How to make Pho in 10-15 mins!

24 June 2022

Blog by: Maelynn Le

All photos were taken by Maelynn Le

Photo: Vegetable and Tofu Vietnamese Pho

I want to PHO-GET I ever had Covid-19 but at least when I had COVID, making some Vietnamese pho helped me feel better. There are also times where I don’t have time to cook because I often have classes or I have work. The way of making traditional pho takes up so much time but I love how long the cooking process takes, but it takes up so much time in my life. I love pho, but I don’t have 20 hours to make myself some pho. That is why I created a way to make pho in 10-15 mins and it taste like great pho, even though it might not be as good as how authentic Vietnamese restaurants make it, at least this quick 10-15 min pho recipe is passable. Because this has been highly requested from you all for me to share this recipe, here is the quickest pho you will ever make! I made a vegetable and tofu version but this quick version should fit whatever protein or vegetable you put in.

The reason why this isn’t vegetarian is because I added pho beef powder but to take it truly vegetarian, I would just boil water and let the vegetable steam into the water to create that vegetable broth.

Ingredients (serving 1-2 people):

• 2 large pots and a pan

• 1/2 Onion

• 3/4 cup broccoli

• 4 slices of tofu

• 1 green onion

• 1 carrot

• 1 baby bok choy

• 2 tbsp pho broth mix

• 1/2 of the pho rice noodle

• Bean Sprouts (optional)

• Lime (optional)

• Jalapeño (optional)

• Hoisin sauce (optional)

• Sriracha (optional)

* If you are serving 3-4 people, I would double the recipe

Directions:

1. Fill the two pots with water and fill both of them about 3/4 of the way

2. Boil the waters and turn on the stove to medium-high until both water pots come to a boil

3. Cut the onion in half and cut the onion in strips as thinly as you can. If needed, cut the brocoli into chunks (I honestly just bought pre-cut broccoli. Slice to tofu longways and then cut the tofu in half to form squares. Chop the green onion into dimes and separte the green and white parts of the green onion. Peel and cut the carrot into strips by slicing the carrot down a few times and then cut the carrot into strips. Cut the baby bok choy into chunks.

4. When the pots boil, in one of the pots, add the pho rice noodles in the pot and stir. Leave it for 4 mins or until noodles are soft. After that, you must drain the noodles down the drain.

5. While the noodles boil, don’t just stand there! To the 2nd pot, add in the pho broth mix and stir it into the boiling water until dissolve. Add the carrots, broccoli , and bok choy in the water and let that boil for 5 mins or until vegetables are tender, occasionally stirring. Add the white part of the green onion and the regualr onions in the pot as well. Let it sit there for 1-2 mins.

6. While the vegetables boil, get your pan, and start frying up some tofu. Pat and dry the moisture out of the tofu, and fry the tofu. They should be ready in 7 mins but I would cook them on each side until they are golden brown on each side.

7. Time to slurp up! For the finish, after the noodles are drained, first, put some noodles in the bowl. Add your vegetables as well and place the tofu and the green part of the green onions on top of the dish. Add whatever else you put into your pho, and enjoy this quick and easy 10-15 mins pho recipe!