Many Vietnamese noodle soups involve simmering bones for long hours to extract all the flavor from the meat, which discourages new cooks from trying recipes. Luckily, Vietnamese Crab Noodle Soup bún riêu comes together in a snap, and can be made in no time at all compared to other dishes!
Pin Vietnamese Crab Noodle Soup (Bún Riêu) to try later!
Spare ribs and dried shrimp are used to flavor the broth instead of large bones, and tomatoes bring a fresh acidity to the hearty dish.
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🦀 Ingredients
You will need:
- pork spare ribs
- dried shrimp
- water
- tomatoes
- fried tofu
- shallot
- minced prawns in spices
- canned or fresh crab meat
- ground pork
- egg
- salt and pepper to taste
- bun riêu bouillon
- vermicelli noodles
- Scallion and cilantro for garnish
See recipe card for quantities.
🔪 Instructions
Parboil your spare ribs by throwing them in a pot of salted water and bringing them to a boil for about a minute.
Drain and rinse the ribs after they've been boiled briefly.
After the parboil, add your ribs back to your pot with 5-6 cups of water and the dried shrimp. Bring the water to a boil and keep at a simmer for 30 minutes before removing your shrimp.
Process the simmered shrimp in a food processor and mix it in with minced shallots, the minced prawn in spices, crab meat, ground pork and egg. Season with salt and pepper. Slice the tomatoes into wedges and slice the tofu into slices or wedges.
Add the bun rieu bouillon, fried tofu and tomato wedges to the pork rib broth.
Spoon the crab mixture onto the hot broth. Be gentle so the mixture doesn't fall apart. Simmer the broth until the mixture cooks through.
Serve with rice vermicelli and cilantro and green onion (scallions) for garnish.
Tips:
- The "riêu" in bun riêu refers to the crab mixture in the dish. My family prefers the crab mixture to be very delicate, but you will see some recipes where it is more like a firm meatball. If you want a firmer riêu, use more ground pork than I use in this recipe.
- The minced prawn in spices gives the riêu body, and it flavours and colours the broth. Do not substitute or omit this. You can find it at an Asian grocery store or online. Look up "minced prawn in spices bun rieu seasoning" to find it.
- Once you add the riêu, this dish shouldn't ever be heated back up to a rolling boil. It will break up the riêu into little pieces.
- My mom always adds two birds eye chilis to the broth. If you want it more spicy, you can chop up the chilis or serve the noodles with a side of sambal.
💭 Substitutions
- Dried shrimp will give your broth a depth and body that spare ribs won't on their own. You can find them at an Asian grocery store or online, but you can also replace them with shrimp shells if you need to.
- I use fresh canned crab meat. Shelf stable canned crab or frozen crab can also be used. You can even use fresh steamed crab meat if you want to get fancy!
- I've provided an image of my favourite brand of bouillon for this soup. It can be found online or at an asian grocery store. Look up "Bao Long bun rieu bouillon" to find it. Another brand you can look up is "Quoc Viet Cot Bun Rieu," which comes in a powder rather than in cubes.
- I used both fried tofu pouches and regular fried tofu in this dish. You can use one or the other, fry your own tofu or use regular extra firm tofu slices if you can't find fried tofu.
🍳 Equipment
You'll need a stockpot or a heavy bottomed pot like a dutch oven to make this dish.
🍜 Serving Suggestions
Serve the broth over medium sized rice vermicelli noodles. The riêu is delicate, so spoon it on top of your cooked noodles and arrange the ribs, tomatoes and tofu over the noodles before spooning the broth over everything. Garnish with scallions and cilantro. You an add extra spice with sambal or sliced birds eye chilis.
🥡 How to store or make in advance
You can make this entire dish the day before. It'll taste even better reheated the next day. Make sure not to heat it to a rolling boil, or else the riêu will fall apart.
👪 Serving Size
This recipe should make 6-8 bowls of noodles depending on how big your appetite is!
Vietnamese Crab Noodle Soup (Bún Riêu)
Ingredients
- 1 package medium sized vermicelli noodles
- 1 lb pork spare ribs
- 12 dried shrimp
- 6 cups water
- 4 cubes bún riêu bouillon
- 1 shallot
- 14 oz crab meat
- 14 oz canned minced prawns in spices
- ½ lb ground pork
- 1 egg
- 2 medium tomatoes, sliced into 6-8 wedges each
- 1 package fried tofu, sliced or cut into wedges sliced
- Scallion and cilantro for garnish
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Cook noodles according to package and set aside
- Cut spare ribs between bones and add to a pot of cold, salted water. Bring to a boil and boil for 1 minute.
- Drain and rinse ribs and add back into pot with 6 clean cups of water. Add more water if needed to cover the ribs. Add dried shrimp and simmer for 30 minutes.
- Take shrimp out and add bouillon to the remaining broth and ribs. Continue simmering while you prepare the riêu.
- Add the dried shrimp and shallot to a food processor and blend until shrimp is finely shredded.
- Mix shrimp/shallot mixture, crab, pork, minced prawn, egg, salt and pepper together in a bowl.
- Add sliced tomatoes and tofu and turn up the heat until the broth boils again.
- Reduce the heat back to a simmer and carefully spoon rieu mixture into the broth. It should float on top of the tofu and tomatoes.
- Simmer the broth for another 15-30 minutes until rieu is cooked through. and you don't see any more pink pork.
- Serve over vermicelli noodles with chopped scallion and cilantro for garnish.
Notes
Nutrition
Calorie counts and nutrition facts are an estimate only.
🦺 Food safety
Whenever cooking meat, follow these best practices:
- Cook to a minimum temperature of 165 °F (74 °C)
- Do not use the same utensils on cooked food, that previously touched raw meat
- Wash hands after touching raw meat
- Don't leave food sitting out at room temperature for extended periods
- Never leave cooking food unattended
- Always have good ventilation when using a gas stove
See more guidelines at USDA.gov.
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