This week we made homemade pho, a traditional Vietnamese cuisine that is quite popular in our western world. Me and Monica decided to make pho as her background is Vietnamese and both of us love eating diverse foods, therefore with the access to her home kitchen and a plethora of Vietnamese foods and spices, it only made sense to take advantage of the situation.

Pho is Vietnamese noodle soup pronounced “fuh” it is created with broth, rice noodles, meat, and fresh garnishes. The traditional versions require much more effort and love and we were lucky to have Monica’s mom Rose put that love and effort in for us. Rose will often prepare pho for Monica’s family at home and had actually made a bone broth that we were able to use as a base for ours.

The broth is the most laborious part of the recipe and to be honest where the majority of the flavour will be developed, therefore as me and Monica had a 24 hour boiled broth to work from without having to do it ourselves we were truly cheating on making a homemade pho. Our approach having a pre-made broth is however how most cooks will have to approach pho. For the most part everyday people will not have time or access to boil pork or beef bones for over 24 hours, leaving a pre-made broth as a necessary substitute.

Our process in cooking was quite simple, all that was required was boiling rice noodles and pre cooked beef balls, both we had purchased from a grocery store. After that we added whatever garnishes we wanted which happened to be cilantro and red onions. The only other two additions were shaved beef tenderloin and tripe (stomach lining). These two final additions were cooked through by the addition of the hot broth to the bowl. Finally we both doused our soups in Siracha, her a bit to ambitiously as the end product was too spicy for her to finish.

With a pre made broth and store bought ingredients this recipe falls to a 4/10 and is very easy and fun to prepare. I highly encourage everyone to try it as a food to get over a runny nose, especially if adding a heavy amount of spicy, great way to cleanse the sinuses.

Above is a screen recorded video on an Iphone which shows how simple the process of finding an easy to follow pho recipe can be, in case wanting to recreate this at home!