Vegetable Pho

Ingredients:

• Vegetable stock makings (carrots, celery, onions, green onions, mushrooms)
• 3 whole cloves
• 20 star anise points
• 3/4 tsp. salt
• 1 cinnamon stick (2-3 inches)
• 2 Tbsp. fish sauce
• 1 yellow onion
• 2-3 inches of whole ginger root
• 2 Tbsp. shitake mushroom powder

For Serving:

• Noodles
• Basil
• Lime
• Bean sprouts
• Sriracha

Instructions:

1. Char the onion and the ginger
2. Roast
3. Place onion and ginger in a pressure cooker with the vegetable stock makings, whole cloves, star anise, salt, cinnamon, fish sauce, and mushroom powder.
4. Seal pressure cooker and cook for 1 hour.
5. Strain broth thoroughly.
6. Serve.

Cook’s Notes:

This is where this will get irritating and “hippy”.  Prepare for a mass of photos and vague instructions.  But, make this.  You will not be disappointed.

Charring

I char the onions and ginger with my grill – right over the side burner.  You really want them to be “burned.”

Broiling

This is my pan of vegetable stock makings.  I don’t know how much of each – I just eyeball it.  Terrible for recipes, but it’s worked out pretty well thus far.  Celery, carrots, green onions, onion scraps, and mushroom stems.  I broil the veggies for a few minutes just until they start to brown.

Magic Mushroom Powder

This stuff is amazing.  Makes damn near everything taste better.  Find an Asian market and buy a ton of dried shitakes.  They are expensive as gold in the normal supermarkets, but dirt cheap at the Asian stores.  Take a couple of handfuls of them and blend them into a fine powder.  I use about 1 Tbsp. into veggie stock that I intend to use for things other than soup; sauces, etc.  I use 2 Tbsp. in rich soups – like this one, French onion, etc.

Serving

If you’ve not had pho before, usually it is served with rice noodles, sliced green onions, broth, and various meats.  It is left to the diner to finish the job.  Add bean sprouts, torn basil leaves, and freshly squeezed limes for a mild, delicious bowl of happy.  If you’re more adventurous, add sriracha sauce and jalapeños.  In the bowl featured below, we used freshly made zucchini noodles, added right to the hot broth.