Vegan Pho

Recipe: The Perfect Soul-Warming Monsoon Dish

A typical pho recipe features a bone broth, which poses a problem for the vegan version, so it gets substituted with a vegetable broth. While the broth bubbles on the stove, it goes onions, star anise, cloves, and cinnamon, along with ginger and garlic. These aromatics flavour the base that is the soul of the Vietnamese pho. Then there’s the flat rice noodles that are boiled separately and added to it and an array of toppings, all added to a pho bowl, post cooking. Make sure you check the label if you are buying ingredients like rice noodles and soy sauce to make sure they are completely vegan. Soy sauce, especially, might have additives like honey or fish extracts. For the broth specifically, some cooks like to add mushroom seasoning made with a variety of mushrooms to add umami to the broth, to make up for the flavour that is added by using meat bones in the usual pho recipe. The toppings are the most fun part of this pho recipe, as you get to choose from a variety of vegan options, starting with the protein, mushroom and tofu, which are the most common options. You can also try the emerging global vegan protein sources like seitan, tempeh, or edamame. The toppings are usually vegan, so you can stick to the usual fresh basil, mung bean sprouts, peanuts, coriander and spring onions.