Growing up my mom made pasta soup with a Vietnamese twist. She would add macaroni noodles, asian vegetables, homemade pork meatballs or pork rib-lets and fish sauce. Not knowing any better, I thought this was unique in my household and one of my mom’s crazy creations! Who knew it was a popular Vietnamese street food dish with French influences! It’s one of those one pot comfort meals that warms your belly with savory flavors. It’s not grand or fancy; but it’s a dish that takes me back to happy memories my mom created in the kitchen. I think I should call it reminiscing soup! This soup warms the belly on cold nights and gives creates that feel good vibe. Today, I make it for my kids and am glad that they enjoy it as much as I do!
There’s no correct or wrong way in making this simple and delicious soup. As long as you have pasta, veggies and some sort of protein; you are ready to get cooking! It’s a great way to get rid of veggies that need to be consumed fast! So what are we waiting for? Let’s go!
Note: It can be challenging to determine how much pasta you want to cook for your family or self. If you want to better control the portions of carbohydrates consumed, just remember that 2-ounces of dry pasta equals ½ cup of dry pasta. So 2-ounces or ½ cup of dry pasta will give you 1-cup of cooked pasta! This dish is very flexible in terms of ingredients just like Vietnamese pork filling mixtures. Use whichever vegetables you have handy or need to use immediately.
Ingredients
3.5 quarts water or chicken stock
1 12oz box of pasta (elbow noodles, shells, fusilli)
2 cups chopped carrots
2 cups chopped celery
2 cups chopped daikon
1 package of pork meatballs (Substitute with pork riblets if you’d like. My mom used to cook them in this soup all the time. I don’t have any handy and have trouble finding them. Just like any bone in meat, you’ll need to do a pre-rinse blanch.)
½ red onion
1 tbsp minced garlic (about 3 cloves)
4 tbsp EVOO (extra virgin olive oil)
1.5 inch ginger piece halved
2.5 tbsp chicken bouillon or mushroom seasoning
1 tbsp salt
1 tsp sugar
¼ tsp black pepper and more for garnish
⅛ tsp white pepper
Garnishes (Optional)
Spring Onions
Cilantro
Fresh Cracked Black Pepper
Method
I like to save time and cook everything in one pot and can get this meal done in 35-minutes! This way there’s one less pot to clean after dinner. You can definitely cook the pasta separately just in case your family or you can’t finish everything the same night. My kids eat hearty servings so we generally don’t have leftovers from this meal!
Locate a 6-quart minimum size stock pot.
Add EVOO to the pot and set the temperature to medium low.
Chop up onion and mince garlic. Add to pot to begin our flavor melody! Increase heat to medium. Stir occasionally.
I always sauté veggies that take the longest to soften. So chop up veggies in the order of time to cook. For me, it will be carrots, celery and then daikon. Add to the soup pot as you complete chopping. That way veggies can start cooking. Stir occasionally.
Add pasta, ginger, water and all seasoning. Increase heat to high and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium and cook for 15-minutes. Stir occasionally.
Cut pork meatballs into halves and add to soup for the last 5-minutes.
Taste your broth. Add more salt and sugar if needed.
Serve hot with garnishes if you would like. Bon Appétit!
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