Vietnamese pork noodle salad (bún thịt nướng)
Caramelized garlicky pork over cool rice noodles, crisp vegetables and fresh herbs, with a sweet, sour and salty dipping sauce poured over everything.
- 55 min total
- 40 min hands-on
- A little more hands-on
- Serves 4
- About $3.60 a serving
- 670 calories
- Good the next day
- Gluten-free
- Dairy-free
Dolly says: Make the full amount. It’s just as good for lunch the next day.
Ingredients
For 4 servings.
- 1¼ lb boneless pork chops, sliced very thin
- ⅓ cup fish sauce, divided
- 4 cloves garlic, minced, divided
- 1 shallot, minced
- 2 limes, juiced
- 8 oz rice noodles
- 3 cups romaine lettuce, shredded
- 1 English cucumber, cut into matchsticks
- 1 cup shredded carrots
- ¼ cup fresh mint, leaves
- ½ cup cilantro, leaves
- ¼ cup peanuts, chopped
From your pantry
- 1 tbsp brown sugar
- ½ tsp black pepper
- 3 tbsp sugar
- ¼ tsp red pepper flakes
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil, divided
Each serving has about 670 calories, 39 g protein, 75 g carbs and 25 g fat, and costs about $3.60 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No limes? Lemons work.
- No romaine lettuce? Green leaf lettuce or iceberg lettuce or butter lettuce works.
- No English cucumbers? Cucumbers or mini cucumbers work.
- No shredded carrots? Carrots work.
- No cilantro? Fresh parsley works.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
the pork as thin as you can, about ⅛ inch, across the grain.
Slice. Slicing means cutting food into flat pieces of about the same thickness. Even slices cook evenly, so none are raw while others burn.
How you’ll know: Lay a few side by side: they’re close to the same thickness from one end to the other.
Dolly’s tip: 15 minutes in the freezer firms the pork up so it slices thin without sliding around.Food safety: Wash your hands, the board and the knife with hot soapy water after touching raw meat, and don’t rinse raw chicken in the sink.
In a bowl, 2 tablespoons of the fish sauce, the brown sugar, 3 cloves of garlic, the shallot and pepper. Add the pork, , cover, and leave it in the fridge for 20 minutes.
Stir. Stirring means moving food around with a spoon or spatula so it cooks evenly and doesn’t stick. Unless the recipe says constantly, every so often is plenty, and it gives food time to brown.
How you’ll know: When you drag the spoon across the bottom, nothing is sticking or scorching.
Toss. Tossing means gently lifting and turning food so everything gets coated, like pasta in sauce or vegetables in oil. It coats every piece evenly without mashing anything.
How you’ll know: Every piece looks glossy or evenly coated, with no dry spots hiding underneath.
Timer: 20 min
For the sauce, the sugar into ½ cup warm water until it dissolves, then add the rest of the fish sauce and garlic, the lime juice and pepper flakes.
Stir. Stirring means moving food around with a spoon or spatula so it cooks evenly and doesn’t stick. Unless the recipe says constantly, every so often is plenty, and it gives food time to brown.
How you’ll know: When you drag the spoon across the bottom, nothing is sticking or scorching.
Dolly’s tip: Taste it. It should be sweet, sour and salty all at once. Add a little more lime or sugar to get there.Cook the noodles in a pot of boiling water on high for the time on the package, then and under cold water until cool.
Drain. Draining means pouring off liquid, like tipping pasta into a colander or spooning extra fat out of the pan. Pour hot grease into a can or jar, not the sink, where it hardens and clogs the pipes.
How you’ll know: Only a few drips are left, and the food isn’t sitting in a puddle.
Rinse. Rinsing means running cold water over rice or canned beans in a strainer while you swish them around. It washes off loose starch and can liquid, so rice cooks up fluffy and beans taste clean.
How you’ll know: The water running out goes from cloudy to mostly clear; it doesn’t have to be perfect.
High heat
the lettuce, cut the cucumber into matchsticks, pick the herb leaves and the peanuts.
Shred. Shredding means making thin strips, either on the big holes of a grater or by pulling cooked meat apart with two forks. Shreds soak up sauce and mix evenly through a dish.
How you’ll know: Cooked chicken pulls apart into strands with little effort, and cheese comes off in long, loose strips.
Chop. Chopping means cutting food into bite-size pieces that don’t need to be neat. Keep them roughly the same size so everything cooks evenly.
How you’ll know: Your pieces are about half an inch and roughly alike, even if none of them are pretty.
Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a large over medium-high until it . Add half the pork in one layer and 2 minutes a side, until with no pink.
Skillet. A skillet is a frying pan: wide and flat with low, sloped sides. The shape lets steam escape, so food browns instead of stewing.
How you’ll know: It’s the pan you’d fry an egg in, and a 10 or 12 inch one handles most recipes.
Shimmering oil. Oil shimmers when it’s hot enough to cook: its surface looks rippled and wavy, like heat over a road. That’s your cue to add the food, just before the oil would start to smoke.
How you’ll know: The oil looks wavy and runs thin like water when you tilt the pan, with no smoke yet.
Sear. Searing means cooking the outside of meat or fish in a hot pan, without moving it, until a deep brown crust forms. The crust is packed with flavor, and it only forms on a dry surface.
How you’ll know: It sizzles loudly the moment it goes in, and it lets go of the pan on its own when the crust is ready.
Caramelize. Caramelizing means cooking slowly until the natural sugars turn deep golden brown. It turns sharp onions soft, jammy and sweet, and it often takes 30 minutes or more.
How you’ll know: They’re soft, sticky and amber brown, and they taste sweet rather than sharp.
Medium-high heatTimer: 4 min
Dolly’s tip: The sugar in the marinade browns fast. Dark golden is what you want. If it smells burnt, turn the heat down a notch.Food safety: Steak, pork chops and other whole cuts are safe at 145°F in the middle, then let them rest for 3 minutes before cutting.
Move it to a plate and cook the second batch in the rest of the oil the same way.
Medium-high heatTimer: 4 min
Fill 4 bowls with lettuce, noodles, cucumber, carrots and herbs, lay the pork on top, scatter the peanuts and spoon the sauce over.
Dolly’s tip: For lunches, pack the sauce in a small jar and pour it over at your desk. The pork is good cold.
Plan this in Dollop, and get the grocery list
Dollop puts this dinner on a night that suits your week, lists only what you still need to buy, and walks you through each step while you cook.
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