6 Easy Vietnamese Recipes You Can Make at Home (2024)

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Have a hankering for Vietnamese food? We've got 6 easy recipes you can totally make at home, from a quick wok-kissed beef pho to lettuce wraps.

By

Simply Recipes Team

6 Easy Vietnamese Recipes You Can Make at Home (1)

Simply Recipes Team

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Published May 14, 2019

6 Easy Vietnamese Recipes You Can Make at Home (2)

6 Easy Vietnamese Recipes You Can Make at Home (3)

Here at Simply Recipes, we often partner with cookbook authors and recipe writers who want to share their skills, cuisines, and recipes with us. For the past few months, we've partnered with Andrea Nguyen, an award-winning recipe writer and cookbook author, most recently of Vietnamese Food Any Day: Simple Recipes for True, Fresh Flavors.

Below we've included some thoughts from Andrea on how her recipes came to be.

"Vietnamese cooks have always been resourceful and innovative, doing their best under harsh circ*mstance, foreign intrusion, and displacement. My family came to America in 1975 and in our efforts to resettle here, we mined American supermarkets to cook the flavors we missed.

Like many displaced people (my parents are northerners who’d migrated to Saigon decades earlier and raised five kids during the Vietnam War), we made do and shared new ideas with our community.

In the main, those new ideas were rooted in foundational cooking but were also forward looking. They helped people realize that they could be Vietnamese in America but more importantly, to become Vietnamese Americans.

The exciting initial years were full of discovery and learning. Just like in the motherland, people cooked with care — a notion that’s expressed in the Viet term khéo, which means “smart” and “adroit”, but when applied to cooking, it conveys food that’s been thoughtfully and skillfully prepared with intention and a grounding in the fundamentals.

Mostly based on my latest cookbook, Vietnamese Food Any Day, the recipes in this Simply Recipes collection reflect the Vietnamese notion of khéo in how it captures the essence of Vietnamese foodways. I incorporate cultural notes in the recipe write ups [you'll have to click through to the actual recipes] to explain the roots and foundations of the recipes.

For example, char siu chicken is based on a [Chinese recipe] char siu pork (thịt xá xíu); the reason for chicken is it’s faster to marinate and cook, is delicious and people cook up lots of chicken nowadays. The wok seared beef pho is a quickie take on a 1940s dish that my mother had in Hai Duong, where she grew up; if you’d like the original version, check out my book, “The Pho Cookbook.”

We encourage you to spend a little time with these recipes. Hopefully, they’ll add a few new ideas to your repertoire!

If you want to learn more about Andrea Nguyen, ingredients used in Vietnamese cooking (and other cuisines as well), cooking equipment and her approach to Vietnamese Food follow these links:

  • Beginners Guide to Cooking Vietnamese Food at Home
  • Ingredient Spotlight: Fish Sauce
  • Kitchen Essentials for Cooking Vietnamese Food at Home
  • Explore all our Vietnamese Recipes
  • Andrea's website: VietWorldKitchen.com
  • Beginners Guide to Cooking Vietnamese Food at Home
  • Ingredient Spotlight: Fish Sauce
  • Kitchen Essentials for Cooking Vietnamese Food at Home
  • Explore all our Vietnamese Recipes
  • Andrea's website: VietWorldKitchen.com

The only tough part is deciding which one to start with!

  • Easy Wok-Kissed Beef Pho

    Half the battle of a good pho is the broth—but pho need not take hours to get right! This one leans on good quality supermarket broth that gets its oomph from by simmering it with spices. The beef gets a quick turn in a hot wok.

  • Curry-Scented Grilled Beef Lettuce Wraps

    6 Easy Vietnamese Recipes You Can Make at Home (5)

    My kids devoured these. The curry flavor is well balanced, the dipping sauce is awesome, and you can even transform these little lettuce wraps into burgers if you’re feeling adventurous!

  • Crispy Sweet Potato Pancake Lettuce Wraps

    6 Easy Vietnamese Recipes You Can Make at Home (6)

    When I made these little sweet potato and carrot fritters in order to photograph them for the post, we destroyed them in a matter of minutes. It’s a great appetizer or snack, or double the recipe and make them for dinner.

  • Char Siu Chicken

    6 Easy Vietnamese Recipes You Can Make at Home (7)

    Vietnamese Food is heavily influenced by Chinese culture and that includes the sweet, garlicky barbecued pork called char siu. In this recipe, Andrea applies the same flavor profile to chicken for a quick weeknight dinner.

    Continue to 5 of 6 below.

  • Chicken Curry with Sweet Potato and Lemongrass

    6 Easy Vietnamese Recipes You Can Make at Home (8)

    There’s nothing like the comfort of a warm bowl of curry, and this one delivers. If you’ve never worked with lemongrass before, this recipe may convert you to the charms of this bright, zippy ingredient.

  • Easy Mango Lime Sorbet

    6 Easy Vietnamese Recipes You Can Make at Home (9)

    I’ve always got frozen mango in my freezer. And I almost always have limes, especially in the summer. Does this sound like you? If so, that means you can make this sorbet without using any fancy equipment in just a matter of minutes. It’s delicious!

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6 Easy Vietnamese Recipes You Can Make at Home (2024)

FAQs

What are the 5 elements of Vietnamese food? ›

Vietnamese cuisine encompasses the foods and beverages originated from Vietnam. Meals feature a combination of five fundamental tastes (ngũ vị): sweet, salty, bitter, sour, and spicy.

What is the most common meal in Vietnam? ›

Pho might be Vietnam's most famous dish but bun cha is the top choice when it comes to lunchtime in the capital. Just look for the clouds of meaty smoke after 11 a.m. when street-side restaurants start grilling up small patties of seasoned pork and slices of marinated pork belly over a charcoal fire.

What are the top 5 foods in Vietnam? ›

The top 5 Vietnamese foods you need to try
  • Banh xeo. Banh xeo literally means 'sizzling pancake'. ...
  • Goi Cuon. This Vietnamese appetizer is fresh, cold, and so delicious. ...
  • Cao Lau noodles. ...
  • Pho. ...
  • Banh mi.
Oct 14, 2019

What do Vietnamese eat daily? ›

The traditional Vietnamese diet is healthy. Meals emphasize rice, vegetables and fish, and cooking methods often involve steaming or stir-frying. Rice is the staple of the diet, consumed in some form in almost every meal.

What is the most delicious dish in Vietnam? ›

Phở is the quintessential Vietnamese dish, the word phở referring to the type of noodle used in the recipe. Flat rice noodles dance around with medium-rare slivers of beef or boiled chicken in a hearty beef stock. The more popular of the two widely known varieties is phở Hanoi.

What do Vietnamese eat for dinner? ›

Dinner is the main meal of the day in Vietnam. The offering usually includes one or two main dishes, such as fried fish, steamed chicken or stewed pork; one side of boiled or stir-fried vegetables and one bowl of soup broth. Steamed rice is a given for most meals.

What is classic Vietnamese food? ›

Some common dishes in Vietnam include: Pho: a popular noodle soup made with broth, rice noodles, and meat (often beef or chicken) Banh mi: a sandwich made with a baguette, pickled vegetables, and various meats (such as grilled pork or chicken) Spring rolls: thin.

What organs are in pho? ›

Variations feature slow-cooked tendon, tripe, or meatballs in southern Vietnam. Chicken pho is made using the same spices as beef, but the broth is made using chicken bones and meat, as well as some internal organs of the chicken, such as the heart, the undeveloped eggs, and the gizzard.

What does pho consist of? ›

Pho is a Vietnamese soup consisting of bone broth, rice noodles, and thinly sliced meat (usually beef). It may also be served with bean sprouts, fresh herbs, limes, chiles, and other garnishes. The origins of pho are a bit murky, but it is generally believed to have originated in early 20th century northern Vietnam.

What food is Vietnam known for? ›

  • Pho - A famous Vietnamese food that has its name added to the dictionary.
  • Bun rieu cua (Vietnamese rice vermicelli with crab)
  • Banh mi (Vietnamese bread)
  • Chuoi nep nuong (Grilled banana wrapped in sticky rice)
  • Bun bo Hue (Hue beef noodle soup) - One of the most famous dishes in Vietnam.
  • Che (Vietnamese sweet soup)

What do Vietnamese eat at home? ›

Popular Recipes
  • Vietnamese Sweet and Sour Fish Soup (Canh Chua Ca)
  • Vietnamese Sizzling Crispy and Savory Crepes (Bánh Xèo)
  • Northern Vietnam Vermicelli Noodles with Grilled Pork Meatballs (Bun Cha Hanoi)
  • Vietnamese Beef Noodle Soup (Pho Bo)
  • Easy Chinese-Style Soy Sauce Braised Pork Ribs.

What is a Vietnamese dessert? ›

Vietnamese sweet soup, or "che", is a traditional dessert enjoyed throughout Vietnam. Made from a variety of ingredients such as beans, fruits, nuts, and glutinous rice, che is a sweet and refreshing treat, perfect for satisfying your sweet tooth on a hot day.

What is the national dish of Vietnam? ›

Pho is the national dish of Vietnam and is sold everywhere from nice restaurants to street corners where grandmothers set up makeshift kitchens. For this version, all of the components—noodles, beef brisket broth, herbs, chiles—are served separately.

What is a typical Vietnamese dinner? ›

2. Typical Vietnamese meal. The typical Vietnamese meal consists of a bowl of rice, and vegetables and the main dish is meat or fish.. Vegetables are often grown in the front garden of the house and include soybeans, sweet potatoes, corn, greens of various kinds, onions, and other root crops.

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