This soup is a result of attempting to satisfy a nostalgic home-style Vietnamese soup that my dad would make growing up (minus the fish). For the protein, it’d instead be pork spare ribs, but I’m using frozen fish for this recipe. With every meal at home, we would have a soup, protein and rice to go with the meal. I’ve made this recipe so many times to progress to the recipe that we have now – and at this point, I’ve made this same soup 10 times, and it only gets better and better.
This was my progress in testing the flavour combinations:
- Tomato wedges + fish sauce in water
- Tomato wedges + fish sauce + rau muong
- Tomato wedges + fish sauce + frozen fish
- Tomato wedges + fish sauce + frozen fish + pickled veggies
- Tomato wedges + fish sauce + frozen fish + pickled veggies + dill + chili
This is an incredibly quick soup with so much flavour. We love to eat it with jasmine rice or vermicelli noodles – the broth is that flavourful. I encourage you to try it. It’s incredibly quick and easy with little clean up as it’s all in one pot!
Serves: 2
Cooking time: 10
Preparation time: 5
Ingredients:
Broth
1/2 tbsp Neutral Oil
3 Garlic cloves (1 tbsp)
550g Tomato, halved or wedges
1L Water
700g Frozen fish fillet, defrosted & cut into chunks
2 tbsp Fish sauce
2 tsp Chicken Powder
1-2 Thai chili peppers, sliced
Handful of dill, chopped in 1-2″ (optional)
Sautéed Pickled Vegetables
1 bag Pickled veggies, 2 cm pieces
1 tbsp Neutral oil
Instructions
- On medium heat, in a medium stock pot or pan, add 1 tbsp of neutral oil and saute pickled veggies. Toss for 2 minutes, and transfer to a bowl.
- To the same pan, add 1/2 tsp of oil and saute garlic until aromatic. Add tomatoes cut side down and sear for 2-3 minutes until skin curls. Flip and sear for another 2 minutes. Add water, fish, sauteed pickled veggies, fish sauce and chicken powder. Simmer for 5 minutes.
