Bun Bo Nam Bo – Vietnamese recipe

This Vietnamese recipe is one of my favorite dishes in the world. The combination of noodles soaked in the fish sauce with fresh garlic and very tender beef is absolutely delicious. Not to mention the addition of the mint and different type of green salad, I could eat this every day.

It is not particularly light, the beef takes a lot of time to digest, but other than that, it is very fresh. As for the preparation, I thought it would be very complicated to prepare because of the many ingredients, but it is actually quite fast.

bun bo nam boBun Bo Nam Bo
Servings: 2
Time: 45 min
Difficulty: medium

Ingredients

For marinating the beef:
  • 200g beef steak
  • 1 tsp of oyster sauce
  • 1 tsp of minced garlic
  • 1 tsp of minced ginger (or lemon grass if you have that)
  • 1 tsp of sugar
  • 2 tbsp of sunflower oil
  • one pinch of salt
  • one pinch of pepper
For the sauce:
  • 2 tbsp of sugar
  • 2 tbsp of fish sauce
  • 1 tbsp of soy sauce (not mandatory)
  • 10 tbsp of water
  • 1 tsp of minced garlic
  • 1 cut cayenne pepper or any other spicy pepper
  • 2 tbsp of fresh lime juice
For the rest of the bowl:
  • 250g of vermicelli rice
  • 1 carrot thinly sliced or a can of pickled carrots
  • 1 cucumber
  • fried onion
  • roasted peanuts
  • green salads (mint is a must, cilantro, iceberg salad and I used in this one kale too)

Directions

  1. Cut the beef steak in VERY thin slices, this will make is very tender. Add all the ingredients over the meat: oyster sauce, garlic, ginger, oil, salt, sugar, pepper. Mix all the ingredients for a bit and let them marinate for 15 min.
  2. Prepare the vermicelli according to the instructions on the package and rinse them with cool water and let them rest in a strainer.
  3. Now it is time to prepare the sauce that will be poured over your dish: just mix all the ingredients above at the section “For the sauce”.
  4. In a bowl prepare on the bottom the salad: cilantro, mint, iceberg and kale.
  5. Add the vermicelli rice and arrange some cut cucumber and carrot on the edges.
  6. Heat a wok very well, add one tbsp of vegetable oil and put in the marinated mix. Stir well all the meat until it is no longer pink. It usually takes me for about one minute.
  7. Add the meat on the top of the dish and sprinkle a handful of fried onion (I buy this ready made from the supermarket) and as many roasted peanuts as you wish.
  8. Pour the sauce little by little until you reach the desired seasoning and enjoy this very delicious meal!