Easy Instant Pot Beef Pho From Scratch

Pho. One Of Those Popular Vietnamese Dishes People Eat, But Can’t Pronounce. Pho Is A Noodle Soup With Different Choices Of Meat That Brings Great Joy To Chop Stick Users All Around The World, Especially In North America.

Have you ever wondered why most people leave the broth?  That’s because this giant bowl of soup contains excess sugars and additional MSG. Your taste buds probably would hate you if we left out those magical ingredients. Luckily, we’ve designed an alternative option. Introducing the new and improved, “Instant Pot Pho featuring Red Delicious Apples and Radish”. The apples once cooked excrete natural sugars and the radish acts as a substitute for Umami in MSG.

Recipe

Serving: 5 people

Cooking time: 1h30

Ingredients: (for 8qt Instant Pot )

Broth:

Beef Back Ribs: 4 lbs

Medium Yellow Onion: 2 pcs

Ginger Slices: 4 pcs

Apple: 2 pcs

Daikon Radish (optional): 1 pc (about 2 cups)

Water: 3.5 L

Salt: 3 tbsp

Fish sauce: 3 tbsp

Pho Spices:

• Cinnamon Sticks: 3 pcs
• Star Anises: 3 pcs
• Black Cardamom: 1 pc
• Whole Cloves: 1 tsp
• Fennel Seeds: 1 tsp
• Coriander Seeds: 1 tsp
• Black Peppercorns: 1 tsp
• Liquorice Root (optional): 3 pcs
• Mesh Bag: 1 pc

Bowl:

Dried Rice Stick: 1 lb

Beef Slides: 1.1 lbs

Beef Balls: 0.5 lbs

Green Onion

Onion Slices

Lime (or Lemon) Wedges

Step by step instructions:

1. Soak the dried rice noodles in warm water
2. Press Sauté button over low heat, toast the spices for approximately 5 minutes or until aroma is released, then place spices into a mesh bag
3. Chop the onions and apples in half
4. Continuously using Sauté mode over more heat to char the onions and ginger slides
5. To make the soup clear, add beef ribs to the Instant pot and roughly stir fry to remove the blood
6. Pour in the halved apples
7. Season with salt and fish sauce
8. Fill the Instant Pot with 4L of water until maximum capacity is reached and prepare to pressure cook
9. Select Pressure Cook button, cook for 50 minutes over high pressure and normal heat
10. Once the pressure cooking is complete use quick release (be careful with the heat!) or natural release (normally takes about 30 min)
11. Add the spice bag into the Instant Pot and keep warm for another 10 minutes
12. Adjust the taste to your liking (bold flavor is highly recommended for Pho broth)
13. Switch to Sauté mode again over more heat to bring the broth to a boil (remember to remove the lid)
14. Boil the rice noodles until cooked in a pot and divide to the bowls
15. Garnish with toppings (beef slices, beef balls, green onion, onion slides)
16. Pour the boiling broth over the beef slices and enjoy the Pho with a fresh squeezed lime juice!