounces thin rice stick noodles (small)
- 2 stalks green onion chopped
- 10 sprigs cilantro chopped
- 4 ounces bean sprouts
For Serving
- 2-4 stems Thai basil
- 1 Jalapeno or Thai chili pepper sliced
- ½ lime cut into wedges
- hoisin sauce
- Sriracha sauce
Instructions
- Prepare the noodles by soaking them in room temperature water for 20-30 minutes.
- If you have a disposable tea bag or sachet, place the whole coriander (if using), cloves, star anise and cinnamon stick in one.
- In a medium pot on high heat, add beef broth, onion, ginger, sugar, ground coriander (if using), 1 tablespoon fish sauce, salt and spice bag.
- Bring the soup to a boil and turn the heat down to low and simmer for 20 minutes.
- In a large pot, bring half a pot of water to boil. When read to eat, place one serving of the noodles in a sieve and plunge into the boiling water to blanche for about 5-10 seconds. Immediately drain and place in a serving bowl. Repeat with the second serving.
- Garnish the noodles with the meat slices, onion, green onion, cilantro and bean sprouts.
- Adjust the flavour of the soup by adding more fish sauce and/or salt. Turn the heat back up and bring it to a rolling boil. If you are using the meatballs, they can be cooked in the soup.
- Ladle over the serving bowl of noodles with hot soup. The soup has to be hot enough to cook the meat slices.
- Serve with Thai basil, chili peppers, lime, hoisin sauce and Sriracha sauce.