Vietnamese Crab and Pork Tomato Noodle Soup (Bun Rieu)

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 tablespoon chopped ginger
•  2 pounds chopped tomatoes
  • This is about 2 to 3 tomatoes but you can add/subtract the amount accordingly to your taste. You can use any kind of tomato you want. I usually chop each tomato into 8 pieces, so make sure you do that beforehand.
• 1 cup sliced celery
• 6 cups water
  • You can also substitute some of this water with broth if you want to add extra flavor.
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 2 tablespoons fish sauce
• 1 tablespoon ketchup
• 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
• (Optional) 2 cubes Bun Rieu seasoning
• 1 pound ground meat
  • I used ground pork to be a bit more traditional, but feel free to be creative with what you have in the fridge, like ground beef, turkey, etc. Also, feel free to add the amount to your taste.
• 1 cup crab meat
  • Feel free to add the amount to your taste.
• (Optional) 1 cup diced shrimp
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
• 1 cup cubed tofu
• 1 package vermicelli
  • This can be found in most of the Asian section of your local grocery store or you can also go to an Asian supermarket

The ingredients below are to add more substance to the dish so you can mix and match however you want. These are some of my favorites:

• Any vegetable, such as mushrooms, celery, carrots, mint leaves, cilantro
• Fish, like salmon goes very well this dish and tilapia is great too
• Herbs, like basil, green onion, garlic

This recipe makes approximately 4 servings. If you want to save it for the next day for meal prep, definitely separate the soup and the noodles to combine later.

Instructions

1. First, let’s prepare the soup! In a large pot, add olive oil on medium high heat. Add ginger, chopped tomatoes, and celery. Stir around until the tomatoes have broken up a little bit, around 5-7 minutes.
2. Then, add water and bring the soup to a boil. Add tomato paste, fish sauce, ketchup, oyster sauce, and Bun Rieu seasoning if you’re using it. Stir until evenly combined. Taste to see if it’s to your liking. What I like to do here is to let the soup boil until it reduces around 10-15%, approximately 20-30 minutes to intensify the flavor. Turn down the heat to a simmer.
3. Now, let’s prepare the crab and pork meatballs. In a mixing bowl, add the crab, pork, shrimp if you’re using it, salt, and oyster sauce. Stir in a clockwise direction until the mixture combines together evenly. Shape the mixture into balls.
4. Bring the soup to a boil again and add the crab and pork meatballs and tofu. Boil until the meatballs are cooked, around 10 minutes.
5. In the meantime, in a medium saucepan, bring some water to a boil. Add the vermicelli noodles. You should follow the instructions on the package, but I usually boil for around 5-7 minutes. Drain the water.
6. Now, in each bowl, add the vermicelli noodles and pour the soup with all the meat and vegetables on top. You’re done!

Vietnamese Crab and Pork Tomato Noodle Soup (Bun Rieu) is one of my favorite recipes that my mom makes all the time. It’s a slight variation on the classic Vietnamese noodle dish, since our family likes to make it with a few different add-ins and whatever we have in the fridge, but still has the classic ingredients of crab, pork, tomatoes, and vermicelli. It’s a super flavorful soup that has the perfect seafood flavor from the crab, but also a nice acidity from the tomatoes, and of course, the fish sauce takes it to the next level. It’s definitely a staple in my family, so I’m so excited to share it! Let me know if you try out my recipe for this Vietnamese Crab and Pork Tomato Noodle Soup (Bun Rieu) in the comments below!