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The Pho Cookbook

Easy to Adventurous Recipes for Vietnam's Favorite Soup and Noodles

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JAMES BEARD AWARD WINNER • With this comprehensive cookbook, Vietnam’s most beloved, aromatic comfort food—the broth and noodle soup known as pho—is now within your reach.

Author Andrea Nguyen first tasted pho in Vietnam as a child, sitting at a Saigon street stall with her parents. That experience sparked a lifelong love of the iconic noodle soup, long before it became a cult food item in the United States.

Here Andrea dives deep into pho’s lively past, visiting its birthplace and then teaching you how to successfully make it at home. Options range from quick weeknight cheats to impressive weekend feasts with broth and condiments from scratch, as well as other pho rice noodle favorites. Over fifty versatile recipes, including snacks, salads, companion dishes, and vegetarian and gluten-free options, welcome everyone to the pho table.

With a thoughtful guide on ingredients and techniques, plus evocative location photography and deep historical knowledge, The Pho Cookbook enables you to make this comforting classic your own.
“Andrea Nguyen has done the English-speaking world a tremendous favor with this book, the most authoritative guide to pho I've ever seen. It dispels rumors, tells truths, and thoughtfully chronicles Vietnam's rich but underexplored soup culture. Andrea lays out the facts about pho in a way that makes you slurp them down, and then chases the lessons with a stack of recipes that will send you directly to the kitchen. The marriage of purpose and passion that she's brought to this book is a rare thing.”
- DAVID CHANG, coauthor of Momofuku and cofounder of Lucky Peach
 
“Andrea Nguyen is the world’s greatest expert in Vietnamese cooking. Her latest book is a stunning and comprehensive guide to pho, that country’s most delicious food. Everything you ever wanted to know about pho is here: how to make it, how to eat it, its history, its regional variations—and so much more. All lovers of Asian food need to own this most extraordinary book.”
- JAMES OSELAND, author Cradle of Flavor: Home Cooking from the Spice Islands of Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore
 
“Andrea Nguyen is the kind of writer who doesn’t just show you how to follow her recipes, she also teaches you how to be a better cook. This book is a fantastic example. You’ll learn how to make delicious pho while also gaining a whole new sensibility around an unfamiliar pantry. Buy this book. Cook from it. You'll end up a far better cook than you were before.”
- PIM TECHAMUANVIVIT, proprietress of Kin Khao
 
"Nguyen’s recipes are a cook’s dream: well tested, easy to follow, and written in a friendly, conversational style. This is not unique to The Pho Cookbook; cooking from any of Nguyen’s books is like listening to an incredibly patient friend explain a recipe over the telephone."
- Lucky Peach

"Nguyen is a master teacher when it comes Vietnam’s national dish, and in her new book she provides meticulously clear instructions for every imaginable variety—we recommend you cook through every chapter."
- Food & Wine

"With the same clarity and care displayed in her previous books, Nguyen guides even the nervous first-time pho navigator to slurp-worthy success."
- NPR.org, Best Books of 2017

"Great for: Pho addicts or home cooks enamored with fragrant broths and Vietnamese comfort food."
- Bay Area News Group

"For lovers of pho, the hearty and delicious Vietnamese noodle soup, this is a wonderfully approachable guide to making your own at home."
- NPR's Here & Now Best Cookbooks of 2017 
© Rory O'Brien
Andrea Nguyen is one of the country’s leading voices on Asian cuisine and is living out her childhood dream of being an award-winning writer, editor, teacher, and consultant. Her impactful books—Into the Vietnamese Kitchen, Asian Dumplings, Asian Tofu, The Banh Mi Handbook, The Pho Cookbook, and Vietnamese Food Any Day—have been recognized by the James Beard Foundation, International Association of Culinary Professionals, and National Public Radio for their excellence. Andrea is also the winner of the 2020 International Association of Culinary Professionals Member of the Year award.

She edited Unforgettable, a biography cookbook about culinary icon Paula Wolfert. Andrea has contributed to many publications, including the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Lucky Peach, Saveur, and Cooking Light. Her engaging and knowledgeable writing on cuisine and culture has attracted a loyal and well-deserved readership that actively follows her blog, www.vietworldkitchen.com. Andrea lives in Santa Cruz, California. View titles by Andrea Nguyen
What is Pho?

Pho is so elemental to Vietnamese culture that people talk about it in terms of romantic relationships. Rice is the dutiful wife that you can rely on, we say. Pho is the flirty mistress that you slip away to visit. 

I once asked my parents about this comparison. My dad shook his hips to illustrate the mistress. My mom laughed and quipped, “Pho is fun but you can’t have it every day. You would get bored. All things in moderation.” 

The soup first seduced me in 1974, when I perched on a wooden bench at my parents’ favorite pho joint and wielded chopsticks and spoon with dexterity and determination. The shop owners marveled; mom and dad beamed with pride. The fragrant broth, savory beef, and springy rice noodles captivated me as I emptied the bowl. I was five years old and suddenly hooked on soup. That experience is among the most vivid from my childhood in Vietnam. 

After we immigrated to the States in 1975, there were no neighborhood pho shops to frequent in San Clemente, California, where my family resettled. My pho forays were often homemade, for Sunday brunch. 

Like many Vietnamese expatriates, we began savoring pho as a very special food, a gateway to our cultural roots. My mother regularly brewed beef or chicken pho broth on Saturday, then the next morning after eight o’clock mass, we sped home. Everyone had a job on Mom’s pho assembly line. 

At the table, our bowls of homemade pho were accompanied by fresh chile slices and a few mint sprigs. The simplicity reflected my parents’ upbringing in northern Vietnam, where purity prevailed. They’d lived in liberal Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City) for decades, but they didn’t allow embellishments like bean sprouts, Thai basil, or lime wedges. And definitely no sriracha, which Mom deemed un-Vietnamese. 

As a college student in Los Angeles, I went to pho restaurants that served up giant bowls with plates piled high with produce for personalizing flavors. Flummoxed at first, I learned to loosen up, even at the sight of someone squirting hoisin and sriracha into a bowl. Over the years, I practiced making my own pho, developed recipes for my first cookbook, Into the Vietnamese Kitchen (2006), researched pho in Vietnam and wrote articles on it, answered reporter and blogger queries, and taught pho classes to countless cooks. 

Interest in pho has risen exponentially as it has moved from the margins to the mainstream. It’s a favorite food for many but it’s also been the focus of novels, art exhibits, rap songs, and Kickstarter campaigns. People are smitten by Vietnam’s signature dish for many reasons: Pho is comforting (noodles in clear broth satisfy), healthy (there’s little fat and gluten), restorative (try it for colds and hangovers), and friendly (you can have it your way). It’s also delicious. 

I figured that I knew what pho was all about until friends, Facebook fans, and then my publisher suggested that I write a pho cookbook. Seriously? What was there to present beyond the familiar brothy bowl? As it turned out, a lot. It didn’t take me long to realize that the world of pho was unusually rich with culinary and cultural gems. 


CASHEW, COCONUT, AND CABBAGE SALAD 
Serves 4 to 6 as a side dish 
Takes 20 minutes 

Pretty and bright, this vegan salad incorporates coconut’s lushness by way of toasting unsweetened coconut chips (large flakes of dried coconut) with flavorful virgin coconut oil. It’s a handsome side that refreshes the palate—a perfect pairing for any of the main dishes in this book as well as the pot stickers on pages 129 and 131. Feel free to prep the ingredients hours in advance and toss at the last moment. 

DRESSING 
2 medium limes 
Unseasoned Japanese rice vinegar, as needed 
1 1⁄2 tablespoons sugar 
1 1⁄2 tablespoons regular soy sauce 
1 1⁄2 tablespoons canola or other neutral oil 
1⁄4 teaspoon fine sea salt 
1⁄8 teaspoon pepper 
1 small or 1⁄2 large jalapeño or Fresno chile, seeded and finely chopped 
SALAD 
1 teaspoon virgin coconut oil (optional) 
2⁄3 cup (1.5 oz | 45 g) toasted unsweetened coconut chips 
1⁄2 cup (2.5 oz | 75 g) salted, roasted cashews, halves and pieces 
2 1⁄2 cups (7 oz | 210 g) packed shredded red cabbage 
1 1⁄2 cups (5 oz | 150 g) matchstick-cut jicama (1⁄2 small jicama) 
3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh cilantro, mint, Vietnamese coriander (rau răm), Thai basil, or a mixture

Make the dressing
Use a Microplane or other fine-rasp grater to zest the limes, letting the fragrant peel drop into a large mixing bowl. Juice the limes to yield 1⁄4 cup (60 ml); add a little vinegar if you’re short. Add the juice to the zest along with the sugar, soy sauce, and oil. Stir to dissolve the sugar. Season with salt and pepper to create a balanced, savory-tangy note. When satisfied, add the chile. Set aside. 

Make the salad
Put the coconut oil (if using for extra flavor) and coconut chips in a skillet. Stir over medium heat for 4 to 5 minutes, until the coconut has slightly darkened and glistens (if the oil was used). Cool in a shallow bowl. 

Replace the skillet on the burner and add the cashews. To refresh their flavor, toast over medium-low heat for about 2 minutes, stirring constantly, until faintly fragrant; a few dark brown spots are okay. Slide off heat to cool completely before adding to the coconut. 

To serve, toss the cabbage, jicama, and herbs with the dressing. The vegetables should slightly soften and look compacted in about 60 seconds. Add the coconut and cashews. Toss well and transfer to a plate or shallow bowl, leaving any excess dressing behind. Serve. 

Notes
Coconut chips are often sold at health food stores in the bulk bins. If starting from untoasted coconut chips, cook them for about 7 minutes in the skillet with the coconut oil. Use medium heat, stirring frequently. After a few chips show a bit of golden brown, around the 5-minute mark, lower the heat to coax even cooking without burning. When done, the coconut chips should be golden brown and fragrant.
What is Pho?


PHO MANUAL 17 


MASTER PHO 39 


ADVENTUROUS PHO 69 


PHO ADD-ONS 93 

5
STIR-FRIED, PANFRIED, AND DEEP-FRIED PHO 113 


PHO SiDEKICKS 127

About

JAMES BEARD AWARD WINNER • With this comprehensive cookbook, Vietnam’s most beloved, aromatic comfort food—the broth and noodle soup known as pho—is now within your reach.

Author Andrea Nguyen first tasted pho in Vietnam as a child, sitting at a Saigon street stall with her parents. That experience sparked a lifelong love of the iconic noodle soup, long before it became a cult food item in the United States.

Here Andrea dives deep into pho’s lively past, visiting its birthplace and then teaching you how to successfully make it at home. Options range from quick weeknight cheats to impressive weekend feasts with broth and condiments from scratch, as well as other pho rice noodle favorites. Over fifty versatile recipes, including snacks, salads, companion dishes, and vegetarian and gluten-free options, welcome everyone to the pho table.

With a thoughtful guide on ingredients and techniques, plus evocative location photography and deep historical knowledge, The Pho Cookbook enables you to make this comforting classic your own.

Praise

“Andrea Nguyen has done the English-speaking world a tremendous favor with this book, the most authoritative guide to pho I've ever seen. It dispels rumors, tells truths, and thoughtfully chronicles Vietnam's rich but underexplored soup culture. Andrea lays out the facts about pho in a way that makes you slurp them down, and then chases the lessons with a stack of recipes that will send you directly to the kitchen. The marriage of purpose and passion that she's brought to this book is a rare thing.”
- DAVID CHANG, coauthor of Momofuku and cofounder of Lucky Peach
 
“Andrea Nguyen is the world’s greatest expert in Vietnamese cooking. Her latest book is a stunning and comprehensive guide to pho, that country’s most delicious food. Everything you ever wanted to know about pho is here: how to make it, how to eat it, its history, its regional variations—and so much more. All lovers of Asian food need to own this most extraordinary book.”
- JAMES OSELAND, author Cradle of Flavor: Home Cooking from the Spice Islands of Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore
 
“Andrea Nguyen is the kind of writer who doesn’t just show you how to follow her recipes, she also teaches you how to be a better cook. This book is a fantastic example. You’ll learn how to make delicious pho while also gaining a whole new sensibility around an unfamiliar pantry. Buy this book. Cook from it. You'll end up a far better cook than you were before.”
- PIM TECHAMUANVIVIT, proprietress of Kin Khao
 
"Nguyen’s recipes are a cook’s dream: well tested, easy to follow, and written in a friendly, conversational style. This is not unique to The Pho Cookbook; cooking from any of Nguyen’s books is like listening to an incredibly patient friend explain a recipe over the telephone."
- Lucky Peach

"Nguyen is a master teacher when it comes Vietnam’s national dish, and in her new book she provides meticulously clear instructions for every imaginable variety—we recommend you cook through every chapter."
- Food & Wine

"With the same clarity and care displayed in her previous books, Nguyen guides even the nervous first-time pho navigator to slurp-worthy success."
- NPR.org, Best Books of 2017

"Great for: Pho addicts or home cooks enamored with fragrant broths and Vietnamese comfort food."
- Bay Area News Group

"For lovers of pho, the hearty and delicious Vietnamese noodle soup, this is a wonderfully approachable guide to making your own at home."
- NPR's Here & Now Best Cookbooks of 2017 

Author

© Rory O'Brien
Andrea Nguyen is one of the country’s leading voices on Asian cuisine and is living out her childhood dream of being an award-winning writer, editor, teacher, and consultant. Her impactful books—Into the Vietnamese Kitchen, Asian Dumplings, Asian Tofu, The Banh Mi Handbook, The Pho Cookbook, and Vietnamese Food Any Day—have been recognized by the James Beard Foundation, International Association of Culinary Professionals, and National Public Radio for their excellence. Andrea is also the winner of the 2020 International Association of Culinary Professionals Member of the Year award.

She edited Unforgettable, a biography cookbook about culinary icon Paula Wolfert. Andrea has contributed to many publications, including the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Lucky Peach, Saveur, and Cooking Light. Her engaging and knowledgeable writing on cuisine and culture has attracted a loyal and well-deserved readership that actively follows her blog, www.vietworldkitchen.com. Andrea lives in Santa Cruz, California. View titles by Andrea Nguyen

Excerpt

What is Pho?

Pho is so elemental to Vietnamese culture that people talk about it in terms of romantic relationships. Rice is the dutiful wife that you can rely on, we say. Pho is the flirty mistress that you slip away to visit. 

I once asked my parents about this comparison. My dad shook his hips to illustrate the mistress. My mom laughed and quipped, “Pho is fun but you can’t have it every day. You would get bored. All things in moderation.” 

The soup first seduced me in 1974, when I perched on a wooden bench at my parents’ favorite pho joint and wielded chopsticks and spoon with dexterity and determination. The shop owners marveled; mom and dad beamed with pride. The fragrant broth, savory beef, and springy rice noodles captivated me as I emptied the bowl. I was five years old and suddenly hooked on soup. That experience is among the most vivid from my childhood in Vietnam. 

After we immigrated to the States in 1975, there were no neighborhood pho shops to frequent in San Clemente, California, where my family resettled. My pho forays were often homemade, for Sunday brunch. 

Like many Vietnamese expatriates, we began savoring pho as a very special food, a gateway to our cultural roots. My mother regularly brewed beef or chicken pho broth on Saturday, then the next morning after eight o’clock mass, we sped home. Everyone had a job on Mom’s pho assembly line. 

At the table, our bowls of homemade pho were accompanied by fresh chile slices and a few mint sprigs. The simplicity reflected my parents’ upbringing in northern Vietnam, where purity prevailed. They’d lived in liberal Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City) for decades, but they didn’t allow embellishments like bean sprouts, Thai basil, or lime wedges. And definitely no sriracha, which Mom deemed un-Vietnamese. 

As a college student in Los Angeles, I went to pho restaurants that served up giant bowls with plates piled high with produce for personalizing flavors. Flummoxed at first, I learned to loosen up, even at the sight of someone squirting hoisin and sriracha into a bowl. Over the years, I practiced making my own pho, developed recipes for my first cookbook, Into the Vietnamese Kitchen (2006), researched pho in Vietnam and wrote articles on it, answered reporter and blogger queries, and taught pho classes to countless cooks. 

Interest in pho has risen exponentially as it has moved from the margins to the mainstream. It’s a favorite food for many but it’s also been the focus of novels, art exhibits, rap songs, and Kickstarter campaigns. People are smitten by Vietnam’s signature dish for many reasons: Pho is comforting (noodles in clear broth satisfy), healthy (there’s little fat and gluten), restorative (try it for colds and hangovers), and friendly (you can have it your way). It’s also delicious. 

I figured that I knew what pho was all about until friends, Facebook fans, and then my publisher suggested that I write a pho cookbook. Seriously? What was there to present beyond the familiar brothy bowl? As it turned out, a lot. It didn’t take me long to realize that the world of pho was unusually rich with culinary and cultural gems. 


CASHEW, COCONUT, AND CABBAGE SALAD 
Serves 4 to 6 as a side dish 
Takes 20 minutes 

Pretty and bright, this vegan salad incorporates coconut’s lushness by way of toasting unsweetened coconut chips (large flakes of dried coconut) with flavorful virgin coconut oil. It’s a handsome side that refreshes the palate—a perfect pairing for any of the main dishes in this book as well as the pot stickers on pages 129 and 131. Feel free to prep the ingredients hours in advance and toss at the last moment. 

DRESSING 
2 medium limes 
Unseasoned Japanese rice vinegar, as needed 
1 1⁄2 tablespoons sugar 
1 1⁄2 tablespoons regular soy sauce 
1 1⁄2 tablespoons canola or other neutral oil 
1⁄4 teaspoon fine sea salt 
1⁄8 teaspoon pepper 
1 small or 1⁄2 large jalapeño or Fresno chile, seeded and finely chopped 
SALAD 
1 teaspoon virgin coconut oil (optional) 
2⁄3 cup (1.5 oz | 45 g) toasted unsweetened coconut chips 
1⁄2 cup (2.5 oz | 75 g) salted, roasted cashews, halves and pieces 
2 1⁄2 cups (7 oz | 210 g) packed shredded red cabbage 
1 1⁄2 cups (5 oz | 150 g) matchstick-cut jicama (1⁄2 small jicama) 
3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh cilantro, mint, Vietnamese coriander (rau răm), Thai basil, or a mixture

Make the dressing
Use a Microplane or other fine-rasp grater to zest the limes, letting the fragrant peel drop into a large mixing bowl. Juice the limes to yield 1⁄4 cup (60 ml); add a little vinegar if you’re short. Add the juice to the zest along with the sugar, soy sauce, and oil. Stir to dissolve the sugar. Season with salt and pepper to create a balanced, savory-tangy note. When satisfied, add the chile. Set aside. 

Make the salad
Put the coconut oil (if using for extra flavor) and coconut chips in a skillet. Stir over medium heat for 4 to 5 minutes, until the coconut has slightly darkened and glistens (if the oil was used). Cool in a shallow bowl. 

Replace the skillet on the burner and add the cashews. To refresh their flavor, toast over medium-low heat for about 2 minutes, stirring constantly, until faintly fragrant; a few dark brown spots are okay. Slide off heat to cool completely before adding to the coconut. 

To serve, toss the cabbage, jicama, and herbs with the dressing. The vegetables should slightly soften and look compacted in about 60 seconds. Add the coconut and cashews. Toss well and transfer to a plate or shallow bowl, leaving any excess dressing behind. Serve. 

Notes
Coconut chips are often sold at health food stores in the bulk bins. If starting from untoasted coconut chips, cook them for about 7 minutes in the skillet with the coconut oil. Use medium heat, stirring frequently. After a few chips show a bit of golden brown, around the 5-minute mark, lower the heat to coax even cooking without burning. When done, the coconut chips should be golden brown and fragrant.

Table of Contents

What is Pho?


PHO MANUAL 17 


MASTER PHO 39 


ADVENTUROUS PHO 69 


PHO ADD-ONS 93 

5
STIR-FRIED, PANFRIED, AND DEEP-FRIED PHO 113 


PHO SiDEKICKS 127

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