FRIEND OR PHO BURGER – A Vietnamese Pho Inspired Burger!

Before we get into this post, a quick dislaimer: I know that Pho is pronounced “fuuuuh” but for the sake of the pun let’s pretend it’s not 🙄.

This was probably the hardest, that’s not the right word, most challenging burger I’ve made to date. When creating a new burger, I usually start with the pun and then work my way backwards. The idea of having a pho-inspired burger sounded genius to me, but where would I start? How was I going to turn a soup into a burger? How would I make everything work without having any ingredient overpowering the others? That’s when I took a step back, listed the ingredients that went into making Pho and started grouping together what would work.

The spices and aromatics that create the intensely flavoured broth would be what I flavour the beef patty with. Then you have the toppings that go onto a Pho, bean sprouts, coriander, green onions, lime/lemon, Thai basil, and sriracha. Slaw is a common topping on burgers, using the bean sprouts, coriander, green onions and lime I created a “slaw”. That left me with two ingredients, Thai basil and sriracha, the one thing missing from my burger was a sauce. Mixing some sriracha with Thai basil and a little mayo created a creamy and slightly spicy sauce perfect to compliment the burger.

There was no question about the type of bun to use, a baguette was the obvious answer. Although that would make it more like a Banh Mi then a burger, you say tomato I say tomato. (I hope you’re reading that the way I’m intending it to be with a different pronunciation, otherwise I look completely insane).

Don’t want to toot my own horn here, but toot toot. This burger, to me, tastes exactly like a Pho. Do I dare say I prefer it this way because of the fresh crispy baguette? We all know I’m a sucker for carbs.

Very portable, and easy to eat anywhere unlike traditional Pho which requires utensils and sitting down.

Download the full recipe at TillyEats.
Watch the d.tube video here.