Beef bo bun
A Vietnamese speciality, bo bun is a complete, balanced salad full of contrasting flavours and textures.
Beef bo bun
Main Preparation 35 minutes
Service 4 people
Difficulty 5/10
Ingredients
- 500g beef cut into strips
- 8 nems
- 2 carrots
- ½ cucumber
- 100g soy sprouts
- 1 clove garlic
- Fresh mint, coriander/cilantro or basil
- 1 stalks lemongrass
- 250g fresh or dried thin rice noodles
- 3 tbsp soy sauce
- 4 tbsp nuoc mam fish sauce
- Sunflower oil
- 2 tbsp sugar
Preparation
- To make the sauce, mix the sugar with the nuoc mam and two tbsp water in a pan. Heat gently to melt the sugar, then leave to cool and set aside. The sauce will be drizzled over the salad at the end of the recipe.
- Julienne the carrots and the cucumber.
- Rinse the soy shoots, soak in boiling water for 2 mins, then rinse again to remove the bitterness.
- Cut the beef into very thin strips and place them in a dish. Finely chop the lemongrass and place it on the beef strips.
- Mix the soy sauce and finely chopped garlic in a bowl. Pour the marinade over the beef and mix. Leave the beef to marinate in the fridge for 30 mins.
- Cook the rice noodles in plenty of boiling water. Once they are cooked, plunge them into a large bowl of cold water.
- Fry the meat (without the marinade) in an oiled frying pan.
- Crisp up the nems by heating them in the oven.
- Plate up the rice noodles, julienne vegetables, soy sprouts, beef strips and nems cut into rounds. Sprinkle with chopped herbs and drizzle with the sauce prepared earlier.
- Add a sprinkling of roasted peanuts to give your bo bun extra crunch!
The Chef's twist
For a vegetarian version, replace the beef with tempeh. It’s surprisingly tasty!