Gluten-Free Vegan Pho is amazing!!! Pho is super popular – and rightly so. It’s wonderful, comforting, tasty and perfect for autumn. Much of the Pho available in restaurants isn’t gluten-free and/ or vegan – or you just can’t be sure. So, I decided to spoil my self at home with a GFV Pho I knew was GOOD, REALLY GOOD. The important part of Pho is the stock!!! Great stock makes great Pho! Wrap yourself up and enjoy Comforting and Tasty Gluten-Free Vegan Pho.
You can have Gluten-Free Vegan Pho as a meal in itself but that doesn’t mean you can’t make it part of a feast… Pho follows Vietnamese Summer Rolls as a starter. It is also great accompanied by Cucumber, Seaweed and Carrot Salad. The perfect pudding to follow Gluten-Free, Vegan Pho has to be Blackberry and Almond Chocolate Mousse.
Gluten-Free Vegan Pho is easy but it takes time to make the constituent parts and put together.
Allergy Information
Gluten-Free, Vegan Pho is (quelle surprise!) gluten-free and vegan as well as… celery free, coconut free, garlic free, lupin free, mustard free, nightshade free*, onion free, peanut free, sesame free, soya free*, tree nut free.
*For nightshade free leave out the chilli pepper
*For soya free substitute the tamari for sea salt and the tofu for more mushrooms and pak choi or other greens.
Top Tips
You can add whatever you like to your Gluten-Free, Vegan Pho. Don’t like beansprouts? Add grilled pack choi. Once you have the basic soup made feel free to mix it up.
I used fried tofu but you can also use fresh, unadulterated tofu (which is wonderful). Both work equally well. Just make sure you use good quality tofu not the (usually) pretty awful stuff from supermarkets. I prefer to buy mine from local Asian/ Oriental supermarkets.
If you can simmer the stock for longer – or even make it the day before, the depth of flavour will improve tremedously.
Noodles are one of my store cupboard essentials. I eat noodles at least once a week, in one form or another. I adore them! Find out what else is on my regular shopping list with my FREE Store Cupboard Essentials Cheat Sheet. Get it now! Just click the button below, sign-up and download.
Gluten-Free Vegan Pho Recipe
Difficulty easy
Serves 4-6
Preparation time 30 minutes (excluding soaking time)
Cooking time 40 minutes (or more if you cook the soup for longer)
Ingredients – Soup
20 dried shiitake mushrooms
40 grams fresh ginger, peeled and halved length-ways
3 pieces of cinnamon bark, preferably Vietnamese cassia-cinnamon
4 star anise
5 whole cloves
1 Vietnamese (large) cardamom pod or 5-6 ‘normal’ cardamom pods
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
1 tablespoon coriander seeds
0.25 teaspoon asafoetida
2 teaspoons tamari (or other gluten-free soya sauce)* (leave out or sub with sea salt for soya free)
2 large carrots, peeled and coarsely chopped
2.5 litres water
Juice of one lime
Ingredients – Bowls
1 packet pho (flat rice) noodles (~500 grams dry weight)
400 grams tofu* (leave out or sub with more mushrooms/ pak choi for soya free)
500 grams fresh mushrooms (I used oyster and enoki mushrooms)
Ingredients – Toppings
200 grams bean sprouts, washed well
1 red chilli pepper* (leave out for nightshade free), finely chopped
20 grams coriander leaves, finely chopped
20 grams Thai basil, finely chopped
20 grams fresh mint, finely chopped
1 lime, cut into wedges
Method – Soup
1. At least 8 hours before (preferably overnight), soak the shiitake mushrooms in one litre of water. Once soaked, carefully drain the mushrooms and keep the soaking stock. Set aside the mushrooms and stock.
2. In a large pan over medium heat, dry fry the peeled ginger until it is caramelised. You can also do this over a naked flame of on a grill
3. In a large pan gently toast the hard spices (3 pieces of cinnamon bark, 4 star anise, 5 whole cloves, 1 Vietnamese (large) cardamom pod, 1 teaspoon fennel seeds, 1 tablespoon coriander seeds) until they lightly colour and you can smell the spices. Place the toasted spices into a mesh/ muslin bag
4. Place the mushroom stock in to the large pan and add 1.5 litres water to make up to 2.5 litres. Add the hard spices in the bag, asafoetida, tamari, caramelised ginger and chopped carrots. Slice the soaked shitake mushrooms and add to the large pan of soup. Bring the soup to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for at least 30 minutes, preferably one to two hours.
Method – Bowls
1. Slice the oyster mushrooms and separate the enoki mushrooms
2. Heat a large non-stick pan and dry fry the mushrooms on both sides until lightly coloured and remove from the pan
3. Slice the tofu in to bite size chunks, add vegetable oil to the pan and fry the tofu on a high heat until coloured and crispy on both sides. (If you wish to use the tofu fresh skip the frying). Set aside
4. Cook the pho noodles (according to the packet) until al dente. So when you add the hot, steaming broth the noodles will be perfectly cooked. Drain the noodles, mix in a tiny amount of vegetable oil (to stop sticking) and divide in to serving bowls
Method – Assembly Toppings
1. Add the tofu and mushrooms to the serving bowls
2. Turn off the heat of the soup pan and add the juice of 1 lime to the soup. Mix well
3. Spoon the strained soup over the noodles, tofu and mushrooms. Make sure each bowl gets some shitake mushrooms (but not the cooked carrot)
4. Top with beansprouts, coriander, Thai basil, mint and chilli and squeeze over the wedge of lime
5. Enjoy Gluten-Free, Vegan Pho!!!
