Please Pho-give me, my beautiful Vietnamese friends. I clearly have a pun problem. I’m in therapy Pho it.
Let’s just move on.
If you’ve ever watched someone serve Vietnamese Pho, there’s this really cool technique they use.
It’s a trick that allows the veggies to stay crunchy, and gives a super fresh flavor to everything. It’s really easy to get dinner on the table too.
Okay, here’s how to do it from beginning to end. Then you can change up your flavors any way you like them.
STIR FRY PREP: I LOVE prepping stir fry style! You just cut everything up and keep it all in little heaps on your cutting board before even turning the stove on. So civilized and organized and all the things I’m not very good at in the kitchen. HA!
Just after I took this picture, I spiralized the zucchini, seasoned the shrimp with chili lime salt, and chopped everything else up in nice little pieces.
I also cooked some bacon in the oven as well. (The ONLY way to cook bacon, if you ask me)
This would be so impressive for a dinner party. You can cook in front of your guests and act like it’s no big deal! Just casually stand in front of your stove, drink your wine, and drop the veggies into the wok ~ “what, like it’s hard?”
So you heat up your broth in a separate pot, and stir fry some of the ingredients in a wok or frying pan. Some of the veggies just go into the soup raw, like those carrots and zucchini.
It’s like a salad, and then you pour broth over it and turn it into a soup!
Am I making any sense at all?
I also like that you can neatly pile up every ingredient, and it makes such a beautiful presentation.
Look at that golden broth! (I’ll tell you how to make that too!)
Doesn’t that look like clean eating in a bowl? IT IS! Well, there’s just a little bacon…
This would have been a good video, but I don’t want to do my hair.
Aaaaand finally, topped with glorious ingredients like avocado and toasted sesame seeds.
I could cook and eat like this every day. In fact, I think I will!
This is my go-to lunch this month. Tons of nutrients, flavor, variety, protein ~ and a great way to get rid of bits and bobs in your fridge.
Are you ready for the recipe? “FINALLY,” THEY SAY.
Shrimp & Vegetable Pho.
Instructions
- Bring your broth to a boil and let it simmer with the lid on, so it's ready when you are (Pho broth recipe below).
- Meanwhile, start compiling your ingredients. What's in your fridge? I had carrot matchsticks, raw spinach, bell peppers and one hot red pepper, green onions, frozen shrimp that I thawed in cold water, bacon that I cooked in the oven earlier that day, zucchini, cilantro, and avocado. Chop it all up and leave in piles on your cutting board.
- Once the cooking start, this will all take only a few minutes to come together, so just before you're ready to eat, fire up your wok or frying pan. Add a little coconut oil or butter and start with your shrimp. Just stir fry one thing at a time, and when each ingredient is done, drop it in little bundles into the serving bowls. I cooked my shrimp, the white only of my green onions, the peppers, and the bacon (obvi). Everything else, I left raw and added to the bowl in bundles as well.
- Pour the hot boiling broth over all that delicious goodness, and top with fresh avocado, cilantro, toasted sesame seeds ~ whatever you like.
Here’s my go-to Pho Broth recipe…
Pho Broth.
Instructions
- You can start this broth from scratch with any of your favorite broth recipes ~ chicken, veggie, bone broth. Whatever you like. I like bone broth, so I take a leftover chicken carcass, add veggies, water, seasonings, and simmer all day on the stove. That's for another day. You can also just use store-bought broth for this.
- Here's the delicious Pho part! Add a cinnamon stick, 5-6 whole black peppercorns, 3-4 whole flowers of star anise, a 1-2 inch knob of ginger, sliced, and soy sauce to taste. Bring to a boil and simmer on the stove for at least 30 minutes with the lid on. Your entire house will smell amazing!
- Once your broth is ready, add 1-2 tablespoons fish sauce. That will take it to the next level, y'all. So yummy. Add more salt and soy sauce if needed.
- This freezes like a dream.