Bún riêu is another very popular and flavor-packed Vietnamese rice noodle soup, with soup flavored with tomatoes, shrimp paste, fish sauce and a meat broth.
It features tofu usually, but the unique addition to this soup is the “riêu” or meatballs, made of pork, shrimp, crab, and prawns.
And would it really be a Vietnamese soup if it wasn’t loaded with herbs and vegetables? Compared to the other Vietnamese soup recipes we have here, this is the only one with shrimp, crab, tomato and tofu.
Easy to make!
We’ll cook this with a relatively easy method, but delicious results. If you want to get a little crazier with effort I’ll let you know how to mod the recipe below too!
A lot about this soup makes me think it was born out of convenience and necessity. Just about all the ‘general’ Vietnamese restaurants around me in Little Saigon (Southern California) will have this since it is pretty simple. If the restaurant has a pot of meat broth ready, they can cobble together the rest with other common Vietnamese kitchen and pantry items.
Skills-wise, this soup is pretty easy to make once you know what’s in it. And if you’re up for it, there are a few mods I have below you can make to the recipe if you’re so inclined.
Freshly Pounded Crabs?
The meatball looking fellas in this soup, called gach, or rieu, were originally made with pounded mini crabs in Vietnam. We’re not going to pound or blend any crabs for this recipe but we’re going to substitute a 5.6 ounce can of Lee’s brand Minced Crab or Prawns, and some fresh crab meat instead.
Crab pounding for this reminds me of David Chang’s thoughts on lollipopping chicken drumsticks: a pain in the butt to do, so if someone’s doing it for you it’s a real sign of love.
My own mother has never gone through this trouble for me or the family, and you’re highly unlikely going to find any freshly pounded crabs at restaurants for this soup–not if you’re paying under $10 a bowl anyway. Some of the more experienced cooks in my family have the patience to work in fresh baby crabs into their rieu though.
My late, maternal great grandmother loved to cook and was apparently pretty crafty and resourceful. Lacking proper tools to pound crabs for this soup when in the States, she fashioned a mortar and pestle from an old army helmet and a baseball bat!
Homemade vs. Canned Broth
One of the many flavor components for this soup is broth. You’ll have better tasting soup and a bunch of extra meat you can add to the bowls of the carnivores of your family if you want to make your own pork broth.
However, if you want to go with canned broth or stock, there are many other flavor components that make the soup so don’t despair if you go the canned route.
Relative to other soups, like bún bò Huế, some people think there’s not enough meat in bún riêu. There’s so much flavor and interest going on already, in my opinion. We already have the rieu (meatballs), tofu, tomato, and a ton of veggies.
However if you notice at restaurants, some other bún riêu recipes, or realize Americans enjoy obscene amounts of meat in their diet, there can be more meat added. If you have the patience to make your own broth for this soup recipe, simply using pork ribs with meat on it, you can omit the canned chicken broth.
Yes chicken broth is not the same as pork broth but I’ve learned through a lot of my mom’s cooking that she will use broths interchangeably, especially when it’s not a clear and simplified recipe where the plain broth itself should shine, such as a light chicken pho.
Fermented Shrimp Paste
Some shy away from the funk of this stuff, but its necessary to hit the right flavor target of this soup. We can control the aroma if its not truly your thing.
Oddly enough this makes me think of the show Brew Masters, in which Sam Calgione, president of Dog Fish Head brewery, tells us that they will add more of an ingredient during the cooking process so it has a more intense flavor. If they want more of that fruit or ingredient to show off its aroma, it’s saved for later in the process.
So similarly, if you want less of the potent aroma of shrimp paste in your soup, add more to the broth instead of adding it to your bowl as you eat–this is the proportion we skew towards in this recipe. For this recipe we’ll use the paste from Lee Kum Kee since it has a balanced level of saltiness we can work with.
Ketchup
My mom stumbled upon this trick when dining at a friend’s house. We associate ketchup with french fries so it’s a little unexpected and weird at first, but it’s a pretty neat idea for convenience. This soup already has tomatoes in it.
And the ketchup also adds salt, sugar, vinegar, and color to this soup. This mostly saves you the trouble of buying a whole bottle of vinegar you may not use, or buying a can of tomato paste you’d only use a tablespoon of and end up wasting the rest.
But yeah if you’re weird about it, we do get acid into the soup when you squeeze a lime into your bowl just before eating, and you can just use tomato paste and even annatto seeds for coloring like we did in the bún bò Huế recipe.
Herbs and Veggies
Is a food actually Vietnamese if it isn’t accompanied by a truckload of veggies?
Kinh gioi or Vietnamese Balm is the most important herb in this soup. Second up is your typical mint. Tia to aka. perilla aka shiso, also goes well with this but is optional if you don’t have it available.
As for veggies you may notice the photos are missing rau muong or water spinach since this was out of season. Also known in Tagalog as kangkong, ong choy in Cantonese, this veg is seasonal and can get pricey, upwards of $3+ a pound or be simply not available when off season.
Water spinach is typically added raw to bún riêu. To make the stems easier to chew, they are usually split using a tool made just for this, creatively called a water spinach splitter or dao che rau muong.
What does bún riêu taste like?
Bún riêu is a delicious Vietnamese rice noodle soup that has a slightly sweet and acidic tomato flavor and is loaded with crab, tofu, and shrimp.
What does bún riêu mean?
Bún means noodles and riêu refers to the big white blocks of crab cakes in the soup, which is traditionally made of pounded mini crabs and eggs. When you make the crab cakes, it should resemble sea foam when placed in the soup.
How do you make a bún riêu from scratch?
It’s made of cooked crab meat, shrimp, tofu, and tomatoes mainly, see my recipe below to learn how to make it from scratch!
What does bún mean in Vietnamese?
Bún means noodles.
Is bún riêu gluten free?
Yes, bún riêu is traditionally gluten free and so is this recipe!
Bún Riêu (Vietnamese Crab, Pork & Tomato Noodle Soup)
Ingredients
Soup
- 50 g shallots about four large cloves, thinly sliced
- 2 tbsp neutral cooking oil
- 2 lb (907.2 g) tomatoes quartered (any type)
- 1 tsp fermented shrimp paste – Lee Kum Kee diluted in a small bowl w a bit of water for even dispersion
- 3 tbsp fish sauce
- 1 tsp salt
- 1-2 tbsp rock sugar granulated is ok too
- 4 tbsp ketchup
- 43.5 oz chicken broth or make your own broth with water and 1 lb pork ribs
- 43.5 oz water
- 1-2 tsp monosodium glutamate seasoning
Riêu / Gach / Meatballs
- 25 g shallot sliced (about two large cloves)
- 1/8 lb (56.7 g) raw shrimp shells removed, deveined.
- 2/3 lb (302.4 g) ground pork
- 5.6 oz canned minced prawn or minced crab with spices. Lee brand.
- 57 g steamed or canned crab optional. If using frozen or canned, lightly squeeze to remove excess moisture.
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tsp pepper
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 tbsp fish sauce
- 5 stalks green onions cut into 1.5″ pieces
Accoutrement (all optional)
- 1 lb (453.6 g) deep fried tofu
- 1/2 lb (226.8 g) raw bean sprouts
- 1 bunch kinh gioi / Vietnamese balm
- 1 bunch mint
- 1 bunch tia to / purple perilla
- shrimp paste on the side
- sliced limes
- 4 thai chiles
Noodles
- 1 lb dried rice vermicelli sticks small noodle size. Thap Chua brand (but any will do)
Instructions
- Cook noodles according to package instructions, split between 4-5 bowls
Soup
- Thinly slice shallots, add oil to a pan and saute until light brown.
- Add quartered tomatoes, stir fry for 3-5 minutes until slightly soft.
- Add shallots, tomatoes, and all remaining soup ingredients into a large pot.
- Raise to high heat until it hits a boil, and boils for five minutes.
- Reduce the heat to medium-low or low, so it maintains a low boil while you work on the Riêu.
Riêu / Gach / Meatballs
- Add shallots into a small food processor, pulse until finely chopped.
- Add shrimp, pulse 5-6 times.
- Add remaining ingredients (except crab and green onion) and pulse a few times until evenly mixed.
- Pour into a mixing bowl, add crab and lightly mix with a spoon.
- Using a soup spoon, scoop 1-2 tbsp size meat balls (your choice!) into the pot until you use it all
- Raise the heat to high and bring to a boil, then drop heat to a low boil. At most it should take 20 minutes to cook the meatballs all the way through. Check doneness by breaking a meatball in half to make sure its not soft or raw inside.
- During the last five minutes of cooking, drop in the chopped green onion so it slightly softens
Serving
- Evenly divide contents of the soup pot between your 4-5 bowls.
- Serve a communal accoutrement plate on the side so each guest can customize their own.
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Really looks and sounds delicious!
I love your posts. They are very insightful and show your love of food. The bun rieu looks delicious. i will try this tomorrow.
Thank you for this recipe! So easy to follow and make. This is one of my family’s favorite soups!! Thank you!!
Thank you Jennifer 🙂
Hello! I want to make this using homemade pork broth. If I use my own broth do I still do 1/2 broth and 1/2 water? Thank you!
Hey Kelsie, If you’re using pork/pork bones just use water to make the broth. For example the recipe calls for 43.5 oz water and 43.5 oz canned broth, whats important is you end up with about 87 oz water after making your broth. So start with ~100 oz water in the pork since it evaporates, taste, and see how it goes!
Hi,
I’m going to try your recipe. How long is the soup suppose to be at a low boil for?
Hi Rick! You only keep it at a low boil as long as you need to prep the meat balls. Then once you drop those in you want them to simmer for another 20 minutes. I’ve updated the recipe to make that clearer. Hope it helps!
Thank you for such an accessible recipe! I’ve wanted to make bún riêu for such a long time but many recipes are a bit daunting. My husband, who is my biggest food critic raved over this recipe and said it was “quá ngôn”. I skipped the shrimp paste and used crab paste instead, Healthy Boy brand. I also didn’t bother with a food processor, instead just finely chopping the shrimp and mixing everything well. The food processor would just be one more thing to clean! 😄 Thanks again for another wonderful recipe Huy.
Glad you enjoyed it Alisha, and thanks for sharing your mods!
I cooked the bun rieu according to this recipe and tasted so good!
I cooked 3 times and never failed.
Thank you so much.
Thanks for sharing Gina!! 🙂
Made this recipe this weekend. Only change was to omit MSG. It really wasn’t needed! EXCELLENT recipe. Tastes like my mom’s recipe. Thank you!
Thanks Catherine! You can def omit the MSG if you’d like. There’s nothing better than it tasting like mom’s recipe right?
i made this without the pork or chicken broth and subbed for just more shrimp and veggie broth and it turned out amazing! thank you for this recipe. have been having major cravings but can’t have it in restaurants because of the pork. def will continue making this again and again 🙂
Do you think scallops could be added to the rieu?
Thank you so much for sharing. I just made this soup and it turned out wonderful. I didn’t have ground pork or crabmeat. All I had was shrimp so it didn’t clump into a “Rieu” but it was a delicious and easy-to-make soup nonetheless. I love how simple and straightforward your recipes are.