When I was younger, I used to looooooove this traditional Vietnamese rice noodle soup called Pho that my Mum used to make at least a couple of times a month 😍🍜 Unfortunately with time, I discovered that my body started to reject one of the core ingredients that made the soup so delicious (and pretty much all soup and stew recipes!): Onion! (You suck IBS!) 💔😩
Having to avoid this ingredient that I developed an intolerance to, I really struggled at the beginning to cook recipes without it. I also spent more time doing my food shopping to read all the ingredients listed on their packaging to avoid bad surprises! It is pretty much the base for many of my favourite savoury recipes and I had to look for suitable replacement to still be able to enjoy those dishes.
In the case of Pho, you have a broth that is slowly simmering for hours with some meat on bones, few spices and the onion that would pretty much disintegrate after so much time stewing, imparting its delicious flavour to the soup. So after a bit of experimentation, I’m delighted to say that I managed to make a new version of this iconic soup that is IBS friendly!!😁
My key element here was to swap the onion for another vegetable that is low FODMAP (easily digested for IBS sufferer) which would bring a similar type of sweetness to the broth: I’m talking here about the delicious carrot🥕🥕🥕! I have done the same previously with my Bolognese recipe (minus onion and garlic) and that is what gave me the idea to try it with the Pho dish.
Overall very happy with the final dish, I even tried a bit of non traditional toppings (forgive me Mum!) such as tofu, oyster mushrooms 🍄 (the only IBS friendly mushrooms!) and boiled eggs. It’s a very satisfying filling dish, low in calorie but packed with flavours, the results of several hours slowly stewing to extract the meat/bone juices and I can now enjoy it without any ugly consequences!👍🏻
Right, enough rambling for tonight, down with the recipe! Here we go:
My Low FODMAP Pho noodle soup 🍜
Servings: 4
Time required: 4 hours cooking time, 20 minutes prepping time, 10 platting time
Equipment required: Electric Slow cooker with a pot that can be used on the stove (or alternative you can cook it in a saucepan on the hob with a lid on)
Ingredients
- 600 g of pork ribs
- 1 large carrot
- 1 tbsp chives + extra for decorating
- 200 g of oyster mushrooms
- 1 thumbsize piece of fresh ginger root sliced
- 1 lemongrass stick sliced length way
- 1/2 cup of fish sauce
- 1.6 L of water
- 1 tbsp of sesame oil
- 1 star anis
- 6 cloves
- 1/2 tbsp of salt
- 1/4 tbsp of ground black pepper
- 200 g of rice noodles
Can be served with:
- Sprigs of Coriander
- Few Thai basil leaves
- Sriracha hot sauce
- Green beans
- Carrot julienne
- Firm tofu
- Soft boiled egg
- lime wedges
- sesame seeds
Instructions
- Add the sesame oil in the slow cooker pot on a medium high heat then brown the pork ribs on all sides
- Chop the carrots in large chunks alongside the mushrooms and add them to the pot
- Using the flat side of the knife, bruise the slices of ginger and lemongrass then add them as well
- Add the chives, fish sauce, water, cloves, star anis, salt and pepper
- Bring the pot to a simmer then place it back on its electric base on the “High” setting for 3h-4h (the longer you leave it, the deeper the flavour)
- Pick the meat out of the pot and reserve it on a plate (it should be almost falling apart by now!) and pour half the liquid in a saucepan (I prepared in batches of 2 bowls to avoid getting too messy with the noodles) then place on a medium heat to simmer the broth
- Blanche the green beans and carrots or any other veggies in the broth for 3-4 minutes then set aside
- Cook 2 portions of rice noodles according to the package instructions then using kitchen tongs, transfer and split the noodles into 2 bowls
- Now that the meat has cool down a bit to be handled, shred it into pieces using 2 forks (or just use your hands like me!)
- To assemble your bowl, place whichever toppings you like around the edge of the bowls then pour the pipping hot broth on top of the noodles
- Squeeze some lime, add a dash of sriracha and a sprinkle of fresh herbs. Enjoy! 🍜😁
For the tofu lovers, I choose a firm one that I pan fried with a bit of sesame oil before adding them on top of the bowl as it gives it nice charred marks.
If you want a healthy IBS friendly recipe, give this one a try, it will be worth it, promise! 😉 And let me know if you do on the comment section below! Thanks for reading! x
MyNutriNosh 