Easy Bun Rieu | Vietnamese Seafood Noodle Soup |

crab paste

🥗Healthier: tofu

💰Cheaper: canned crab

Tofu is lower in calories and offers a vegetarian option.

shrimp

🥗Healthier: chicken breast

💰Cheaper: fish

Chicken is leaner while fish is often less expensive.

Pound the deveined shrimp into a paste to maintain texture.

Open the can of crab paste, pour out some oil, and set it aside.

In a bowl, mix the ground pork with the crab paste, chopped green onions, fish sauce, and cornstarch using your hands.

Open the can of crab, reserve some crab juice, and add the rest of the crab to the meatball mixture, folding gently to keep crab chunks intact.

Refrigerate the meatball mixture for about 30 minutes to firm up.

Chop 3-4 tomatoes and 4-5 cloves of garlic.

Soak dried shrimp for 5-10 minutes, then mash into a paste using a mortar and pestle.

Heat 2 liters of chicken stock in a pot, adding shrimp shells for flavor, and boil briefly before removing them.

In a separate pot, heat the oil from the crab paste, then add garlic, dried shrimp paste, and chopped tomatoes.

Add the shrimp broth and the second liter of chicken broth to the pot.

Drop large spoonfuls of the meatball mixture into the broth once it reaches temperature.

Taste the broth and adjust flavor with water, chicken bouillon, or fish sauce as needed.

Prepare noodles (jelly noodles) and place them in bowls.

Top with herbs (Thai basil, sprouts, onions, cilantro) and serve.

Cooking Techniques

Equipment Needed

Spice Level:

Dietary

Allergens