This week I whipped up of one of my all-time favorite Vietnamese soups, Pho (pronounced ‘fuh’), with a bit of a veggie-loaded kick to it.

So if you’ve ever had Pho, you know traditionally it has thin slices of meat and rice noodles in it, right?

But for this particular recipe I wanted to keep it ReBoot-friendly without the meat and use different mushrooms for the “meaty bite” alternative.  To keep it grain-free, I swapped out rice noodles with kelp noodles (lower in calories comparatively- kelp noodles have virtually nil), as well as an assortment of spiralized veggie noodles like zucchini and carrot.

Finished off with an epic veggie broth that has ginger, garlic, sesame oil, & lime, and some tasty toppings like mint, cilantro, scallion & chili, and this entire meal comes together very nicely as a tasty real food dinner meal for the fam or a great meal prep for our week.

This Veggie Pho is recipe-friendly:

• paleo
• vegetarian & vegan
• gluten & grain-free
• dairy-free
• ReBoot Protocol: Week 1+
• and made with 100% real food ingredients

This recipe makes 8 servings

INGREDIENTS

Broth:

10 cups vegetable broth

1/2 cup coconut aminos

1/4 cup sesame oil

1/4 cup lime juice, fresh squeezed (about 2-3 limes)

1 tablespoon ginger, freshly grated (large thumb size piece)

1 tablespoon garlic, freshly grated (2-3 large cloves)

Non-broth ingredients:

1 package kelp noodles (12 oz.)

2 green zucchini, spiralized

2 yellow zucchini, spiralized

2 carrots, spiralized

2 large portabello mushroom caps, sliced 1/2 inch

2 cups wild mushrooms (like shiitake, crimini, beech or a mix of all- I used beech in the pics)

1-2 cup mung bean sprouts 

1 cup cilantro, rough chopped

1/2 – 1 cup mint, rough chopped

1/2 – 1 cup scallion (green part), sliced

4 limes, halved or quartered (for serving with soup)

and then for optional heat, sliced red chili and/or sriracha

KITCHEN NOTES

1.  I use this vegetable spiralizer, a must have tool I recommend for our kitchen toolbox as it allows so many options for veggies & fruit we can use as pasta alternatives, for salads and much more.  A very versatile tool.
2. If you want to add thin slices of meat to this recipe like traditional Pho, perfectly fine if you fancy that.

Eat the rainbow:  some of our prepped ingredients

Broth and kelp noodles simmering on low 

Soup pot:  All ingredients getting happy together (note to self:  use bigger pot next time!)

Toppings:  all our cilantro, lime, scallion, mint and chili to add on top of each bowl when we serve

METHOD

1.  Take all broth ingredients and add to a large soup pot on medium-high heat and whisk together well while it begins to warm up.
2.  Drain, rinse and pat dry the kelp noodles and add to the broth.
3.  Reduce the heat to low, add lid, and let the kelp noodles simmer in the broth for 30 minutes (this will get them more tender).
4.  While the kelp noodles are getting happy, let’s prep our other ingredients:
   1. Spiralize carrot and zucchini into veggie noodles
   2. Dry scrub our mushrooms (I like a veggie brush like this) and slice our portabello caps in 1/2 inch slices (see “soup pot” pic above how I sliced)
   3. Prep our toppings (see “topping” pic above)
5. After 30 minutes of the kelp noodles getting tender, add the carrot & zucchini noodles, mung bean sprouts, and all the mushrooms to the broth.  Stir all.  
6. Let all simmer for another 30-45 minutes on low with the lid on.
7. When it’s done, the kelp noodles should be tender and the veggie noodles should still have some “bite” to them (if they get too cooked, they can fall apart really easily).  This is how I prefer it, but if you like even more tender veggie noodles, let it keep simmering on low until it’s ready to your liking.
8. Let’s serve this bowl of delicious:  what I do is use a soup serving spoon like a ladle to put some broth in a bowl.  Then I take some kitchen tongs and grab little bits of each to fill up my bowl.
9. Finally, top off the bowl with a nice big pinch of each topping you fancy:  cilantro, mint, scallion, chili and lime slices for squeezing over everything.
10. Chow down and make happy belly.

Buon Appetito!