Phở Bò — Vietnamese Beef Noodle Soup
Vietnam's national dish: a crystal-clear beef broth perfumed with charred ginger, onion, star anise and cinnamon, poured over silky rice noodles and paper-thin slices of beef. Finished at the table with fresh herbs, lime and chili.
Servings
Ingredients
Nutrition
Per serving
Steps
Clean the bones
Put the bones in a large pot, cover with about 3 liters of cold water, and boil hard for 10 minutes. Drain, rinse the bones under cold water, and wash the pot to remove the grey foam so the broth stays clear.
- 1.5kg beef bones
- about 3 liters water
✅ Done when: bones look clean and the rinse water runs clear, with no grey foam
Char the onion, ginger and spices
While the bones boil, hold the onion halves and ginger directly over a gas flame or under a hot broiler for about 5 minutes until black in spots. In a dry pan over medium heat, toast the , cinnamon, cloves and coriander seeds for about 2 minutes until fragrant.
- 2 onions
- 80g fresh ginger
- 5
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 4 cloves
- 1 tbsp coriander seeds
✅ Done when: onion and ginger are blackened in spots and the spices smell toasted
Simmer the broth
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Season and strain
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Fill the bowls
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Pour the broth and serve
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Clean the bones
Put the bones in a large pot, cover with about 3 liters of cold water, and boil hard for 10 minutes. Drain, rinse the bones under cold water, and wash the pot to remove the grey foam so the broth stays clear.
- 1.5kg beef bones
- about 3 liters water
✅ Done when: bones look clean and the rinse water runs clear, with no grey foam
Char the onion, ginger and spices
While the bones boil, hold the onion halves and ginger directly over a gas flame or under a hot broiler for about 5 minutes until black in spots. In a dry pan over medium heat, toast the , cinnamon, cloves and coriander seeds for about 2 minutes until fragrant.
- 2 onions
- 80g fresh ginger
- 5
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 4 cloves
- 1 tbsp coriander seeds
✅ Done when: onion and ginger are blackened in spots and the spices smell toasted
Simmer the broth
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Season and strain
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Fill the bowls
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Pour the broth and serve
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The Story Behind the Dish
Phở emerged in northern Vietnam in the early 1900s, around Hanoi and the textile province of Nam Định. Historians usually point to a meeting of influences: Chinese noodle-soup traditions and spice trading on one side, and the French colonial appetite for beef on the other, which made bones and cheap cuts newly available to Vietnamese cooks.
Street vendors carried it through the city on shoulder poles — a pot of simmering broth hanging at one end, noodles and herbs at the other. After the country was divided in 1954, northerners who moved south took phở with them, and Saigon cooks added the plate of fresh herbs, bean sprouts and lime that many people now consider essential.
When Vietnamese communities settled abroad after 1975, phở travelled again. Today it is one of the most recognised soups on earth.
⭐ Why It's Famous
Phở is the everyday dish of Vietnam — eaten at tiny plastic stools on the pavement as much as in restaurants. A great bowl is judged almost entirely by its broth: clear, deeply beefy and fragrant with spice, the result of hours of patient simmering.
💡 Fun Fact
In Hanoi, phở is traditionally a breakfast food. Many of the city's most famous phở shops open before dawn and close by mid-morning once the day's broth is gone.
Hanoi & Nam Định, Northern Vietnam
21.03°N, 105.85°E
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