I am sorry for the long silence here, but I was on vacation and then got knocked down by a cold or flu, so I did not really feel like being creative in the kitchen. However, I do like a strong vegetable broth like this delicious vegetarian pho. I have already mentioned that I was introduced to the vietnamese kitchen by a former co-worker, who was vietnamese. It was him who told me that it’s not pronounced “pho” but “pha”. Something nobody seems to believe when I tell them – but I won’t stop calling it pha.

My co-worker was also a great cook, and told me about the vietnamese cuisine, and its signature spices. The secret to a good pho are all the spices such as star anise, cinnamon sticks, cloves, coriander and ginger. They need to be roasted before setting up the broth, so they really become fragrant.

Besides from all the spices that make the broth so delicious, there is also warming red onions and garlic involved, to make it taste more like a broth. Even though the original pho is usually a beef broth, I believe that this vegetarian version is even more delicious as the spices, onions and garlic add a unique and strong flavor.

You may add whatever vegetables you have in stock, but I especially recommend using shiitake mushrooms and bok choy as they are not only rich in minerals, they also taste amazing in combination with the broth. If you can, try to find brown rice noodles as they are more nutritious than white rice noodles. However, they are hard to find where I live, so I use white rice noodles anyways.

Nobody’s perfect. Am I right?

I really hope that you’ll like this soup just as much as I do. Let me know what your favorite Asian cuisine is, I’d love to add more Asian recipes to the blog.

Enjoy!

DID YOU MAKE THIS RECIPE OR HAVE ANY SUGGESTIONS, QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS?

Feel free to leave a comment below, and don’t forget to tag your creations on social media using #heavenlynnhealthy.

I’d love for this blog to be a dialogue.

The post Vegetarian Pho appeared first on Heavenlynn Healthy.

Amazingly delicious vietnamese banh mi bowl with the most amazing vegan meatballs!

For those of you unfamiliar with the term banh mi, it is a vietnamese baguette traditionally filled with pork, cilantro, pickled carrots, cucumber and a bit of lettuce and mayo. When I first tried banh mi at an authentic vietnamese food truck in Houston, Texas (yes, I do get the irony in my words) – I thought it was the most delicious thing I had ever eaten. However, I can indeed say that my taste experience was traditional as I went there with one of my colleagues who was born and raised in Vietnam. 

Nico, my vietnamese colleague, also introduced me to Pho (which is actually not pronounced with an “o” but rather with a long “a” at the end (yes, you’re welcome), and that very sweet vietnamese coffee made from sweet milk. During me six-months-internship, I learned so much more about Vietnam because Nico and I shared an office, and we taught each other to say things in Vietnamese and German. Apparently I am really bad at Vietnamese, because he would just laugh every time I pronounced something. Yes, apparently Vietnamese people are even more straight-forward than Germans are.

So, when I had a banh mi at the Amsterdam Foodhallen again last December, I knew I wanted to make a recipe out of it for the blog. Of course I wanted it to be healthy, but still delicious, which was not that easy given all the rather unhealthy ingredients such as mayo and pork that you find in the traditional dish. So as my boyfriend and I are totally addicted to “bliss bowls” (basically a fancy name for salad bowls of random ingredients mixed with a delicious dressing), I knew that I would simply turn it into a banh mi bowl.

However, I still needed something to make it a bit fancier by adding some kind of meat-substitute and tofu wasn’t an option here. I am usually not a big fan of meat-substitutes, and I never buy them, but I do think that every salad needs some kind of protein. This led me to quinoa, which then led me to the absurde idea to turn quinoa into meatballs. Since I am not really good at making meatballs either, I looked up a simple recipe that showed me how to make regular meatballs, and I realized that it all comes down to onions, herbs and salt and pepper.

So long story short, I simply mixed quinoa with cilantro, red onions, garlic, ground nuts for texture, a flax egg and a bit of sambal olek for spice – and I was in pure meatballs heaven.

Seriously, it’s the onions that make meatballs taste like meatballs. Not the meat.

As I have a weird sense that someone will criticize me for this sentence, I better stop now and present you the delicious recipe. Now, I know that it looks like a lot of ingredients, but you actually just need the ingredients for the quinoa “meat”balls and avocado mayo and use the ingredients you have in your fridge

Enjoy!

DID YOU MAKE THIS RECIPE OR HAVE ANY SUGGESTIONS, QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS?

Feel free to leave a comment below, and don’t forget to tag your creations on social media using #heavenlynnhealthy.

I’d love for this blog to be a dialogue.

The post Vietnamese Banh Mi Bowl with plant based quinoa meatballs appeared first on Heavenlynn Healthy.