Whether you’re feeling under the weather, or just at the mercy of the cooling weather, nothing says comfort like a warm bowl of soup! On a recent sick day, my family and I got creative and made DIY pho-inspired soup bowls–and they were such a hit, my kids asked me to write the recipe down in their growing recipe books!

The beauty of this recipe is that it’s quick, easy, and fully customizable. Don’t have the ingredients listed here? No problem! Just sub in whatever you have in the fridge, or whatever sounds good. You can make this for just one person, or create an assembly line and let all family members pick what they’d like in their own bowl. And the best part? It’s ready in 15 minutes with NO actual cooking!

Recipe

Your choice of optional ingredients, quantities to taste:

• gluten free pho or rice noodles, crushed
• beef or chicken bouillon cube
• gluten free soy or tamari sauce
• ginger
• onion powder
• garlic powder
• diced cooked chicken (or another meat)
• chickpeas
• shredded carrots
• shredded radishes
• frozen peas
• diced peppers
• green onions/chives/scallions, diced
• other ingredients

Add desired ingredients to a large soup bowl. Pour boiling water over ingredients, until just covered. Cover the bowl with a small plate and let stand 15 minutes, or until noodles and vegetables are tender.

That’s it! Eat up, and enjoy!

Notes

My family made this recipe in bowls at home, but you could also combine the ingredients in a wide-mouthed mason jar to take it on the go. Just pour in boiling water and close the lid to let it steam and steep for 15 minutes, and you’re ready to go!

I have celiac disease, so I make this recipe with all gluten free ingredients. If that’s not the case for you, though, you can substitute the gluten free items for your choice of ingredients, such as ramen noodles.

For a vegan option, you could also use palm noodles or another similar ingredient. Or skip noodles altogether, and just enjoy a veggie and broth bowl!

When I first made the recipe, I didn’t crush the noodles. The little “nest” of pho noodles cooked up as what seemed like one long, rolled up noodle and it was almost impossible to eat! I definitely recommend crushing the raw noodles to avoid the slurping, splashing disaster we had on our hands!

If you are vegan or prefer not to use bouillon, you can also use veggie broth. Or you could heat pre-made broth on the stove and pour it over the ingredients. If you are using bouillon cubes, we found that one cube per bowl worked out well.

If you like fresh ginger, garlic, or onions, you’ll probably want to sauté them beforehand to make sure they’re tender and ready to go in your soup. Because we were shooting for easy and quick on a sick day, we opted for the powdered versions, which dissolve quickly and are an easy way to infuse the soup with some flavor!

My husband likes to smoke meat, so when he has the smoker hot, we tend to cook extra to freeze for later. This is a perfect example of one of the many ways we use the pre-cooked meat. If you don’t have a meat smoker in your house, no worries! If possible, you can cook extra when you are preparing a different meal and throw it in the freezer. This recipe is also a great way to use up leftover meat from another meal. You can also purchase pre-cooked meat, such as rotisserie chicken pieces from Costco, that can be separated and frozen to be used in a multitude of meals. The quantity is up to you, but for our family of five, I diced up just one chicken breast. This recipe would also be great with beef!

If you prefer a vegan option, or just like to add some extra protein and flavor, you can use chickpeas instead of meat. No need to make it fussy; just open and drain a can of chickpeas for a really simple addition to your meal!

You can use a wide range of vegetables for this recipe, depending on what each person likes or what you have on hand. Frozen veggies work well, since they thaw in the hot water and remain tender. For raw veggies, I find shredding them works best to make sure they soften in the short amount of time they’re in hot water. I just held the grater over the bowl and shredded the desired amounts of carrots and radish to our bowls. I diced the peppers up into fairly small pieces so that they had time to soften in the water.

If you’re like me and you never have green onions on hand, feel free to get creative! Scallions and chives are great alternatives. We have a massive chive plant growing in our backyard, so each summer I usually harvest a large handful and dice it into baby food jars to keep in our freezer. That way I always have “fresh” chives on hand–and they’re perfect in this recipe, since they thaw slowly in the water!

Feel free to add in other ingredients that you or your family likes, such as bean sprouts, spinach, bamboo shoots, baby corn, etc. This is yours to personalize!

Enjoy!