Pho Pizza Brings Two Unlikely Foods Together - And It Works
When it comes to pizza, anything goes. Topping it is an act of creation, whether you're piling it with traditional ingredients, crafting a sweet dessert pizza, or combining unusual flavors to make something entirely new. A tasty bowl of Vietnamese pho is probably one of the last things you'd think to combine with pizza, because, well, it's soup. But that's where you'd be wrong. If you remove the meaty broth from this culinary equation, pho pizza becomes a very real possibility, and you can easily make it at home right on your stovetop.
Pho is Vietnam's national dish, known for blending several textures and flavors together into one savory dish. Besides the broth, it's usually made with beef, and can be accompanied by the crunch of green onions, rice noodles, bok choy, or bean sprouts. Depending on what type of flavors you're going for, spices like garlic, Thai basil, chili sauce, fish sauce, and jalapeños are popular choices for adding some zest to your pho. When you combine all this on a crusty pizza base and drizzle it with hoisin or spicy sriracha, you've got yourself a truly tempting pho pizza.
Out of all the pizza toppings you haven't tried but should, using the fresh ingredients of pho on your pizza is enough to make any Asian cuisine lover start salivating. And because pho and pizza are both versatile dishes, you have lots of room to experiment with your toppings.
To make pho pizza, you'll need make some timely decisions
Making pho pizza requires gathering a lot of ingredients that all work well together, and there are a few decisions you may want to make well in advance. Choosing how to prepare your steak cut is one of them, and you can either take the easy route or commit to the waiting game. You can sear your steak quickly on both sides, or marinate your meat before frying it with the help of chili and garlic powder, salt, and olive oil to really lock the flavors in. People in northern Vietnam often use chicken in their pho, so you'll of course need to season it differently if you prefer the taste of chicken.
Another choice you'll want to make is what you want your pizza base to be. Follow a no-knead pizza dough recipe to keep it simple, or make your pho pizza even more pho-like by adding eggs to boiled rice noodles and frying them so they form a circle. Instead of your average tomato-based pizza sauce, your pho pizza can have a mixture of hoisin and chili garlic sauce. At this point, feel free to go wild with your pho pizza toppings. You can briefly stir fry the rest of your veggies in other aromatic spices first, or just plop the veggies on uncooked then put the whole thing in the oven. If you have enough leftovers to make some actual pho, dipping your pizza into the brothy soup is encouraged.