If you are into
Asian style cuisines, then you really need to try the Vietnamese
noodle dish called Pho. Now I live in East Texas, so there are quite
a few different ways to pronounce the name of this dish, but
phonetically it is pronounced as 'faa' or 'fha', not 'fhoo' or
'phoo', but however you wish to pronounce it, the bottom line is that
it is delicious and very LCHF and Keto friendly.
If you have been
eating LCHF or Keto for sometime, then hopefully you have some
delicious bone broth sitting on your pantry shelves (we can ours) or
in your freezer. A good bone broth not only makes this dish
delicious, but nutritious as it is packed with fat, and sodium,
magnesium, and potassium that your body needs to function properly.
If you do not have any bone broth on hand, no worries, you can use
stock or even water with bouillon, but it is just not quite the same.
In this article, I will be showing you how we make Pho in our
Instapot pressure cooker, but it can be made in any pressure cooker,
or you can make it on the stovetop or even overnight in your slow
cooker if you wish.
The Broth
Because I am using a
pressure cooker to cook our broth, I do not take the time to toast
the spices as they will release their flavors and essential oils
under pressure. If you do not have a pressure cooker and make the Pho
on the stovetop or in your slow cooker, then you can lightly toast
the whole spices in a heavy skillet for just a few minutes until they
become fragrant. Be careful, once you begin to smell their aroma,
then remove then spices from the skillet as they can burn rather
quickly. Set them aside and allow them to cool.
8 cups water, stock,
or bone broth
3 whole star anise
3 whole cloves
3 green cardamom pods
1 ½-inch piece cinnamon stick
3 green cardamom pods
1 ½-inch piece cinnamon stick
½-inch piece dried
ginger
½ large yellow
onion, sliced into chunks
2 tablespoons whole
coriander seeds
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon fish sauce
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon fish sauce
Combine all the
whole spices in a piece of cheesecloth, tie it up, and set it aside.
In this recipe I use dried ginger, because I have a lot of it.
However, if you have fresh ginger then use about a 1-inch piece
peeled and sliced, or you can substitute 1 tablespoon of ginger paste
for the dried ginger.
Add 2 tablespoons
butter to your instapot and saute the onion until lightly brown, then
add 6 cups of water, stock or bone broth along with the spice sachet
to the pressure cooker. If using water, then add 5 teaspoons powdered
chicken bouillon and 1 teaspoon beef bouillon.
Set your pressure
cooker to cook on high for 60 minutes. After 60 minutes, release the
pressure and open the pressure cooker. Remove the onion, ginger and
spice sachet and discard.
Chef's Note: I
like to cook the broth in my pressure cooker for 60 minutes to allow
all of the flavors and essential oils to escape the whole spices so
that they infuse the broth with all their goodness. This allows me to
skip the toasting of whole spices. You could of course just boil the
spices in your broth on the stovetop or cook it overnight in a slow
cooker.
Check the seasoning
of the Pho broth and adjust as necessary before serving. If you are not ready to serve, place the pressure
cooker in warm mode. When you are ready to serve the Pho, hit the
saute button on your Instapot and bring the Pho to a simmer.
Chef's Note:
Because we are eating keto, I strain the chunks of onion as as they
are used here primarily as a flavor enhancer. We like to add
vegetables at the table that will count for our carbohydrates.
However if you want to leave the onions in your both, you might want
to slice them into thin slices rather than large chunks.
Your Choices of Meat
You have a couple of
choices here. If you want to use beef, the most common cut is eye of
round cut very thinly and added to the bowl raw just before the
simmering broth is added, but any beef will do. If you go this route
it is important that the broth be hot enough to cook the beef. To
make it easy to cut the beef into thin slices you can place it in the
freezer for about 30 minutes to allow it stiffen somewhat before
slicing.
We like to use
chicken in our Pho. You can use and type of poultry (chicken,
turkey, or duck) you desire, you need to make sure it is thoroughly cooked before
adding it to your Pho. Sliced, chunked or diced, it doesn't matter,
they choice is up to you. We can a lot of chicken as we raise free
range chickens here on the homestead so we have pre-cooked chicken in
pint and quart jars in abundance. Btw, rabbit is quite delicious in
Pho as well although it is not a typical meat seen in Pho.
Seafood is another
option, shrimp, crawfish and small cuts of fish fillets can add a
nice flavor and texture to any Pho broth. Like poultry, just make
sure that your seafood is pre-cooked to ensure that it is safe for
you and your family. This is an especially good way to serve leftover
fish that can sometimes get dry when reheated. Personally, I think
leftover Salmon makes for a good bowl of Pho.
The last meat option
that I am just going to mention is slightly different and that is
sliced deli meats. I know this sounds kinda of weird, but I have had
Pho made with thinly sliced roast beef and ham from the deli and it
was surprisingly good. Not what you would call a traditional Pho meat
selection, but do not knock it till you try it.
So there you have
it. Any type of leftover meat (beef, pork, poultry) and seafood can
be added to your Pho or your can omit the meat altogether and go
vegetarian, the choice is up to you. That's the great thing about Pho
it is blank canvas that allows you to be your own Picasso.
Assemble the Pho
Bowls Ingredients:
One of the great
things about Pho is that is an individual dish. That is each person
can put any vegetables, condiments or whatever they want in their
bowl at the table and then cover it with hot broth to make their own
unique meal. While Pho is a traditional Vietnamese dish, here in the
states, many of the condiments used seem to be of Thai origin, but as
the United States is a melting pot of cultures, this only seems
appropriate to me.
We generally keep
our Pho pretty simple. For this article I made it with shredded
cooked chicken, thinly sliced cabbage as a substitute for the rice
noodles (you could of course use zoodles as well), mung bean sprouts,
and my homemade green sriracha hot sauce. Place the simmering Pho
broth on the table or leave on the counter with all the condiments in
separate bowls so that each person can add the ingredients they want
to their serving bowl before ladling in the hot soup. To learn how to
make your own sriracha hot sauce check out my article 'LCHF SrirachaSauce' on our blog.
Chef's Note: it
is important for the broth to be served simmering as it will help to
cook any raw vegetables or meat that may be added to the bowl. For
the Instapot, I place it on sauté mode until the broth begins to
boil. This is especially important if you are using thinly sliced
pieces of beef.
Some common Pho
condiments include:
Limes, sliced or cut
into wedges
Jalapeño or Fresno peppers, sliced
Fresh Thai basil, cilantro, and mint
Mung bean sprouts
Sriracha style hot sauce
Jalapeño or Fresno peppers, sliced
Fresh Thai basil, cilantro, and mint
Mung bean sprouts
Sriracha style hot sauce
Thai garlic chile
sauce
Korean red pepper
paste
Nutritional
Information
Because Pho is so
individual, it is difficult to create any valid nutritional
information for the dish as a whole. I have included the nutritional
information for the broth as made per the recipe in this article, but
you will have to account for any vegetables or meat that you add to
the broth yourself. This is not my preference as I like to list all
the nutritional information for the recipes that I post on the blog,
but when it comes to Pho, you are on your own.
Broth Total Recipe
(8 cups, or 5– 12 ounce servings)
Calories – 277,
protein 2.72 grams, fat 27.2 grams, carbohydrates 7.44 grams
Broth (12 ounce
serving)
Calories – 55,
protein 0.54 grams fat 5.44 grams, carbohydrates 1.48 grams
Conclusion
Quick, simple and
easy soup, Pho actually gets it's name from the rice noodles used in
the dish which are called 'banh pho' in Vietnamese. I guess since we
are not eating the noodles are we really eating a faux Pho?
Sorry I just couldn't help the bad pun there. One of the great things
about Pho is that the broth is essentially meat free, so we often use
our pressure canner to can any leftover broth making it shelf stable
to sit on our shelf in the pantry until the next time we want a hot
bowl of Pho.
The infusion of
flavors in this broth is quite amazing and I am sure your family will
love this Pho as much as mine does. If you want to learn how to can
your own broth, check out the related articles on our blog about
canning meats, stocks, and vegetables. As always, I hope that you
have found this article informative and beneficial for you and your
family, if so please take the time to share it with your friends so
that they can benefit as well. Don't forget to follow our blog, or
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