No Bò Bún: Vietnamese Style Noodle Bowl

Okay, this recipe has a bit of a back story but I’ll try to keep it brief.

*Sighs in food blogger*

I went to Paris for a few days last year and couldn’t for the life of me escape this dish they call bò bún over there. But I’m glad I couldn’t because it turned out to be one of the most delicious summer foods you can imagine: a bowl of cold vermicelli rice noodles topped with fresh and pickled vegetables, loads of fresh herbs, lemongrass marinated beef (meat alternative for me, of course), sometimes fried tofu, sometimes spring rolls, but always finished off with crushed roasted peanuts and a delicious lemony fish sauce dressing called nước chấm.

Parisians are lucky to have this dish because, as the name suggests, it’s not really their own. What the French know as bò bún is inspired by the South Vietnamese dish bún bò or bún bò xào, which translates to something like rice noodles and beef stir-fry. So it was actually Vietnamese immigrants who introduced this fresh and delicious rice noodle dish to French culinary culture. And although you wouldn’t find bò bún in Vietnam, there really only seem to be two differences between the French fusion dish and the Vietnamese classic: the name and added spring rolls.

I personally like the way bò bún exposes itself as somewhat of a copy rather than pretending to be the original and I really enjoy the added spring rolls, too (although I disregarded them in this recipe to keep it simple.)

Because I made my own small changes to the bò bún I know from my stay in Paris (for example swapping rice noodles for edamame noodles and beef for mushrooms), this recipe is neither bò nor bún —hence the name: no bò bún. In this sense, my recipe has all and nothing to do with the original.

There isn’t any advanced cooking involved in the making of this dish but there are quite a few steps to follow. From washing and chopping all the vegetables to making your dressing to cooking the noddles to frying the tofu and putting it all together in one beautiful bowl — this recipe is quite a bit of work so make sure you have enough time to prep everything or split the work over a few days. Especially if you make your own fish sauce, I recommend making it ahead of time and keeping it in the fridge.

Ingredients

For four portions

250 - 300g edamame noodles

1 block firm tofu

2 medium carrots

1 cucumber

250g shiitake mushrooms

Handful roasted peanuts

Fresh mint

Fresh coriander

1 tbsp rice wine vinegar

Sunflower or peanut oil (for frying)

For the dressing

8 tbsp vegan fish sauce

6 tbsp lime juice (about two juicy limes)

4 tbsp water

1.5 tsp soft brown sugar

1-2 tsp mild chilli flakes

1 garlic clove

2 tsp sesame oil

For the mushroom glaze

1/2 - 1 tbsp vegetable oil

1 tbsp soya sauce

1/2 tsp sesame oil

1.8 tsp garlic powder

Method

Make the Dressing

Step 1 Add the sugar, chilli flakes, sesame oil, vegan fish sauce, lime juice and minced garlic to a screw top jar and shake vigorously. Set aside for later.

Prep your Veggies, Mushrooms and Herbs

Step 1 Clean and slice the shiitake mushrooms.

Step 2 Peel the carrots and cucumbers and slice them into bite-sized pieces of your preferred shape. I like to julienne the carrots or make carrot ribbons with a vegetable peeler.

Step 3 Give the carrots a quick pickle by mixing them with 1 tbsp rice vinegar and a good pinch of salt in a small bowl — this is not necessary but will add crunch and saltiness.

Step 4 Wash and dry the herbs, then remove the leaves from the stalks. I like to keep the leaves whole but giving them a chop won’t hurt.

Step 5 Roughly chop or blitz the peanuts.

Fry Your Mushrooms

Step 1 Heat a non-stick frying pan on medium-high heat.

Step 2 Once hot, throw in the sliced mushrooms and fry (without oil!) until they start to brown

Step 3 When the mushrooms are evenly golden brown, add up to 1 tbsp vegetable oil and continue frying until crisp. Then, add 1 tbsp soya sauce, turn down the heat and cook until the liquids have evaporated.

Step 4 Put the mushrooms in a small bowl, add 1/2 tsp sesame oil, 1/8 tsp garlic powder and mix. Cover the bowl to keep them warm and leave it on the side for later.

Fry Your Tofu

Note: I find that frying the mushrooms and tofu at the same time works really well since the tofu doesn’t need much attention. You can start heating up the pan for your mushrooms just after you’ve added the tofu slices to the hot oil.

However, you’ll be working with quite a bit of very hot oil so if you’re nervous about dividing your attention between two hot pans and don’t want to run the risk of burning your food, you could make one after the other.

Step 1 Remove the block of tofu from its packaging and tap it dry with a clean tea towel. Drying the tofu will help the frying process.

Step 2 I like to cut my block of tofu into six slices of around 1cm thickness first before halfing it lengthwise to end up with fourteen square pieces. You could, of course, cut it into any type of bite-sized pieces.

Step 3 Add frying oil to a deep, non-stick pan or a small pot. The amount of oil depends on the size of your pan, and while the pieces of tofu don’t have to be fully submerged in oil while frying, it should be enough to cover them about halfway. I used 160ml of sunflower oil for a wok-style pan with a diameter of around 20cm at the bottom.

Step 4 Turn up the heat to high and cover the pan while the oil heats up to 190 degrees Celsius.

Step 5 After around five minutes, check if your oil is hot enough. If you don’t have a thermometer, drop a piece of tofu into the oil — if the oil bubbles away like crazy, it’s hot enough. If there’s just a bit of a sizzle going on, it means the oil isn’t ready. Remove the test piece and wait a bit longer.

Step 6   Once the oil is at temperature, carefully introduce the tofu pieces into the hot oil one after another. Arrange them so that they’re about halfway covered in oil and just let it fry.

Step 7 After around five minutes check the bottom of your tofu pieces for colour. If they’re nicely golden brown, you can turn them around and fry the other side for the same amount of time. If they’re just starting to brown, give them a few more minutes. My tofu was done after a total of around 15 minutes, but the frying time will depend on the temperature of your oil and could take up to 20 minutes; so just keep checking at 5-minute intervals.

Step 8 While the tofu is frying, boil your choice of noodles according to cooking instructions. If they’re done before the tofu, drain them and leave in them a bowl with cold water so they don’t stick together.

Step 9 When the tofu pieces have a nice golden brown colour, transfer them from the hot oil onto a cooling rack or a plate covered with paper towels. Half the pieces diagonally right before serving so they’ll soak up the flavourful dressing.

Cook Your Noodles and assemble your bowl

Step 1 Prepare your choice of noodles according to package instructions and drain them thoroughly in a colander.

Step 2 This is the fun bit because you can be creative and assemble the bowl of your dreams. It’s good to start with the noodles, then add the veggies, mushrooms and tofu, then pour the dressing and then throw herbs and crushed peanuts on top. For me, the perfect bowl has more veggies than noodles, loads of herbs and peanuts and about 4 tbsp of dressing. But you may do as you please: your bowl, your rules! Enjoy!

Notes on Ingredients

Noodles

As mentioned in the beginning, bò bún is originally made with vermicelli rice noodles, but I like to tweak things and make this dish with edamame noodles — I love that they have a bit of a bite and I just think the colour is great for a fresh, summary noodle dish. I’ve tried both Yutaka Edamame Noodles, which you can find at Tesco, as well as Explore Cuisine Edamame Spaghetti, which I found at Holland & Barrett. I’ve also made this dish with vermicelli rice noodles and I’m sure it tastes great with other noodle types as well, so go wild!

Tofu

I think fried tofu is great in this noodle bowl because it soaks up the different sauces like a sponge and adds another texture to the dish. For many of my recipes, I use extra firm tofu but in this case, any ‘regular’ firm tofu works well. If you usually press your tofu to make it firmer: don’t. Trust me. We want the tofu to be light and spongy so you can use it straight from the package (but tap dry). Some of the tofus I’ve used are Cauldron Authentic Tofu and Plant Chef Organic Firm Tofu. Although I love The Tofoo Co Naked Tofu, I wouldn’t recommend it for this dish. Also, don’t use silken tofu.

Vegan Fish Sauce

The amount of vegan fish sauce in the dressing is based on my own recipe for Something Like Fish Sauce, which you can find here. I made it because I thought I could make it tastier than store bought alternatives and I think I succeeded. It’s a pretty simple recipe that makes a really delicious salty sauce, which works well in this recipe. However, if you don’t have the time to make it, you can use any vegan fish sauce alternative out there. My go-to store-bought vegan fish sauce is Sozye Organic Nish Sauce, which you can find at Holland & Barrett. If you opt for a store-bought option, start with less and work your way up to make sure the dressing doesn’t get too salty.

Other toppings

I tried to keep this recipe a bit more basic in terms of the ingredients I used but there really are no limits to what you can add to your bowl — whatever makes you happy! Here’s a list of ingredients I think are worth trying: bean sprouts, lettuce, (pickled) pineapple, (pickled) ginger, spring rolls, bamboo shoots, fried onions, chives, sugar snaps, edamame and, of course, any type of fake meat, like This Isn’t Chicken Pieces etc.