These lemongrass pork rice noodle bowls are inspired by one of my favorite Vietnamese dishes: bun. This recipe uses pork tenderloin which makes a quick, easy, and super flavorful meal.
Course Dinner, Lunch, Main Course
Cuisine Asian Inspired, Vietnamese
Keyword Noodles, Pork, Quick & Easy, Salad
Prep Time 20 minutesminutes
Cook Time 10 minutesminutes
Marination Time 2 hourshours
Servings 6
Ingredients
Marinade
2stalkslemongrasswhite and light green parts roughly chopped
2inch chunkginger rootpeeled and roughly chopped
1mediumshallotpeeled and roughly chopped
2clovesgarlic
¼cupbrown sugar
¼cupfish sauce
2tbspsoy sauce
Rice Noodle Bowl
1pork tenderloin
1lbrice noodles
2mediumcarrotscut into matchsticks, ~2 cups
1smalldaikon radishcut into matchsticks, ~1 cup
Nuoc Cham Sauce
1cup hot water
½cupwhite sugar
½cuplime juicefreshly squeezed, ~4 limes
⅓cupfish sauce
2clovesgarlic minced or grated on a microplane grater
1tspsambal chili pasteoptional
Garnish
1 ½cupsfresh herbsroughly chopped, your favorite combination of cilantro, green onions, Thai basil, and mint
½cupsalted peanutsroughly chopped
½cupFrench fried onions
Instructions
In the bowl of a food processor, add the lemongrass, ginger, shallot, garlic, and brown sugar. Process until it becomes a smooth paste. You can also use a mortar and pestle for this. Remove from the food processor to a medium bowl. Whisk in the fish sauce and soy sauce.
Cut the pork tenderloin into half inch wide slices. Then use a meat mallet to pound each slice out to about one quarter of an inch roughly doubling the size of each slice. This will add more surface area for the marinade to flavor each piece of pork.
Add the pork to the marinade bowl and mix until all of the pieces are well coated in the marinade. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for 2-4 hours.
Prep the other ingredients any time during the marination window. For the rice noodles, boil them in water until they are cooked through. Drain and rinse with cool water. Cut the carrot and daikon radish into matchstick sized pieces or use a julienne peeler to make this easy. Mix together all of the ingredients for the nuoc cham sauce in a sealable container and refrigerate until service. Chop your herbs and peanuts.
After 2-4 hours, grill pork over high heat about 2-3 minutes per side. Grilling over charcoal will add an extra depth of flavor from the char, but a gas grill or grill pan on the stove will also work.
To serve, mix rice noodles, carrots, and daikon radish together in each bowl. Top with herbs, sliced grilled pork, peanuts, and French fried onions. Drizzle with nuoc cham sauce.
Notes
I use my handy julienne peeler for the carrots and daikon radish which makes this job quick and easy.
I love keeping nuoc cham sauce on hand for this recipe but also it's great on salads or for a dipping sauce for dumplings and spring rolls.
If you like them, bean sprouts are a great additional garnish for this bowl. I don't, but know that they would add an extra crunch and texture!