Lemongrass Pork Vermicelli Bowl

with Japanese sweet potato salad

I know I also promised you all a veggie guide to building summer bowls, but it’s taking me a bit longer than expected. Stay tuned - it’s coming soon, and it’s going to be really good.

In the meantime, enjoy this super fresh, asian inspired bowl.

Definitely not your traditional vermicelli bowl, but I LOVED these flavors and the pairing with the Japanese sweet potato salad. Feel free to use chicken or tofu instead of pork, and everything should come together within 45 minutes.

Chef tips:

• Use pork tenderloin and not pork loin. These are 2 very different cuts, and pork tenderloin is much more tender and easy to cook. These usually come in a ~1 lb vacuum sealed packages, and are accessible at most grocery stores. I’ve sourced them from Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, and Safeway. You can expect to pay ~ $10 /lb.

• When cooking the pork tenderloin, try not to overcook it. Since the recipe calls for thin 1/4” slices, the pork should be fully cooked within 3-4 minutes. Once the color changes on both sides, cook for another minute, then cut into one (or check the internal temperature for 145F).

• For the lemongrass marinade, you can use frozen lemongrass that can be found at the asian store. If this is too difficult to source, just skip it - this will still be delicious.

• For the nuoc Cham sauce, if you’re not a fan of fish sauce, you can substitute with soy sauce. It doesn’t have the same flavor profile so I highly recommend you trying this with fish sauce (even if you’re skeptical about the smell!!).

• Smash the cucumbers, then toss this in salt and store in the refrigerator. This helps keep the cucumbers crunchy. You don’t need to rinse off the salt (unless you used more than 1/2 teaspoon of salt). Drain the water from the cucumbers before placing in your bowl.

Prep Ahead

Want to turn this meal into a 15 minute weeknight dinner?

Here’s all that you need to prep ahead:

• Japanese potato salad

• lemongrass marinade and pork (you can thinly slice the pork and keep this in the marinade for up to 5 days)

• make the nuoc Cham sauce

• smash cucumbers

Once you do that, you’re ALL SET for a 15 minute delicious weeknight dinner. This is what you need do to the night of dinner:

• Boil vermicelli noodles

• Sear off pork tenderloin

• Assemble the bowl

Storage and Reheating

Storage: If you’ve already cooked this, store the rice vermicelli noodles and pork together. The rice noodles will absorb the nuoc Cham sauce, so keep some of this separated. The rice vermicelli will also be very sticky - once you add a couple tablespoons of sauce, it will unstick and be ready to eat again.

You can store the smashed cucumbers (salted but undressed) in its own container.

Also store the nuoc Cham in its own container.

Reheating: I like to reheat the pork and rice vermicelli lightly. Serve the cucumbers and potato salad cold.

The Recipe:

Total Time: 45 minutes

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients:

Vermicelli Bowl:

• 1 lb Vermicelli

• 0.25 bunch mint

• 6 Persian cucumbers