Fresh herbs, light broths and a lot of texture. Vietnamese cooking is less about long ingredient lists than about balance at the table.
All 4 recipes
Fresh Spring Rolls
Goi cuon - prawns, herbs and noodles wrapped in rice paper. Nothing is cooked once the wrapping starts, which makes them a genuinely good thing to make with other people.
Pho Bo
Hanoi beef noodle soup. The broth is the whole dish, and charring the ginger and onion before they go in is what gives it that smoky depth.
Goi Ga
Vietnamese chicken and cabbage salad, dressed in lime, fish sauce and chilli. Crunchy and sharp rather than creamy, and the dressing is what makes it.
Ca Kho To
Vietnamese caramelised fish braised in a clay pot. Sugar is cooked to a dark caramel first, which gives the sauce its colour and a bitterness that balances the fish sauce.