Confession: I have never tried pho. For some reason, this seems like a rather egregious oversight as I greatly enjoy Vietnamese food in general. I suppose it's because when I did first try Vietnamese food, I stuck to bun, the cold noodle salad-esque dish, and summer rolls. Pho seemed rather exotic, with the thinly sliced, rare beef, that heaping plate of limes, bean sprouts, basil and cilantro (which I didn't know much about back then) and this strange, clear soup with noodles. Ironic, considering that a) I love noodle soups like Japanese udon and Korean neang-myun, and b) Korean neang-myun has got to be one of the strangest noodle soups a person can have, I mean it's cold soup for goodness sakes!
I sort of developed this dish while 1) perusing the web for soup recipes, 2) contemplating uses for rotisserie chicken meat, and 3) craving Asian flavors. I stumbled upon this Asian Chicken Noodle Soup and was intrigued by the addition of lime. I had also noticed some recipes for hot and sour soup which use lemon/lime to add the sour. Because I've made my own noodle soups before, using a fish-stock base and adding some veggies, I didn't follow the recipe exactly (what's new) and tried this variation:
I started by boiling water for the noodles, soba in this case, one bundle. I have found that half of the cooked bundle is a perfect serving size for one bowl of soup. Sometimes I use other types of noodles (I especially like those ramen noodles that come with packaged ramen--some are so cheap I buy the package for the noodles and throw the soup base out).
Meanwhile, I started heating up my homemade chicken stock (1 cup, plus 1 cup of water). To this I added shredded chicken (taken from the rotisserie chicken I bought to make the homemade chicken stock), some cilantro stalks (cannot get enough cilantro), salt and soy sauce to taste (amazing how the flavor of homemade chicken stock comes through with just a small bit of salt).
I prepped the veggies I wanted to use: a handful of snow peas, scallions cut in strips, and the leafy parts of cilantro. I actually added more cilantro to the final soup than what is pictured above. Other veggies I've added in the past: spinach, mushrooms. Other veggies I plan to add in the future: watercress, bok choy.
Key ingredient: this bottle is practically empty because I use so much of it. I added nearly a tablespoon directly into the broth simmering on the stove, which is probably too much but I love the heat.
Scallions and snow peas added.
Bowl is ready for the broth!
It is very difficult to take a photo while pouring hot soup into a bowl.
Add a squeeze of lime juice (or a splash from a bottle if you're a cheater like me) and garnish with yet more cilantro! I think the lime juice cuts down on the heat. I'll bet this would be great with shrimp instead of chicken.
Why did I start this post with pho? I guess because after eating this a few times, I realized it was actually a Vietnamese-esque soup because of the cilantro and lime, which I thought was funny because I had always been turned off by the idea of pho for those exact two ingredients. They say your tastebuds change every seven years (where did I read this?), and timing-wise, that's just about right. Give or take three years.
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