Mary’s Pho Broth

[patty]

This morning I made Mary’s Pho Broth from the McDougall Mobile Cookbook. The September 2009 Newsletter also has the recipe. https://www.drmcdougall.com/misc/2009nl/sep/090900.htm

It is suggested you can make the pho broth earlier and add the rest of the ingredients the pho soup the next day. I omitted the brown sugar from the recipe. Thr pho broth tasted really good by itself.

Aloha, patty

[michaelswarm]

My wife loves pho, and asks me to make often. I find store bought vegetable broth tends toward muddy in color and makes all the soups taste the same, so I like to make my own. Making broth is ridiculously easy, requiring only shopping and chopping. With all the vegetables, it makes a hearty vegetable soup.

For my broth I use 3 roots, plus corn, broccoli, mushrooms and either apple or pear. For roots onion, raddish and carrots are easy to find. I’ve used leeks and daikon radish, and used shitake or other fancy mushrooms (but not white or portobello mushrooms.) I steam the hard vegetables in the pressure cooker first, then add to big stock pot. Then steam soft vegetables like broccoli and mushrooms, and again add to stock pot. Then add water to cover and simmer.

Then prepare toppings like noodles, bakes tofu, sprouts, jalapeños, cilantro and sriracha sauce, and finally assemble.

[Willijan]

My wife loves pho, and asks me to make often. I find store bought vegetable broth tends toward muddy in color and makes all the soups taste the same, so I like to make my own. Making broth is ridiculously easy, requiring only shopping and chopping. With all the vegetables, it makes a hearty vegetable soup.

For my broth I use 3 roots, plus corn, broccoli, mushrooms and either apple or pear. For roots onion, raddish and carrots are easy to find. I’ve used leeks and daikon radish, and used shitake or other fancy mushrooms (but not white or portobello mushrooms.) I steam the hard vegetables in the pressure cooker first, then add to big stock pot. Then steam soft vegetables like broccoli and mushrooms, and again add to stock pot. Then add water to cover and simmer.

Then prepare toppings like noodles, bakes tofu, sprouts, jalapeños, cilantro and sriracha sauce, and finally assemble.

This sounds wild. I make all my own vegetable broth, and it is better than any storebought I have found. But it is still very bland. So am going to try some of your ideas. I will likely just put everything in the Instant Pot.

[michaelswarm]

This sounds wild. I make all my own vegetable broth, and it is better than any storebought I have found. But it is still very bland. So am going to try some of your ideas. I will likely just put everything in the Instant Pot.

Steaming allows me to control the amount of water in the broth. The broth from steaming is very concentrated. After steaming, in the big pot, I still add water, but am careful not to add too much, since water dilutes the concentrated flavor. I make quite a few soups. This one is interesting because it has no spices. No ginger, no garlic, no whole or powdered spices. The mushrooms give body, the fruit sweetness, and red radishes give the whole thing a nice clear pink color.

The toppings themselves add plenty of flavor.

For other soups, I usually add a separate flavor step, blending a handful of spices and vegetables in the blender, and mixing that with the vegetable broth. But this soup has no such extra flavor.

Let us know how it goes.

[patty]

This sounds wild. I make all my own vegetable broth, and it is better than any storebought I have found. But it is still very bland. So am going to try some of your ideas. I will likely just put everything in the Instant Pot.

Steaming allows me to control the amount of water in the broth. The broth from steaming is very concentrated. After steaming, in the big pot, I still add water, but am careful not to add too much, since water dilutes the concentrated flavor. I make quite a few soups. This one is interesting because it has no spices. No ginger, no garlic, no whole or powdered spices. The mushrooms give body, the fruit sweetness, and red radishes give the whole thing a nice clear pink color.

The toppings themselves add plenty of flavor.

For other soups, I usually add a separate flavor step, blending a handful of spices and vegetables in the blender, and mixing that with the vegetable broth. But this soup has no such extra flavor.

Let us know how it goes.

Mahalo, I have made my own broth before. I used Jeff Novick's recipe, from one of his DVDs. I will have to look it up. Lately I have been using a store bought because of time and convenience. Once I make the change it will be easy to incorporate into a habit. Yesterday my granddaughters took me to a Vietnamese Restaurant where one of my granddaughters and I had the Vegan Pho. Their broth was so light in color. And because of fluid of it you could tell there was no oil. I could identify some of the ingredients Mary uses. It really was delirious. It opened me up to keep trying. I love they included cabbage, onion, broccoli, carrot, with the rice noodles. On a side dish was lemon, bean sprouts and basil leaves.

Again, Mahalo for the ideas from you both.

Aloha, patty