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You are here: Home / Recipes / Bun Rieu – Vietnamese Crab Noodle Soup

Bun Rieu – Vietnamese Crab Noodle Soup

October 16, 2014 by Zoe Nguyen-Patalano 11 Comments

Bun Rieu Crab Recipe

Bun Rieu is one of my favorite soups to make, because it is so simple and easy to whip up. I’ve made this on a weeknight before, but it’s usually a weekend recipe since it does take a little bit of prep work.

Getting all of the ingredients can be a challenge, and a bit on the pricey side – because the cost of getting real crab can be high. You MUST go to the Asian supermarket in order to make this recipe. There’s no substitute for the Minced Crab in Spices (the Lee brand is my favorite) and I also love the funky/salty flavor of fine shrimp sauce (mam tom). It smells very fishy, so be aware. (Mam tom is in the brown jar in the below photo.)

How to Make Bun Rieu

There’s a lot that goes in this recipe, but don’t let the recipe list overwhelm you. It’s very simple.

It basically consists of two steps – making the pork broth, and adding the rieu mixture to the soup. I buy pork broth at the Asian market, but you can also use chicken broth if you prefer. The authentic Vietnamese version uses pork, though – since pork is an important staple in Vietnamese cuisine. We eat a lot of pig!

Some people make their pork broth from scratch, but I think that’s way too time consuming.

If you can find it, you should buy some annato seeds to make annato oil. This will help redden the sauce at the end. I couldn’t find it at my local Asian market, so I used tomato paste instead. It did the trick, but annato seed oil works much better!

Print Pin

Bun Rieu – Vietnamese Crab Noodle Soup

Prep Time 30 minutes minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes minutes
Total Time 1 hour hour

Ingredients

  • Vermicelli noodles 1 package
  • Water for boiling

For the Rieu (Crab Mixture):

  • 0.75 lbs ground pork
  • 8 oz 1 cup of fresh crab meat
  • 6 oz can of crab meat optional
  • 2 cans 5.6 oz of minced crab in spices
  • 1 tablespoon fish sauce
  • 1/2 tablespoon sugar
  • 2 teaspoon ground black pepper
  • 3 eggs beaten

For the Broth:

  • 10 cups of pork stock or chicken stock
  • 2 teaspoons fine shrimp sauce mam tom
  • 2 teaspoons tamarind soup mix
  • 6 to 8 ripe tomatoes quartered
  • 4-5 hot chili peppers optional, chopped
  • 1 tablespoon annato seed oil for coloring or 2 tablespoon tomato paste

Instructions

Prepare the Noodles:

  • Cook the vermicelli noodles in boiling water, according to package directions. Set aside.

Bring the Stock to a Boil:

  • Add the pork stock into a large pot and bring to a boil. Add the fine shrimp sauce (mam tom) and the tamarind soup mix.
  • Add the tomatoes and bring to a boil. (If you want firmer tomatoes, add them at the end.)

Make the Rieu:

  • Meanwhile, prepare the rieu (the crab/pork mixture). In a large mixing bowl, combine the ground pork, crab meat, cans of minced crab in spices, fish sauce, sugar and black pepper. Add the eggs and mix well.

Adding the Rieu to the Stock:

  • When the pork stock boils, slowly add the rieu mixture.
  • Season the soup with more fish sauce, if needed. If you want the soup to be more sour, adjust by adding more tamarind mix. For more a fishy, unique flavor, add more of the fine shrimp sauce.
  • To give the soup its distinctive red color, add the annato seed oil, or tomato paste.
  • To add extra spice to the soup, add the chopped hot chili peppers, seeds included. Be careful with the peppers. The soup will become very spicy very quickly. (If you don’t have fresh peppers, you can use pepper flakes).

Serve and Enjoy:

  • Now, it’s time to put everything together!
  • Add the vermicelli noodles to a nice sized bowl. Ladle the bun rieu soup on top. Serve with bean sprouts, lime, and fresh mint and herbs. Add more fine shrimp paste to give it more flavor.
  • In my family, we usually serve this with the curled stem of rau muong (Vietnamese water spinach), Bap chuoi (Banana blossoms) that are thinly sliced, bean sprouts, and a squirt or two of lime.
  • Serves 8 to 10.

Notes

If you want your pork/crab mixer to be thicker (firmer), use fewer eggs, and use only 1 can of minced crab in mixture.
Review
recipe image
Recipe Name
Bun Rieu
Published On
2014-10-16
Preparation Time
1H
Average Rating
41star1star1star1stargray Based on 29 Review(s)

Filed Under: Recipes, Asian, Dinner, Vietnamese Tagged With: Vietnamese Recipes, bun recipe recipe, bun rieu, recipe, vietnamese crab noodle soup

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. nadine

    April 24, 2015 at 8:15 am

    Hi, I’m trying to make this recipe but I can’t find the minced crab in spices. Is there a substitute for this?

    Reply
    • DP Nguyen

      May 11, 2015 at 3:15 am

      Hi Nadine, I’m sorry I didn’t get back to you in time. The minced crab in spices is really essential to the dish. You should try to find an Oriental or Asian store near you. Every single Asian market, even the tiny ones, will carry it. There are several brands, but the can will say Mince Crab in Spices (Gia Vi Cua Nau Bun Rieu).

      Reply
  2. Doris

    June 30, 2015 at 3:03 am

    Thank you for posting up the recipe! It tastes (almost) like my mom’s one! My family loves this!

    Reply
  3. Jo

    September 21, 2015 at 5:12 pm

    Minced Prawn in Spices is a good substitute.

    Reply
  4. Lin

    November 6, 2015 at 5:07 pm

    Worst comes to worst, you can buy it from Amazon.

    Reply
  5. Tina

    December 21, 2016 at 11:41 pm

    Can you just substitue the canned crab meat instead of the fresh crab meat?

    Reply
  6. Linda

    January 12, 2018 at 3:43 pm

    Hi Doan!

    I had made this recipe a while back and I really liked it!.
    I just looked up your page today and I can no longer find your recipe? Has it been removed?

    Thanks,

    Linda

    Reply
  7. DD

    January 18, 2018 at 9:08 pm

    love this recipe and have used it before! But for some reason the website does not load the directions or ingredients, just a preview of the products. Could you fix this?

    Reply
  8. Ann Van Susteren

    March 2, 2018 at 9:24 pm

    HI! Your recipe no longer shows on this site. Can you please repost it or send me the recipe? I have made bun rieu numerous times with your recipe and I am always so happy with how delicious it turns out.

    Reply
  9. Lily

    April 16, 2018 at 1:51 am

    Hi, I’m trying to access the recipe on my iPhone, but I think there’s an error with your website and your recipe isn’t showing up. This is the message it says: “Warning: Parameter 1 to wp_default_scripts() expected to be a reference, value given in /home3/pregna9/public_html/hungrywanderlust.com/wp-includes/plugin.php on line 600”

    Reply
    • DP Nguyen

      April 30, 2019 at 4:41 pm

      I am so sorry! My site was down for a while but I’ve fixed it now.

      Reply

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Welcome, Y’all!

Hi, I'm Zoe Nguyen-Patalano, a busy mom to the sweetest baby boy and wife to my childhood sweetheart. I'm a wedding and portrait photography who loves to cook and share my traveling adventures. My food philosophy is to create delicious and easy recipes perfect for busy families. More About Me

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