Grilled Vietnamese Beef Vermicelli Bowl – Bún Bò Xào

Grilled Vietnamese Beef Vermicelli Bowl, or Bún Bò Xào, is everyone’s favourite Vietnamese noodle salad…at home! Perfectly marinated, then grilled Vietnamese beef is a delicious topping to fresh vegetables and vermicelli noodles. 

Grilled Vietnamese Beef Vermicelli Bowl

While it may seem like there are a lot of ingredients in this dish, each component has a role to play in the overall flavour explosion.

Grilling the marinated meat is very quick while slicing the carrots may take just a bit longer. Once you have all the components ready to go, it’s very easy to assemble each bowl. 

Vietnamese food is so fresh and delicious, from perfectly marinated Lemongrass Grilled Pork Chops to Fresh Shrimp Salad Rolls, I love it all! 

Life is Busy, Eat Simple…Eat Well!

Life is busy. Cooking delicious meals and eating healthy when you’re busy is such a pain in the ass…it’s so easy to just hop in the car or pick up the phone to call for delivery.

I’ll be the first to admit that I find eating out and delivery services way too convenient.

I crave food from specific restaurants (like Grilled Vietnamese Beef Vermicelli) depending on the mood I’m in and there can sometimes be weeks where I don’t cook anything other than the basics to keep the boys going.

Too much of a ‘good thing’ though, and I find myself getting moody from not spending enough time in the kitchen. I’m in a serious love-hate relationship with cooking, especially during the summer.

My Vietnamese Favourites

One of my go-to cravings is Vietnamese food and especially Vietnamese Grilled Beef. I LOVE fresh salad rolls with shrimp in them (so much I did a post on them HERE), hot and spicy noodle soups (Pho), Vietnamese Subs, and the vermicelli noodle bowls otherwise known as ‘Bun‘.

Other than perhaps being a little high in carbohydrates (that’s a lot of rice noodles!) and salt, I consider these bowls to be quite healthy, especially when they are chalk full of fresh veggies and herbs as well as lean protein.

What Goes Into a Bowl of Grilled Vietnamese Beef Vermicelli

While they look quite simple at first glance, there’s a little bit of prep involved in order for them to achieve maximum flavour.

I like to prep my ingredients ahead of time and buy my beef pre-sliced from a nearby Korean Market. It’s the kind that comes pre-sliced for hot pot but you can marinate it and use it in this dish.

Then, when it’s time to eat, it’s just a matter of assembling the fresh ingredients, adding the cooked noodles and grilled beef, and finishing the dish with fresh herbs and roasted peanuts.

Practice Those Knife Skills

Prepping ingredients for Bun is the perfect time to practice those knife skills! Pro tip: Buy the largest carrots you can find. You’ll need to ‘matchstick’ a lot of carrots to use in the dish and in the accompanying Nuoc Cham.

Begin by trimming chopping the carrot into 5 cm long pieces. Then trim each piece so that it has four straight edges like a lengthy square.

Next, thinly slice each piece into slices 2 mm thick. Gather up the slices and slice them again lengthwise at 2 cm intervals and you have matchstick carrots.

Once you start, you can’t stop. Make extra and keep them in the fridge (submerged in water) to add to all your salads.

Now for the Nuoc Cham

Now for the Nuoc Cham…this simple sauce is an essential component to Bun. Think of it as dressing to a salad because essentially, Bun Bo Xao is often treated like a salad and eaten cold.

My kids always add hoisin sauce to their bowls. However, we all view hot chili sauce as a necessary addition to Grilled Vietnamese Beef Bun.  Add some fresh mint and cilantro, top with crushed peanuts and dinner is served!

If you make this Grilled Vietnamese Beef Bowl recipe, please be sure to leave a comment and/or give this recipe a rating! Be sure to follow me on Facebook and Pinterest for my latest recipes. Also, if you do make this recipe, please tag me on Instagram, I’d love to see what you guys are making! Thank you so much for reading my blog.