Bun Cha Salad Bowl Recipe

Bun Cha is a Vietnamese dish, which can be loaded up with delicious veggies to make an amazing lunch or dinner! The Nuoc Cham dressing is the perfect blend of tangy and sweet, so I know you are going to love this. 

The pork mince makes beautiful meatballs, and the mixture of textures makes this bowl look AND taste amazing! You certainly don’t need to trick yourself into eating vegetables when your meal looks this good — you’ll just want to dig in! 

Bun Cha Salad Bowl Recipe

Prep time: 20 mins

Cook time: 20 mins

Total time: 40 mins
Serves: 1
Dietary preferences: Dairy-free

Ingredients:

• 150g lean pork mince
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 1 tsp freshly grated ginger
• ½ spring onion, finely chopped
• sea salt and ground black pepper, to taste
• 50g rice vermicelli noodles
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• ½ medium carrot, julienned
• ½ medium cucumber, julienned
• 1 small handful bean sprouts
• 1 small handful baby spinach leaves
• 1 small handful coriander leaves, chopped
• 30g peanuts, roughly chopped

Nuoc Cham Dressing

• ½ lime, juiced
• 1 tsp chopped red chilli, finely diced
• 1 tsp rice wine vinegar
• 2 tsp warm water
• ½ garlic clove, crushed
• 1 tsp honey
• 1 tsp fish sauce
   

Method:

1. Place the pork mince, garlic, ginger and spring onion in a mixing bowl. Season with salt and pepper, if desired and mix until well combined. Using clean, wet hands, roll heaped tablespoonfuls of the mince mixture into balls. 

2. Place the noodles in a heatproof bowl and cover with boiling water. Leave for 10 minutes, then loosen the noodles with a fork. Drain and refresh under cool running water. Drain well and when cool enough to handle, cut into shorter lengths. Drizzle over the sesame oil and toss gently to combine, this will prevent the noodles from sticking together.

3. Heat a large non-stick fry pan over medium-high heat and spray lightly with oil spray. Add the meatballs and cook for 8-10 minutes or until browned all over and cooked through. Ensure that you move the meatballs frequently around in the pan, to prevent burning. Remove from the pan, cover loosely with aluminium foil and set aside to rest for 2-3 minutes.

4. To make the nuoc cham dressing, whisk all the ingredients together in a small bowl.

5. To serve, arrange the noodles, meatballs, carrot, cucumber, bean sprouts and spinach leaves in a serving bowl. Drizzle over the dressing and sprinkle over the coriander and peanuts. Enjoy!