Thai Beef Noodle Soup Recipe

Here a low-fat no-fat beef noodle soup recipe. This is one of my personal favorite noodle soup I love to eat. See recipe

Serves six

Ingredients

250g/9oz beef sirloin, trimmed

500g/1 ¼ lbs dried noodles, soaked in lukewarm water for 20 minutes

1 onion, halved & finely sliced

6-8 spring onions (scallions), cut into long pieces

2-3 red Thai chillies, seeded & finely sliced

115g/4oz ½ cup bean sprouts

1 large bunch each fresh coriander (cilantro) and mint, stalks removed, leaves chopped

2 limes cut in wedges, and hoi sin sauce, nuoc mam or nouc cham to serve

For the stock

1.5kg/3lb 5oz oxtail, trimmed of fat & cut into thick pieces

1 kg/2 ¼ lbs beef shank or brisket

2 large onions, peeled & quartered

2 carrots, peeled & cut into chucks

7.5cm/3 in fresh root ginger, cut into chunks

6 cloves

2 cinnamon sticks

6 star anise

5ml/1 tsp black peppercorns

30ml/2 tbsp soy sauce

45-60ml/3-4 tbsp nuoc mam salt

Instruction

1. Put the oxtail into a large, deep pan fill with water. Bring it to boil and blanch the meat for about 10 minutes. Drain the meat, rinsing off any scum, and clean out the pan. Put the blanched oxtail back into the pan with the other stock ingredients, apart from the nuoc mam and salt, and cover with about 3 litres/5 ¼ pints/12 cups water. Bring it to boil, reduce the heat and simmer, covered, for 2-3 hours.
2. Remove the lid and simmer for another hour, until stock has reduced to about 2 litres/3 ½ pints/8 cups. Skim off any fat.
3. Cut the beef sirloin into thin pieces, the size of the heel of your hand. Bring the stock to boil, stir in the nouc mam, season to taste, then reduce the heat and leave the stock simmering until ready to use.
4. Soak the rice noodles with a noodle soaker until cooked. Cook for about 5 minutes or until tender.
5. Drain the noodles and divide them equally among six soup bowls. Top each serving with the slices of beef, onion, spring onions, chilies and bean sprouts.
6. Ladle the hot soup over the top of the noodles and ingredients, top with the fresh herbs, and serve with the lime wedges to squeeze over.

[via recipe from low-fat no-fat Thai cookbook by Jane Bamforth]