Today’s recipe is sponsored by Produce Made Simple, my favourite resource for all things fruits and veg!
This Instant Pot Vegan Pho uses the traditional charred elements in Vietnamese Pho with a few extra ingredients to amp up the flavour.
I previously shared a recipe for Vietnamese Vegan Pho a while back, and I wanted to share another version that uses the Instant Pot to create a bit more depth in flavour and saves you a bit on time. The stovetop version typically takes about 2 hours to make, but in the Instant Pot, I’m able to cut it down to 1 hour (which includes coming up to pressure and coming down from pressure), without sacrificing the depth of flavour from simmering these ingredients for a long time.
One of the reasons why I tend to procrastinate my Vietnamese recipes is because they require a few extra ingredients that a lot of people may not have access to. In this recipe, the extras like fried gluten, the Vietnamese sausage, or even the mushroom broth powder are a little harder to find. I’m hoping that the extra umami from the mushrooms and the seared cabbage will add some more layers of flavour that we didn’t have before.
Lime juice will always brighten up the soup, and if you don’t have mushroom broth powder, you can always add dried mushrooms to the cooking process. Season the broth with some soy sauce and sea salt in the end. In any case, the spices are truly what give this soup the fragrant, classic pho flavour, so don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t make pho vegan!
A big shout-out to Produce Made Simple for collaborating with me on this recipe as well as sharing another vegan recipe on their website! Be sure to check out my recipe on their channel as well!
Instant Pot Vegan Pho
Ingredients
- 1 large daikon radish, peeled and cut into 3 inch blocks
- 2 local cooking onions (I used ones from Ontario!), peeled and halved
- 1/2 green cabbage, cut into 4 wedges
- 3-4 inches large ginger (7 inches smaller ginger), halved
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
- 3 cups your favourite mushrooms (I used oyster, but cremini, shiitake, or portobello ones would be good too)
- 2 L (67 oz) water
- 5-6 pieces of star anise
- 1 tbsp coriander seed
- 1 tsp whole fennel seeds
- 3-4 pods of cardamom
- 2 sticks of cassia bark
- 1 tsp cloves
- 3.5 tbsp Mushroom Broth powder
To serve
- Thin flat rice noodles (1 package banh pho)
- Vegan vietnamese sausage (cha lua chay)
- Fried tofu
- Culantro
- Thai Basil
- Mung bean sprouts
- Hoisin Sauce
- Sriracha
- Fresh lime juice
Instructions
- On a dry skillet or over a flame, char the daikon radish, onions, cabbage wedges, and halved ginger until charred. Set aside.
- In the same skillet, cook mushrooms and oil until browned.
- Transfer the charred ingredients and mushrooms to an Instant pot and fill with 2 L water. Press everything down to be submerged under the water, be sure to be under the max fill line or the pot won't come up to pressure.
- Pressure cook on soup for 15 minutes, turning the vent to "Sealing". Once cooked, either let it release pressure naturally or manually (be careful as there will be a lot of steam with this amount of liquid).
- Remove the cabbage, onion, ginger, and daikon pieces but you can leave the mushrooms if you'd like to eat them. Using a nut bag or a fine mesh sieve, steep the star anise, coriander seed, cardamom, cassia bark (or cinnamon), and cloves for 10 minutes to infuse.
- Season with 3.5 tbsp mushroom broth powder, then serve with your favourite pho accoutrements!
Cadry says
This looks so good, Lisa!! Trader Joe’s is now selling umami seasoning, which is mushroom powder, a bunch of salt, and seasonings. I don’t think it would work one for one in your recipe, because of all the salt. However, it might be something that your readers will have access to more readily, and they could use a light hand with it.
Lisa Le says
Umami seasoning?! That sounds awseome! The mushroom broth powder I use is salted too, so maybe it would work!
Jennifer Bliss says
WOW! What a bowl!!!! Very nice!
Lisa Le says
Thanks Jennifer!
Amanda says
This looks so delicious!
cake lover says
nice recipe
Coco says
Looks great! Any tips on dry frying the first set of ingredients so they don’t stick to the pan?
Lisa Le says
If you leave it long enough it should release as it develops the char :)
Fred says
I am a new vegan of 90 days. I had my first bowl of Phó Chay Yesterday in San Jose. I almost cried I missed the flavor of Phó so much! It was very good! That sent me to YouTube right away to find a recipe. Having a new instant pot in finding your channel is a recipe for success! I will be trying this recipe as soon as possible. Thank you for making such a fun and informative video Lisa.
Lisa Le says
Congrats on 3 months vegan!! that’s amazing, I hope you can find all the ingredients and try this yourself :) I hope it hits the spot!
Rahul says
Hi Lisa,
I am very excited to make this. We actually have the smaller, 3 quart instant pot. Will all of the stuff fit, or are there some modifications we may have to make? Thanks!
Lisa Le says
Hi Rahul! You might have to half the recipe since there’s a lot of big vegetables that sit in it. I think the one i have is the 6 quart
Ileana says
Hi there! I hope you’re doing well! I been seeing all your videos about pho and I’m trying to find a place where I can buy some Cha Lua Chay and it’s kind of impossible… you should resale it to all your YouTube viewers and fans!! I will be the first one to buy it! Lol
Lisa Le says
Hahahah food resale is defintely not something I am qualified for XD But I hope you can find it soon!
Steven says
hi Lisa, this looks amazing. I cant wait to try it. I love the cha luah chay also, do you have a recipe for it?
Gillian Miles says
I’ve made this a couple times and will be making it many more! It is absolutely delicious. I have a 3qt instant pot so I halved the recipe and it worked out just fine. The mushroom powder is well worth buying! I also throw in a few dried shiitake mushrooms.
Kay says
Loved making this pho recipe, will definitely be using it again in the future!!