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Bun cha chay

January 4, 2023 by Lisa Le 5 Comments

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I’ve partnered with Impossible™ Beef Made From Plants to make delicious food that anyone will enjoy, whether they be omnivorous or plant-based! Today I’m recreating a famous Vietnamese dish, bún chả. Obama and Bourdain once ate this dish in Hanoi, and the restaurant, Bún chả Hương Liên, is often now referred to as Bún Chả Obama, which I think is delightful and hilarious.

bowl with dipping sauce, with impossible chả chay, noodles, and toppings in the bowl, Bowls of the toppings in the background

Bún chả is said to be from the northern region (Hanoi), and is known for the Vietnamese classic trifecta: refreshing, savoury, and balanced! My take on this dish is a plant-based version, making it bún chả chay!

What is chả?

The word “chả” in Vietnamese means sausage, and is often made with a variety of ingredients including beef, fish, pork, etc. I’m using Impossible Beef to create these juicy and flavourful meatballs that are the star of this dish.

Ingredients for bún chả chay arranged on a dark background

How to eat bún chả

You eat these meatballs with chewy rice vermicelli, crunchy kohlrabi and carrot pickles, with fresh vegetables in a light and savoury vegan fish sauce broth. It’s refreshing and satisfying, combining a balance of flavours and textures. I can see why Northern Vietnam loves this dish!

There are Southern Vietnamese dishes that are similar to this bun cha. However, the main difference is that you serve this with a more diluted broth. Then you pull noodles, pickles, and meatballs into the broth to enjoy. I grew up eating bún thịt nướng, which has a bed of rice vermicelli, pickled carrots and daikon, lettuce, ground peanuts, and the classic Vietnamese dipping sauce.

These meatballs are eaten in the south as well, but I believe they typically have more lemongrass (this recipe has none). We eat these over a bed of vermicelli noodles instead of in this broth. I’ve also seen these cut up in spring rolls! No matter how you eat it, it is delicious.

prepared ingredients for bun cha assembled and surrounding the individual serving bowl

There are many versions of bun cha, and the dipping broth often has green papaya and carrot. I’ve used kohlrabi because it’s more accessible than green papaya. Plus it’s easy to pickle with the carrots together.

The pickles for this dish differ from the other quick pickled carrots and daikon. The carrots are sliced as coins, and are salted first to draw out extra moisture, since they are a thicker cut.

bun cha bowl surrounded by extra toppings in separate dishes

Recipe Inspiration

Since I’m not from Northern Vietnam, I wanted to make sure my veganized attempt at this recipe did the dish justice. My recipe takes inspiration from the following fellow Vietnamese creators! Each of them have similar but unique takes on bún chả. I’m so grateful to see so many fellow Vietnamese recipe creators sharing food from our culture.

Helen’s Recipes

• Carmy Do via Budget Bytes

• Delightful Plate

• Vicky Pham

bowl with dipping sauce, with impossible chả chay, noodles, and toppings in the bowl, Bowls of the toppings in the background
Print Recipe

Bún chả chay – Caramelized Impossible™ Beef Made From Plants

Prep Time1 hour hr 15 minutes mins
Cook Time30 minutes mins
Total Time1 hour hr 45 minutes mins
Course: Asian
Cuisine: Vietnamese
Servings: 4 servings
Author: Lisa Le

Ingredients

Quick Pickled Kohlrabi and Carrot

  • 2 medium carrots peeled, and sliced
  • 2 medium kohlrabi peeled and sliced
  • 2 tsp 10 mL salt for 15 min
  • 2 tbsp 15 ml granulated white sugar
  • ¼ cup 60 mL white vinegar

Caramelized Impossible Beef Meatballs

  • 1.5 lbs 680 g Impossible™ Beef Made From Plants (2 packages)
  • 2 tbsp 30 mL vegan fish sauce
  • 1 tbsp 15 mL vegan oyster sauce
  • 1/4 tsp 1 mL nước màu** syrup or molasses
  • 1 tsp 5 mL mushroom broth powder (stock granules)
  • 1 tbsp 15 mL sugar
  • 1 medium shallot diced ~1/4 cup
  • 2 pinches MSG
  • 1/4 tsp 1 mL finely ground black pepper

Dipping Sauce/Broth

  • ½ cup 125 mL vegan fish sauce
  • ½ cup 125 mL granulated white sugar
  • 4 cups 1 L water
  • 1 lime juiced

Garnishes:

  • 3 cloves garlic minced (not crushed)
  • 1 bird’s eye Thai chili pepper, finely sliced
  • 6-8 leaves green leaf lettuce
  • 2 sprigs cilantro finely chopped (tender stem can be used)
  • Fine rice vermicelli noodles bún tươi, cooked (375 g package)

Instructions

Quick Pickled Kohlrabi and Carrot

  • In a large bowl, mix together sliced kohlrabi, carrot, and 2 tsp salt. Mix until well coated and let sit for 15-20 minutes to extract excess water to get a crunchier pickle. Mix every 5-10 min to get an even extraction. (At this point, you can begin marinating the Impossible Beef meatballs)
  • Rinse and drain, then return to the mixing bowl. Add 2 tbsp sugar and ¼ cup vinegar, and mix well to combine. Transfer to a container and let pickle in the fridge. You can eat this immediately, but best to wait at least an hour for the veg to absorb the flavour.

Caramelized Impossible Beef Meatballs

  • In a large mixing bowl, combine two packages of Impossible Beef, 2 tbsp of vegan fish sauce, 1 tbsp of vegan oyster sauce, ¼ tsp nước màu syrup (or molasses), 1 tsp mushroom broth powder, 1 tbsp sugar, 1 diced medium shallot, 2 pinches MSG, and ¼ tsp ground black pepper. Mix well and let marinate for about 30 minutes.
  • To cook, scoop into 3 tbsp sized balls, and shape to a flattened round shape. This should make about 18 meatballs. Cook in a nonstick pan over medium heat, flipping to caramelize both sides until cooked through. Remove from heat and set aside.

Dipping Sauce/Broth

  • In a small pot, combine ½ cup vegan fish sauce, ½ cup granulated sugar, and 3.5 cups water. Heat until the sugar is dissolved. Add the juice of one lime once sugar is dissolved.
  • When serving this dish, heat the dipping sauce through (as desired, you can bring to a boil and your ingredients will cool it as you eat anyway). 

Garnishes

  • To cook your noodles, bring a large pot of water to a boil, then add the rice vermicelli noodles. Cook until tender and chewy, but not overcooked (about 5 minutes). Drain and immediately rinse with cold water. I usually pre-separate the noodles into serving sized clumps for easier serving. Set aside to drain in a colander while you prepare the remaining ingredients.
  • Chop your garlic and chili and place in a small bowl for people to add to their bowls as desired. Chop lettuce to bite sized pieces, and finely chop cilantro. Set all the garnishes in the middle of the table for people to grab as desired.

To serve:

  • In individual bowls, spoon about 1 cup of the warmed dipping sauce, then add garlic, chili pepper, and cilantro (as you like it). Add the caramelized Impossible Beef meatballs, then the quick pickled kohlrabi and carrot, and eat with the lettuce and noodles. Dip the noodles and lettuce into the dipping sauce and enjoy, getting a bite of everything as you eat!


Notes

Nước màu translates to "colour water", which is typically made with caramelizing sugar until you have a deep amber colour. A lot of people make this at home and don't use a concentrated syrup, which would mean you use about 1 tbsp for this dish, but I'm using the concentrated syrup bought at the Asian market. If you don't have access to this but you have molasses, use molasses. They have a similar flavour profile and will add colour to your caramelized meatballs!
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Filed Under: Noodles, Recipes from TikTok, Vegan recipes, Vietnamese Tagged With: bun cha, vegan

About Lisa Le

Lisa is the thirty-something, nerdy, procrastinating, feminist blogger and photographer behind The Viet Vegan. She loves spicy foods, noodles, and food in bowls.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Kate says

    January 11, 2023 at 12:05 PM

    This was an amazing recipe! I tried it last night.
    •I used brown sugar instead of molasses and sugar, and the meatballs were still a delicious flavor, though I’m sure they’d be even better with an authetic caramelized sugar, but we are trying to use what we have. I only had one package of Impossible to use and made about half the meatballs and it was perfect for 2.
    •I also used a red/purple turnip because I couldn’t find kohlrabi (or green papaya) anywhere near us, and the pickled veggies were still amazing.
    My spouse said this was “restaurant quality”!

    Reply
    • Lisa Le says

      February 14, 2023 at 1:50 PM

      Omg yay! I’m so glad to hear that. Red/purple turnip must have been beautiful!!

      Reply
  2. Vanessa says

    February 19, 2023 at 1:28 PM

    This recipe is freaking divine! Thank you so much for this. Since we can’t get immpossible meat in Germany, we used an alternative. And we replaced the molasses and sugar with some maple syrup. That was awesome. Please many more veganized Vietnamese recipes!

    Reply
  3. Helen says

    December 20, 2024 at 11:58 PM

    My family is Hanoian. Your recipe looks good, but more sweet (which is very southern of you, lol, but that is okay.. that is all to taste!). The missing ingredient though is garlic. My mom’s has both shallots or green onion and plenty of minced garlic in the “meat.”

    Reply
    • Lisa Le says

      February 27, 2025 at 10:50 AM

      Thank you so much for sharing that!!

      Reply

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