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| Pho Broth cooking in slowcooker. |
This is modified from the Slow Pho recipe, p. 57 in Fresh From the Vegetarian Slowcooker by Robin Robertson, which is one of my favourite cookbooks.
The main change I've made to the recipe is to serve the Pho with tofu crutons instead of fried seitan strips, as I'm not a fan of seitan strips in soup. I've also tweaked the seasonings.
Add the following to a slow cooker or large pot:
1 small onion, peeled and quartered
1 small fresh chili pepper or 1/2 jalapeno pepper
3 slices ginger, about 1/2 cm thick, cut in half
1 large or 2 small cinnamon sticks
3 tbsp Braggs or soy sauce
1/2 Tbsp whole peppercorns
1 or 2 cloves of garlic, peeled and cut in half
1 vegetable bullion cube (omit if using stock)
Enough water and/or stock to nearly fill the pot (about 4-5 cups)
Bring the broth to a simmer. Depending on your slowcooker this might require turning it up to high, and then down to low once it's simmering. It will take an hour or two for it to start simmering on medium. This broth can be cooked up to 6 hours, but should be done in 4. Once you've put the broth on to simmer, you can marinate the tofu by mixing:
3 or 4 drops liquid smoke
1 cm thick slice of ginger, finely chopped or one rounded tsp powdered ginger
1-2 cloves finely chopped garlic or 1 rounded tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
2 Tbsp olive oil (or a combination of olive & sesame oil)
Cut 1/4 block of tofu per person into 2 cm cubes. The marinade recipe above makes enough for 2 servings worth of tofu. Put tofu in an air-tight container and pour marinade over it. Put it in the fridge to marinate while the broth cooks, periodically shaking the container to redistribute the marinade over the tofu blocks.
When the broth has simmered for about three hours (your house should smell really good), use a slotted spoon or small sieve to fish all the bits/herbs out of the broth. Then add to the broth:
1 Tbsp fresh lime juice
2 Tbsp dark miso paste
2 rounded tsp marmite
Cook the broth for another hour.
While the broth finishes cooking, prepare the pho toppings.
To make the tofu crutons, heat up a generous amount of oil, but not enough to deep fry (about 1/2 cm deep) in a cast iron pan on medium heat. Remove the tofu from the marinade with a slotted spoon or fork and into the hot oil, trying to avoid putting the garlic and ginger in the pan, as they will burn before the tofu has cooked. Cook the tofu cubes, turning them occasionally until they are evenly golden brown and crispy all over. Remove the tofu with slotted spoon or fork and put onto a plate lined with paper towel.
In addition to the tofu crutons, prepare any of the following toppings:
- chop green onions
- cut limes into eights
- wash cilantro and remove leaves from stems
About 10-15 minutes before the pho broth should be finished cooking, prepare noodles according to package directions. I recommend brown rice spaghetti, but have used ramen and other kinds of noodles as well. DO NOT cook the noodles in the broth. Tempting though this is, the starch from the noodles will turn your pho into glue. It's pretty gross. I recommend cooking the noodles, putting individual servings of them into bowls, and then pouring broth on top of them. This avoids mushy noodles and starchy broth, both of which make for yucky pho.
When the noodles are done cooking, drain them and rinse them with cold water in a colander. Assemble soup by putting a small serving of noodles in a bowl, a ladleful or two of broth into the bowl, squeezing a piece of lime into the bowl and then chucking it in there for extra flavour, and throwing some cilantro, green onions, sprouts and tofu crutons on top. Eat soup alternating between chopsticks and spoon. Excellent food if you're sick!
If you have leftover pho ingredients, you can make them into a tasty salad.
Pho Salad
Assemble in a large single-serving bowl or plate:
Fresh washed spinach leaves
Fresh washed mint leaves
Fresh washed parsley and/or cilantro leaves
chopped green onions
fresh washed bean sprouts
Tofu crutons
Dressing:
Juice of 1/2 lime
1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar or rice vinegar
a squirt of Braggs
lots of freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp sesame oil
1 Tbsp olive oil
Shake in a container with a tight-fitting lid and pour over salad. Garnish salad with toasted sesame seeds if desired.
Tastes really fresh and delish!
