I love to cook, I find it fun and relaxing. But even I have nights when I just don't want to cook, or I don't know what to cook.
As a family we sit down and have dinner together every night, some nights someone might have plans and won't join us, but whoever is home, we sit down together for dinner and then spend about an hour just chatting away about what's happened that day. For me Thursdays are difficult, my husband and two of my kids get home after 6pm, at that time I'm already at soccer training with my youngest which finishes at 7pm, I'm not home until 7:30pm. Now on organised days, I'll have slow cooked something earlier in the day and someone will reheat it for my 7:30pm arrival and we sit down and eat as soon as I get home. But when I'm not organised, it's chaos, by the time I start cooking it's 9pm before we eat dinner.
This soup came about as I had no idea what to cook one day and I just didn't feel like cooking, I needed something that was quick and easy to make. I went through my cookbooks and found one called Faking It, I thought perfect, flicked through the book, saw this recipe and had to try it. Now we love pho, but it usually involves hours of cooking, this one takes about 20 minutes. Was I concerned it would be bland, absolutely, was I wrong, absolutely. If I didn't tell my family this was a 'cheats pho', they wouldn't even know.
With the meat, I have never even thought to use sliced rare roast beef (which you buy at the deli). I have eaten it before, but never thought you could cook it. It worked beautifully. I added some thinly sliced fresh eye fillet also, but you can just use the rare roast beef if you like.
So here is a midweek meal idea that we loved and no one will know you haven't spent hours in the kitchen making it.
As a family we sit down and have dinner together every night, some nights someone might have plans and won't join us, but whoever is home, we sit down together for dinner and then spend about an hour just chatting away about what's happened that day. For me Thursdays are difficult, my husband and two of my kids get home after 6pm, at that time I'm already at soccer training with my youngest which finishes at 7pm, I'm not home until 7:30pm. Now on organised days, I'll have slow cooked something earlier in the day and someone will reheat it for my 7:30pm arrival and we sit down and eat as soon as I get home. But when I'm not organised, it's chaos, by the time I start cooking it's 9pm before we eat dinner.
This soup came about as I had no idea what to cook one day and I just didn't feel like cooking, I needed something that was quick and easy to make. I went through my cookbooks and found one called Faking It, I thought perfect, flicked through the book, saw this recipe and had to try it. Now we love pho, but it usually involves hours of cooking, this one takes about 20 minutes. Was I concerned it would be bland, absolutely, was I wrong, absolutely. If I didn't tell my family this was a 'cheats pho', they wouldn't even know.
With the meat, I have never even thought to use sliced rare roast beef (which you buy at the deli). I have eaten it before, but never thought you could cook it. It worked beautifully. I added some thinly sliced fresh eye fillet also, but you can just use the rare roast beef if you like.
So here is a midweek meal idea that we loved and no one will know you haven't spent hours in the kitchen making it.
Recipe
Recipe adapted from the cookbook Faking It by Valli Little
Serves 5
250g flat rice stick noodles
1 tablespoon sunflower oil
6 spring onions, sliced on an angle
2cm piece ginger, peeled, very thinly sliced
1 small red chilli, seeds removed, finely chopped
4 cups (1 litre) beef stock (or consomme)
200g shitake mushrooms, sliced
1/3 cup (80ml) fish sauce
1/3 cup lime juice
200g bean sprouts
1/4 cup coriander leaves, plus extra to serve
1/4 cup mint leaves, plus extra to serve
250g thinly sliced rare roast beef
250g eye fillet steak, thinly sliced
Chilli Jam or Sambal Oelek, to serve, optional
Heat the oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the spring onion, ginger and chilli and cook, stirring, for 2-3 minutes, until onion is soft. Add the beef stock and 1 cup (250ml) water, then bring to the boil. Add in the shitake mushrooms, decrease the heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, soften the noodles in a bowl of boiling water according to packet instructions.
To the soup, stir in the fish sauce and lime juice. Taste the soup, here I added an additional 1 cup (250ml) water as I found the flavour strong, this optional and to taste.
Divide the noodles, bean sprouts, coriander, mint, rare roast beef and eye fillet steak among soup bowls, then ladle over the broth. Add extra herbs if you like.
Serves 5
250g flat rice stick noodles
1 tablespoon sunflower oil
6 spring onions, sliced on an angle
2cm piece ginger, peeled, very thinly sliced
1 small red chilli, seeds removed, finely chopped
4 cups (1 litre) beef stock (or consomme)
200g shitake mushrooms, sliced
1/3 cup (80ml) fish sauce
1/3 cup lime juice
200g bean sprouts
1/4 cup coriander leaves, plus extra to serve
1/4 cup mint leaves, plus extra to serve
250g thinly sliced rare roast beef
250g eye fillet steak, thinly sliced
Chilli Jam or Sambal Oelek, to serve, optional
Heat the oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the spring onion, ginger and chilli and cook, stirring, for 2-3 minutes, until onion is soft. Add the beef stock and 1 cup (250ml) water, then bring to the boil. Add in the shitake mushrooms, decrease the heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, soften the noodles in a bowl of boiling water according to packet instructions.
To the soup, stir in the fish sauce and lime juice. Taste the soup, here I added an additional 1 cup (250ml) water as I found the flavour strong, this optional and to taste.
Divide the noodles, bean sprouts, coriander, mint, rare roast beef and eye fillet steak among soup bowls, then ladle over the broth. Add extra herbs if you like.
Enjoy!
To save the recipe to your favourites go to www.whatscookingella.com/quick-beef-pho.html
Pin it: www.pinterest.com.au/pin/399413060716598845/
Pin it: www.pinterest.com.au/pin/399413060716598845/
RSS Feed