Thermomix vegetarian Pho

Winter is coming... Woohoo! Soup season :)!

This is my first time making vegetarian Pho in the Thermomix. And it was JUST as good - if not better :p

Like most of my foods, I never really make the same thing twice. I tend to just use seasonal veggies - or whatever is in my fridge. 

Ingredients 

1.1L water (I usually use the water reserves from cooking corn)

90g vegetarian fish sauce 

1 heaped tbs TM vegetable stock concentrate

1 small rock sugar (optional)

Soaked shiitake mushrooms (reserve water)

1-2 Thumb sized ginger, roughly sliced

10 star anise 

2-3 cinnamon sticks

5 tsaoko (cardamon)

1tsp Szechuan pepper

2 garlic cloves and 1 onion, sliced (optional)

Sliced Veggies (I normally go with radish daikon, carrot, lotus root, cabbage)

If you have time (and this is really worth the extra step), dry roast/fry the ginger, star anise, Tsao ko, cinnamon, Szechuan peppers (and onion garlic if using). Then proceed with the below. 

  

Method 

1. Pour water, reserved soaked mushroom water, sugar, veg fish sauce, vege stock concentrate, into the bowl

2. Put remaining ingredients in the TM basket and place it in the TM bowl 

3. Cook for 20min/100deg/sp3

Non-TM method: just throw #2 in the mesh flavour ball things and everything in the pot. Cook - the longer the better. 

Whilst cooking the soup, prepare your desired toppings and cook your rice noodles as per packet instructions. As I make the soup to suit my whole family (including my toddlers), the soup is made with fragrant and light flavours. So we normally go wild with the added extras! I normally have:

Vietnamese herbs (basil, mints, and other stuff I don't know the names of)

Shredded lettuce and/or cabbage

Bean sprout

Chilli

Lime

Fried tofu, sliced 

Stirfried vege meat products (some of them marinated beforehand)

Pho sauce 

Lay the cooked noodles in a large bowl and top with your desired toppings. Once the soup in the TM is cooked, you can pour it straight over and serve immediately :)

BUT... I am still a little traditional when it comes to making a good Asian broth. SO... I usually pour the soup from the TM into a large pot (reserving some soup) and then transfer the veggies from the TM rice basket into the TM bowl. The mushrooms can go straight into the large pot with the stock too. Nothing is wasted in this household, so I blitz the veggies up in the Thermomix and poured straight into the large pot and straight back onto the stove. 

I also like to add extra daikon, fresh assorted mushrooms or veggies (just for bite and more flavour), I'd chop them up and throw them in the large pot to cook in the stove top. If you want deeper flavours, you can transfer the remaining spices into those silver balls (that sit in your soup without having the inedible bits floating everywhere) and into the large pot too. 

If you can't be bothered doing all that, the soup straight from the Thermomix bowl tastes delicious. My boys normally have this since they have dinner 2 hours before daddy gets home. The second part I normally do (transfer into large pot and reheat) just before hubby gets home so he gets a more flavoursome meal. I would usually add some more flavour to the stock too. Just because the hubby likes it that way. Overall, this is a very simple, quick and delicious meal. Winter or no. One that I know I'd be making more often :). 

Tip:

When making Corn snacks for the little ones, I also reserve the soup an replace it with the water called for in the recipe. 

A lot of restaurants use cane sugar in their soups too for that yummy sweet taste.