Have you ever had Pho soup?

Right now it seems to be the it thing, but I’ve enjoyed this soup for quite awhile on cold winter days at our local vietnamese restaurant.

It is very flavourful broth type soup that can sometimes, if you do not ask, have quite a bit of heat to it.

I myself do not like things overly spicy. I like spicy. I use Sriracha all the time and chiles in my cooking but I do not want to tear up when I am eating.

That’s too spicy for me.

Pho soup seems to have so many different ingredients in it but I wanted to find a way to make this soup easy to do.

Yes, the ingredients are a bit unusual but most of the ingredients can be found in the grocery stores now.

I’ve ** the ones that are harder to get. I found them at an asian grocery store in my area.

This base of this soup is made in a slow cooker and once the broth is finished cooking this soup takes no time to serve up.

I used leftover chicken breasts that I had in the fridge and the rice noodles only take minutes to prepare.

If you want a low carb or paleo option for this soup I found sweet potato starch noodles in the asian grocery store. They taste great and are so much lower in carbs than regular rice vermicelli noodles.

I do hope you give this recipe a try.

Recipe: Gluten Free Pho Soup

1 Litre gluten free chicken broth

3 cups water

1 shallot, finely chopped

2-3 cloves garlic

4 star anise

4 whole cloves (not ground but whole)

2 inch slice fresh ginger

2-4 thai chile peppers

1 cinnamon stick

4 inch piece fresh lemongrass

4-5 fresh lime leaves**

2 Tbsp fish sauce

2 large chicken breasts, cooked and thinly sliced

1/2 package sweet potato starch noodles** (can use rice vermicelli noodles instead)

Soup Garnishes:

spiralized or shredded carrots

chopped green onions

bean sprouts

thai basil**

slices of jalapeño

Method:

Place broth, water, shallot, garlic, star anise, cloves, ginger, chile peppers, cinnamon stick, lemongrass and lime leaves in a slow cooker. Cook on low heat, covered for 4-5 hours. Remove the star anise, cloves, lemongrass, lime leaves, chile peppers, ginger and cinnamon stick from broth. Add the fish sauce and turn heat to warm until you have the rest of the soup ingredients ready. Cook noodles according to package directions. Drain and set aside. Prepare the soup garnishes in small bowls for people to choose from. To serve soup, fill bowls halfway with cooked rice noodles. Top with hot broth and then sliced cooked chicken. Top with optional soup garnishes.

Enjoy!