Description
Full instructions for my updated recipes are available here: Traditional Pho or Vegan Pho.
Ingredients
Instructions
- Stir together beef broth, water, onion, garlic, star anise, cloves, ginger, cinnamon stick (and fish sauce, if using) in a large stockpot, and bring to a boil over high heat. Cover, reduce heat to medium-low, and let simmer for at least 20 minutes.
- Meanwhile, cook the noodles according to package instructions. (If your package of noodles — like mine — did not have instructions, simply bring a large pot of water to a boil. Then cook the noodles until al dente, about 3 minutes.) Immediately drain the noodles, and rinse with cold water to stop the cooking. Drain and set aside.
- When you are ready to serve the soup, fill the serving bowls about halfway full with noodles. Then cover with the hot broth, and immediately stir in the steak so that it cooks. Top with your desired garnishes.
- (*Most people stir the cilantro, ginger, lime, jalapenos and Thai basil into the broth to give it extra flavoring, but you don’t necessarily need to actually eat those ingredients whole.)
YES!!! I want this every single day. I have never tried it with beef at home but I need to now! Gorgeous photos!!
I have hear so many great things about this soup, but never had it! Now it the time. Your photos are gorgeous and it just looks so good!
Simple, but obviously delicious!!! Awesome recipe and amazing photos! Love your blog, so glad I stumbled upon it :)
Yes, yes, yes, yes, YES! I seriously cannot wait to make this once the coldness hits NYC. And those photos are as gorgeous as ever.
pho is one of my favorite thing – I will definitely be checking this post again :) thanks for the shortcut.
This sounds lovely. I love pho and have been wanting to make it at home for ages. Just a quick question though, if I wanted to use chicken, should the broth still be beef based or should I use chicken stock instead??
I can’t wait to try this! However, what is the 6th ingredient on the list?
Simply gorgeous! I’m curious, what restaurant is your fav in KC? Need to visit when I’m back sometime:)
Love Pho! I share the same thoughts as you on eating this when you’re feeling under the weather (with several tablespoons of Sriracha!). I’ve read on some other recipes that if you first roast the onion/garlic/ginger in the oven and get them nice and brown, it brings out the flavors even more. Thanks for sharing!
I love pho, yours looks gorgeous!
I was just reading about pho and I can’t wait to make a veggie version!
Looks wonderful, wish I had a bowl in front of me right now! :)
I love pho! My sister is from Laos and makes Viet pho all the time. Have you tried Pho Good on Shawnee Mission Parkway?
looks delicious!
This is the kind of comfort food I need right now!
Pho has been on my bucket list too! You’ve really created such a gorgeous bowl of pho – it never looks this pretty at the restaurant – well done!
Where do I even begin with this gorgeous soup?? It looks soooooo good! Making me super-hungry! Thanks for sharing. :)
I love pho :) this looks like it is bursting with flavor!
Pho is my phooooooovorite! That almost worked.
Pho is our soup of choice right when we have the first signs of a cold. Nips it in the bud! It’s my favorite, Kellan too. Whenever we drive past our favorite pho spot he says “NOODLE SOUP! NOODLE SOUP!” It’s adorable I tell you.
Pho is the best! I love that the broth is steeped with whole spices. It has the best flavor! Yours looks wonderful!
Love any kind of Asian food and this one looks so especially good! Thank you so much for sharing, love your blog! :)
So excited to give this recipe a try. Pho is one of my husband’s favorite dishes but I’ve been too intimidated to give it a try. The step by step makes me think I can totally give this a whirl. Thanks for sharing!
Gorgeous!! I LOVE pho, and we have a homemade version too, but my husband has literally beefed it up over the years… still yummy, but doesn’t bear tons of resemblance to the classic anymore. Yours looks heavenly, I’m going to have to try it, see if I can re-convert him!
Thank you SO MUCH! Ive been searching how to make the Pho Soup using the broth. :-)
Thanks for the recipe! I’m going to KC in January–where should I eat Pho?
Yay! I recommend Vietnam Cafe. The River Market location is my favorite! :)
This looks fantastic! Have you made the broth and then frozen it to use it later? I often run home for lunch and don’t have but 15 minutes to prepare something. Even at that, I have 10 minutes to eat and then back to the office. I often have most of these ingredients on hand so I could whip it up quick if the broth was ready.
I love your recipes, quick, to-the-point and easy to follow. Lovely pictures too! Can’t wait to try the Pho.
Thst is the best soup ever. I discovered it at a hole in a wall restaurant.That not the name of the place that’s jist what I named it in Texas.
Hello Ali,
I am a volunteer for the global organization Room to Read. I live in New Jersey and am creating a fundraiser cookbook for Room to Read. I am collecting recipes from the 10 countries RtR operates in. I would love to include your Pho recipe for our Vietnam chapter with your permission. I will list your name and website in the book. It is a local cookbook project, similar to a local church cookbook, and will have an ebook version as well. If you have any questions about Room to Read or the book, please ask. Nicole Smith
if you want a real authentic pho taste you need to use beef bones. The marrows from the bones is what make it ‘pho’
This was…ok. A good start, but it wasn’t “beefy” enough. Another person commented about the need for beef bones and they are very right. In lieu of those would it work to let the pot summer uncovered for a few hours to concentrate the flavor? The spices were good and we added thin sliced turkey sausage. Also needed to salt and pepper to taste. Thanks for posting!
This is a great recipe. We have a Vietnamese restuarant and I always love their Pho when it is cold, so it is great to have a recipe I can make at home. My local Asian grocery had HUGE bags of star anise so I bought a bottle of ground star anise instead and used only 1/4 tsp figuring I could add more if I needed to. Also, since I was trying to recreate what I know, after bringing broth to a boil, I remved the ginger so it wouldn’t be too strong. Great recipe!! We loved it!!
I made this last night, it was just really incredible. The broth is deliscious! We have a Vietnamese restaurant that serves Pho and I love to get it in the winter and I wanted to be able to make it at home and this recipe is perfection! My Asian market only had huge bags of Star Anise but they did have some that was ground so I used that, about 1/4 tsp. I was afraid that the ginger was getting too strong so I scooped it our after the broth simmered for 20 minutes. The noodles I bought had directions and said to soak them for 1 hour in warm water and then cook in boiling water about 3 minutes.
But isn’t original pho soup cooked overnight?
Made this tonight for dinner!! I have been craving Pho for a while and we do not have a Vietnamese restaurant in our town. Very impressed at the amazing flavor! Will definitely be making this again soon! Thanks!!
This was incredible!
Thanks for sharing!! Next time we’ll add the beef to the broth for a min or so before serving since I couldn’t cut it thin enough to cook well in our bowls, and hubby wants to add mushrooms! Wonderful dinner and we all got to personalize our own dish! Awesome for a family meal!!
I just read a few comments and I wanted to share how I make my homemade beef broth.
I used beef bones with marrow and two chicken feet (for extra gelatin) from a local farmer so I know the meat was good and healthy. After roasting them for about an hour, I cooked them in my crockpot for two days with about a gallon of water and a few Tbsp of apple cider vinegar. The family doesn’t care for the smell when I make the broth, but they sure love the food we make with it!!
Cindy, that sounds amazing, thanks for sharing! I love the idea of adding the apple cider vinegar, I’ll have to try that!
When making the broth do you use a tea bag of some sort for the ingredients, scoop them out or drain? I look forward to making this since it’s only 30 mins. I don’t have the time to make “real” broth. Thanks
thanks for this recipe! I’m not able to find some ingredients where I live, but I let my fingers do the typing and found all I needed on Amazon.
You’re welcome, Mary! We’re glad you were able to order some of the ingredients you need to make this. We hope you enjoy the pho!
Any idea what the nutritional value of this is? Calories, sodium level, etc?
Hi Rachel! We’re sorry but we are unsure of the nutrition facts/amount of calories in this recipe. We currently are not publishing nutrition facts on the site, as the nutrition calculators available are not 100% accurate, and we never want to publish anything that might be misleading. However, a lot of our readers love the My Fitness Pal nutrition calculator, so feel free to try that for an estimate. We hope that helps!
Wow, that sounds so Pho-king good! (Sorry)
Haha, thank you! :D
I have been craving Pho for weeks. Had it last at a wonderful little Vietnamese restaurant by work. I need to make this myself. I will be using shrimp, squid and crabmeat for mine. I am going to make a huge pot and not share with anyone. J/K. But i can’t wait to make this tomorrow after work. #getinmytummy
Rennie, isn’t it the best?! It’s so fun to make at home too – we hope you love this recipe (and that seafood combo sounds yummy)!
Wow, I loved this. Not too salty, nice blend of spices. This is the type of soup that I could totally be happy just sipping on the broth. I envision days where I feel a tad under the weather and this would be the most delicious, strength-giving broth to soothe the sinuses and sore throat. hmm…maybe flu season won’t be so bad this year… ;) Thanks for an awesome recipe. I can’t wait for leftover broth tomorrow!
Thanks for sharing Amanda, we’re happy you enjoyed this! We hope you feel better!
We went to the Vietnam Cafe at the River Market tonight for dinner after pinning thus and reading the comments. We had never had pho before so we were wowed by how amazing it was. We (me and my 9&10year old daughters) loved the whole experience and look forward to trying to recreate it at home with your recipe. Great recommendation on the restaurant. Thanks!!
Kay, we’re so happy you and your girls enjoyed Vietnam Cafe, that’s awesome! We hope you enjoy the pho recipe as well! :)
We love pho! Making this tonight since my daughter is not feeling to well. She prefers pho over chicken noodle soup. Only question I had was it asks for salt and pepper…. Is it for the broth?
Awesome, we hope you enjoy it! We’re sorry your daughter’s sick — we hope this helps (pho is the best when you’re sick)! The salt and pepper is for the broth — you can just season to taste if you like.
The meat looks raw?
Hi Peggy — we promise it’s not!
I am confused about the meat. Do you place the meat UNCOOKED into the broth? Does the hot broth cook the meat? Sorry for being obtuse….Thank you!
Yes! Generally thin uncooked meat is packed in boiling broth in your bow and it quickly cooks through.
In other recipes it sais you need rock sugar does it taste different if you don’t have it?
I made this Pho soup, but with veggie broth and just loved it.