This Vegetarian Pho is flavorful and comforting. It is authentic as possible but uses vegetarian ingredients. Easy to make, you will have some delicious noodle soup ready in no time.

Pho (pronounced “Phuh”) is a popular Vietnamese dish and it is considered their national dish. It consists of broth, noodles, and garnishes.

Pho is a dish that I love to eat but never have attempted to make. I assumed it was too complicated. The broth was light, but packed with flavor, then the bouncy noodles and myriad of garnishes. Then the thinly sliced beef is cooked in the hot broth. It was the perfect dish for a cold winter day.

It is not vegetarian friendly with a broth made from beef bones and it is usually flavored with fish sauce, but I was determined to make my version with the same flavor I was used to. And I share my method on how I achieved that.

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Ingredients

• Ginger.
• Scallions. This is used to flavor the broth and for garnish.
• Beef Bouillon. I use a vegetarian “beef” bouillon paste. The flavor is a little more meatier than vegetable bouillon. You can find these online or at some supermarkets. I found mine at an Asian market.
• Mushroom seasoning. This is like the secret seasoning. It is a powder made from dried mushrooms and it is pure umami (savory flavor). I highly recommend this not just for this recipe, but any time you want to make a broth more flavorful. You can find this online or at an Asian market.
• Vegan Fish Sauce. Fish sauce is made from fermenting small fishes, like anchovies, for a few months to 1 year. It is incredibly salty and is used in pho to flavor the broth instead of using salt.

Now for obvious reasons, I did not want to use fish sauce, but I still wanted it to taste and be as authentic as possible, so I did some research and found an incredibly close substitute. It ferments soybeans and the result is a very realistic vegan fish sauce. You can use any you want or omit it from the recipe altogether and just use salt, but I highly recommend this brand.

• Rock Sugar. This is to add some sweetness. Yellow rock sugar is not as sweet as granulated sugar and is perfect for broths, like pho.
• Dried Pho Noodles. You can find these in Asian markets or online. It is also called bahn pho and is a flat rice noodle.
• Lime wedges. A squeeze of lime at the end is the perfect acid to cut the richness of the broth.

The secret is making a great Vegetarian pho broth

There are three main steps to making a great broth for vegetarian pho.

• Charring the onion and ginger to bring out the flavor and add a layer of smokiness.
• Toasting the spices to make them more aromatic.
• Adding Fish sauce and rock sugar. Playing with the quantities of both to create balance between the salt and sugar in the broth.

Usually, pho is made by boiling beef bones to create a broth, which takes several hours. Because this is vegetarian, it takes less time, but the flavor that comes from the bouillon and the mushroom seasoning, really adds that beefy flavor that is needed.

Want More?

Try Out Similar recipes below:

• Vegetarian “Beef” and Broccoli
• Delicious Japanese Curry
• Vegetarian Jajangmyeon

I hope you try this recipe. If you tried this recipe, let me know in the comments below.

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