Vietnamese Lemongrass Pork Noodle Salad (Bun Thit Xao)
Vietnamese Lemongrass Pork Noodle Salad (Bun Thit Xao) features pork stir-fried with lemongrass and beansprouts, rice vermicelli noodles, cucumber, lettuce, and herbs. Everything is tossed with nuoc cham dressing to make a light yet flavorful and filling bowl of noodle salad.
What is Vietnamese Lemongrass Pork Noodle Salad?
In Vietnam, the name of this dish is “bรบn thแปt xร o miแปn Tรขy“. “Bun thit xao” means vermicelli noodles with stir-fried meat. “Mien Tay” means the Southwestern area of Vietnam where this dish originated. We often have it for breakfast, but it is also great as a quick lunch or dinner that can be put together in 30 minutes.
The pork is juicy and fragrant since it is stir-fried quickly with lemongrass and beansprouts. There are also soft noodles, crunchy cucumber and refreshing lettuce and herbs, and traditional Vietnamese sweet-sour-savory fish sauce dressing to make the dish fun to eat.
Recipe Video
“Bun thit xao mien Tay” is quite similar to Vietnamese Beef Noodle Salad (Bun Bo Xao) in terms of ingredients and the cooking method. I made a video to show you how fast and easy it is to prepare this dish at home. There’s also a bonus tip for quickly cutting cucumber for noodle salad at the end of the video :).
Ingredients
The main ingredients for the pork stir-fry are:
- Pork: I recommend pork shoulder since it is flavorful while not too lean, so it won’t get dry in the stir-fry.
- Lemongrass: you can find it at Asian grocery stores. They can be frozen, quite handy if you cook Vietnamese food (such as bun cha Hanoi, grilled pork chops, lemongrass chicken stir-fry) often.
- Soy sauce (I use Kikkoman), garlic and shallots to stir-fry with the pork
- Beansprouts
When serving this dish, you will also need the following ingredients:
- Cucumbers, lettuce (or microgreens) and fresh herbs you like (such as cilantro, Thai basil, mints)
- Fish sauce, lime juice and sugar to make the dressing
- Rice vermicelli noodles: I recommend Bamboo tree (Ba Cay Tre). Three Ladies (Ba Co Gai) vermicelli noodles are also good. Both brands are available at Asian grocery stores, and you can also order Three Ladies brand on Amazon.
Cooking Notes
The majority of the time needed to make Vietnamese Lemongrass Pork Noodle Salad will be spent on preparing ingredients, such as slicing pork, mincing lemongrass, and prepping fresh veggies. Make sure you slice the pork thinly against the grain and use only the white and light green part of the lemongrass stalks.
It doesn’t take much time to stir-fry the pork, so it’s best to have everything else ready. Make the dressing, put the noodles and fresh veggies in serving bowls before you cook the meat. Once the pork is fully cooked, top the noodle bowls with it and drizzle the dressing.
If your stove is not powerful, you may want to cook the pork in batch to avoid steaming them instead of stir-frying. Detailed measurements and instructions are in the recipe card below. I hope you will like this noodle dish as much as we do.
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Vietnamese Lemongrass Pork Noodle Salad (Bun Thit Xao)
Ingredients
For the pork stir-fry
- 11-12 oz pork shoulder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- olive oil
- 1/2 tablespoon minced garlic
- 1 teaspoon minced shallot
- 2-3 tablespoons minced lemongrass (3-4 stalks, white and light green parts only)
- 1 teaspoon soy sauce
- 1 1/2 cups beansprouts
For the dressing
- 1 tablespoon fish sauce
- 2 tablespoons hot water
- 1/2 tablespoon sugar
- 2 teaspoons lime juice
- bird's eye chili, thinly sliced (optional)
To serve
- rice vermicelli noodles
- cucumber, thinly sliced or cut into matchsticks
- lettuce
- fresh herbs such as cilantro, Thai basil, mints
- freshly cracked black pepper
Instructions
- Slice pork thinly against the grain and mix well with salt. If your pork has almost no fat, add a couple of teaspoons olive oil to mix with the pork.
- Make the dressing by combining fish sauce, hot water, sugar and lime juice. Adjust the ratio of ingredients to your liking. Set aside.
- Prepare all other ingredients: garlic, shallot, lemongrass, beansprouts, vermicelli noodles, cucumber, lettuce and herbs. Add vermicelli noodles to serving bowls and arrange cucumber, lettuce and herbs on top.
- Place a pan over medium heat. Add olive oil and once the oil is hot, add shallot and garlic. Stir-fry for a few seconds until fragrant. Add lemongrass and stir-fry for 30-40 seconds until lemongrass is fragrant and reduces in volume.
- Increase the heat to medium-high and add pork. Stir-fry the pork and when it is 50% cooked, add soy sauce. Continue to stir and cook until the outside is no longer pink, then add beansprouts. Mix and cook for 1-2 minutes until pork is fully cooked, beansprouts is hot and still have some crispness.
- Taste the pork and beansprouts mixture and adjust with more salt if needed. Place the pork mixture on top of the noodle bowls. Sprinkle some black pepper if desired and serve immediately with the dressing.
