The other day as I was shopping, I noticed a new product in the soup aisle. It was an organic broth labeled as “Soup Starters” for Pho. Now, first of all, I love soup, especially in the winter. Moreover, I love spicy soups on cold evenings. Pho is a Vietnamese noodle soup which I happen to love. When you order it, you get a relatively plain bowl of soup that you get to garnish as you like and doctor to your heart’s content with all of the provided condiments. For me this is heaven–I get the pleasure of being waited on and taken care of, but at the same time I get to have my food prepared exactly to my taste.
Now, for those of you unfamiliar with the process of making Pho, let me say that the broth, which is THE most important component, generally involves hours of simmering various meats and vegetables to get things started. Now, just in case you neglected to boil your Pho stock for 15 hours this past weekend, there is a solution for the home cook!
I decided to try these broths out and see if they passed muster. I warmed the broth, boiled my noodles, added some leftover turkey from the freezer, and we were off and running. To make things more interesting (although admittedly less authentic), I also tossed in some sliced shitake mushrooms, some steamed baby bok choi and pok choi, and a soft boiled egg. Now I felt like I had a complete meal.
To go along with this, I prepared a plate of garnishes so we could have some fun at the table! This is truly the grown up version of playing with your food. On the plate, I arranged cilantro, mint, Thai basil, bean sprouts, enoki mushrooms, lime wedges, sliced fresno chiles and chopped scallions. I also set out a plethora of Asian sauces from soy to sriracha to chile oil to samba oelek (chile garlic sauce).
My husband and I sat down to delicious bowls of noodles and we enjoyed every last drop of them. All in all, I’d rate these broths as a great product to keep on hand. Add a few pantry items and some fresh veggies to them and you can create a hotpot-type meal that keeps everyone happy. For the noodles, you can use any Asian noodle you like or substitute vermicelli noodles or even cooked rice. 
I will say my only disappointment was that the broth was a bit bland. If you use this, you may want to season it a bit further to suit your taste. The next time I use it, I think I will add a piece of ginger and some lemongrass to kick up the flavor. You could also add some garlic and maybe a chile or two for heat. On the flip side, I suppose that the broth is meant to be more like a canvas for all of the other ingredients, so it makes sense for it to be a bit bland. Nonetheless, I would highly recommend trying these products if you see them in your grocery store. Let me know what you think!
