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Pho: Vietnamese Bone Broth

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pho-bone-broth

Kelly:

My husband gets an idea to make a recipe… like twice a year (I’m laughing now 🙂 ). Last time it was a Thai dish, this time it’s Vietnamese. He wanted to make pho, a super rich bone broth (which is soooo good for you), slow cooked with lots of fragrant spices. Getting the spices was as easy as stopping by our local Asian market, but the bones were a little harder to find. Our local grocery stores were all out of soup bones, so we had to wait a few days for them to get resupplied. Is everyone making bone broth and buying up my bones? 😉 Anyway, pho calls for knuckle bones and shin bones (marrow bones). Yum! I love marrow. But getting back to why we wanted to make pho, I’ll let Andy tell you more about it:

Andrew:

My favorite place to eat in Boulder was the Farmers’ Market. Savory Saigon has a table there. They serve a great bowl of pho, and they’re very knowledgeable about gluten. Now that we’re in Southern California I see pho places all over the place. Unfortunately, the servers often “aren’t sure” if there is gluten in their pho. Soy sauce (which usually has wheat) is sometimes an ingredient, and I’ve read that MSG is common too. So, I really wanted to make our own. The most helpful blogs were Steamy Kitchen and Tasty Yummies and the book Food for Humans by Nom Nom Paleo.

pho-spices

Our local Asia market had this convenient pho seasoning packet.

Pho: Vietnamese Bone Broth

Equipment:
I used a large ( 7 quart ) slow cooker.

For the broth:
3 shin bones, about 3 pounds
6 star anise, 3 cinnamon sticks, 2 tsp coriander seeds, 2 tsp fennel seeds, and 3 whole cloves (or 1 pho spice packet found at Asian markets)
1 yellow onion, skin removed, cut in half
3 inches fresh ginger, skin scraped off
8 cups purified water (we have a Big Berkey)
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar (I was taught to add this for the most nutrient-dense bone broth)
1 tablespoon Red Boat fish sauce*
1/2 teaspoon salt

*If you prefer more fish sauce, omit the salt

For the bowls
1 pound sirloin, very thinly sliced against the grain
rice noodles, Cappello’s noodles, or kelp noodles, cooked
bean sprouts
fresh basil and cilantro

  1. Marrow bones will give up a yucky scum when first heated, so we’ll want to get rid of that before putting them in the slow cooker. Boil the bones in a pot with enough water to cover. After ten minutes discard the scum and water.
  2. Meanwhile toast the spices in a dry skillet until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Add them to the slow cooker.
  3. Add some oil to the pan that you used for the spices and cook the onion and ginger until nicely browned on each side. Add them to the slow cooker.
  4. Use tongs to carefully transfer the hot bones to the slow cooker. Add the water, apple cider vinegar, fish sauce, and salt. Set the slow cooker for ten hours. (We did this in the garage, so the lovely smell didn’t keep us up all night, stomachs growling 🙂 )
  5. Remove the bones and strain the broth. Pour the broth in a pot and bring it to a boil.
  6. When the broth boils turn off the heat and add the sirloin. It will cook instantly.
  7. Add your cooked noodles to each bowl. Use a ladle to serve the broth and sirloin over each bowl of noodles.
  8. Offer a plate of bean sprouts, basil, and cilantro for topping each bowl.
  9. Eat slowly and enjoy.
pho-meat-slice

Slice the sirloin super thin so it cooks quickly in the hot broth.

♥, Kelly


EPM-soups

This recipe comes from the soup chapter in my new book, Easy Paleo Meals. Soups are one of my go-tos for fast easy healthy dinner 🙂

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  1. We love Pho!! We keep pho-type spices on hand and pick up fresh lemon grass and add that into our perpetual broth even when we aren’t going the whole distance with the noodles and meat. I love sipping it! So many awesome flavors. Great post!

  2. Hi, Kelly!
    Totally off topic questions.
    I bought your book and I’m impressed with it!
    1) I would like to make the tea ice cream, however I don’t have the loose leaf tea you recommend: can I simply use the equivalent amount from teabags or it would be different? What is jasmine tea? I can only find a combination of black/white/green tea with jasmine leaves added.
    2) about ghee: Im reluctant to use ghee in case it wakes up the sleeping monster (aka endometriosis) and I cannot purchase the vegan sort since I don’t live in the USA so I wonder if Palm shortening would be an acceptable substitute?
    Thank you so much, the book is really wonderful and the recipes really easy: the most difficult part is dissolving gelatin!

    • Thank you for buying my book!
      Yes, you can use tea from bags, just cut them open and measure the contents.
      The jasmine tea you found sounds good!
      Yes, palm shortening will work, it just wont add the flavor.
      🙂

  3. This recipe looks amazing!! But what I’m really interested in here is THAT BOWL!! Where on earth can I find one of those?

  7. I love Pho and would love to try your recipe. Could you please tell me what the spices and measurements would be if I make my own spice packet? Thank you!

    • Yes. Our local market recently was out of stock with their pre-mixed satchels, so we used: 6 star anise, 3 cinnamon sticks, 2 tsp coriander seeds, 3 cloves.

  8. To go from really good to spactacular, roast those bones in a 400 oven until nicely browned. Cinnamon, clove fennael and star anise are usual spices. Use them whole or lightly crushed in a spice bag or boquet garni type of bag. Powdered spices will make the broth murkey.

  10. You forgot! Pho should also have lime to squeeze in, and some hot peppers or hot sauce! 🙂