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Living in Vietnam as a child, remembering many Vietnamese soups, one of my favorite soup at that time or even now is Phở. What makes Phở a tasty soup? I believe there are three key reasons. First, is the use of beef bones and marrows as the soup stock. Second, there are specific vegetables and herbs are necessary to balance the taste of Phở. Third, most importantly of all is the length of time for the broth to brew, which many people seem to ignore. It doesn't matter if you cook beef or vegetarian phở, I feel that one needs to honor these three golden rules, especially come to specific vegetable and herbs because Vietnamese people have different types of soup that also include bamboo or mushroom vegetable.
Please visit my podcast to learn how to cook this authentic vegetarian Phở. I love to reduce the process of cooking, so I use a crockpot. Just plug it into the outlet and eight hours later. Walla! Your Phở is done. To simulate beef phở, I made different types of tofu, such as fresh/fried tofu, tofu spam, and crumbled seasoning tofu. For those who don't want to use tofu, I also included fried tempeh.
Below are my recipes and they are primarily for Phở.
Link to my podcast for visual instruction:
The Necessary Items:
1.5 gallon (5. 678 liters) crockpot ( nồi điện)
11 cups (2.60 liters) water (nước)
The Vegetable:
1 turnip (củ cải turnip)
1 onion (củ hành tây)
2 chayotes (trái su)
1 pound (453.59 grams) carrot (cà rốt)
1 medium-size jicama (củ sắn)
1 pound daikon root (củ cải trắng)
1 shallot (củ hẹ)
1 stalk celery (cần tây)
1 pound sugarcane (cây mía)
Ingredients For The Broth
1/2 (2.5 ml) or 1(5 ml) teaspoon of salt or 1 tablespoon for those who love salty flavor
If you don't use sugarcane, add 2 tablespoons (30 ml) of brown sugar or vegetarian seasoning.
Note: usually the vegetable produces some sweetness to the broth.
The Dried Herbs:
2-3 cloves of star anise
1 cinnamon bark or stick
20 coriander seeds
1 black cardamom, 5-7 dried cloves (the aromatic flower bud, Syzygium aromaticum).
Crumbled Seasoning Tofu:
Ingredients:
3 cups (709.76 ml) of soymilk
2 to 4 caps of apple cider vinegar
1/4 teaspoon (1.25 ml) salt
1/2 teaspoon (2.5 ml) sugar
1 teaspoon (5 ml) vegetarian seasoning
1teaspoon or 1 tablespoon (15 ml), depending on your preference
Cook your soy milk as I have shown
Making Tofu with Apple Cider Vinegar
Scoop the bean curd into a cheesecloth, then squeeze out all of the water (make sure the bean curd is completely dried). Put the bean curd into a medium frying pan. Add all the seasoning ingredients and stir for 2 to 3 minutes. You can leave the bean curd as thick or thin pieces to have various textures. When I don't feel like making block tofu, I always use this method, which I called my LAZY TOFU that I can add with many things beside phở.
Marinated Tempeh For Phở
The items that you need:
1/2 pound (226.80 grams) tempeh of your choices of bean (I made my tempeh from cannellini beans because I like the creamy texture).
Ingredients:
1/4 salt
1/2 to 1teaspoon sugar (if you don't like the vinegar taste, add more sugar).
1 teaspoon vegetarian seasoning
1 or 2 tablespoons of hoisin sauce
1/2 or 1 tablespoon of sriracha
1/4 cup of olive oil
The Process:
You could mix all the seasoning together and rub it into the tempeh or add the ingredient individually, then rub the seasoning thoroughly into the tempeh. Leave it for two hours. Later, use a medium frying pan to fry your tempeh. Add your olive oil into the pan. Make sure the heat is low. Cook slowly till the tempeh is golden brown and crispy, or the way that you'd prefer. Make your tempeh a bit thicker than mine, so it doesn't fall apart. You could steam the tempeh, but the frying tempeh is best for phở. If you like extra crispiness, you could slice tempeh about 1/4 inch thick before frying it. Afterward, dry your tempeh with a paper towel, removing the oil then add to your Phở.
Fresh Vegetables For The Phở
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