Easy Pho

 

This has to be one of my favourite meals. Light and nourishing yet still tasty and comforting enough to feel like a real treat. The recipe is really flexible too, so feel free to chop and change ingredients as you go if you want to. The only essentials really are the noodles, some stock and the chili, coriander and lime. I don’t think I’ve ever made the same bowl of pho once and that’s part of its beauty. If you’d like to recreate this exact bowl, read on for the recipe.

Prep time – 5 mins

Cooking time – 20 mins

You’ll need –

• 1 tsp coconut oil
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 cup of shredded cabbage
• Half a fennel bulb, finely chopped
• 1 cup of kale (stems chopped up finely and leaves shredded)
• 6-8 white mushrooms, sliced
• Thumb size piece of ginger, chopped into matchsticks
• 3 garlic cloves, sliced thinly
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 2 star anise
• 1 pack of noodles (I used brown rice noodles)
• 1/4  cup of enoki mushrooms
• 1 sachet or tbsp of miso paste
• 1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
• 1 tbsp maple syrup
• 1 bunch of coriander
• 1 lime
• 1 chili pepper, sliced thinly (remove the seeds if you don’t want it too hot)

1. Heat your coconut oil in a medium sized saucepan. Lightly fry your onion, cabbage, fennel, kale stems (save the kale leaves for adding at the end) and mushrooms. Fry for 5-7 minutes until soft. Set aside in a bowl.
2. To the empty pan, add your ginger, garlic, cinnamon, star anise, miso, rice wine vinegar and maple syrup. Add about four cups of water and bring to a gentle simmer for 15-20 minutes.
3. While all those delicious flavours are developing in your stock, make your noodles.
4. After 15-20 minutes, strain your stock using a sieve. Add the stock back to the pan with the fried veggies and noodles. Add in kale leaves and cook briefly until wilted.
5. Garnish with fresh chili, lots of a coriander and a big ol’ squeeze of lime.