Vegan pho

Cooking becomes a real pleasure when it needs a lots of aromatic spices. I love taking time to smell them when I open the packages. I love when the pleasant smell covers the entire kitchen. Sometimes, smelling food is at least as enjoyable as tasting it...

Vietnamese pho creates this atmosphere that makes your cooking time even more joyful.
This dish, which I wanted to make for a while, was the perfect recipe to use the star anises I'd bough a few days ago. I'd never tried it before and discovering this spice was amazingly surprising: the strong smell that burst into your nose when you open the package is pretty awesome! Combined with other ingredients such as cloves, ginger and cinnamon, it turns into an aroma bomb!

This recipe is mostly inspired by Pick Up Limes. I just changed some quantities and added nutmeg... But it still mainly hers.

Ingredients:

    For the broth:

- 1 yellow onion
- 2 small cloves of garlic
- 6 whole cloves
- 2 star anises
- 1 cinnamon stick
- a piece of ginger
- a pinch of grounded nutmeg
- 1ts oil
- 1/2 vegetables bouillon cube
- 1 bowl of water

    For the crispy tofu:

- 1/3 of a medium firm tofu pack
- 1tbs corn starch
- oil
- salt

- vegetables of your choice
- 1tbs 1/2 soy sauce
- 1 portion of cooked noodles


Instructions:

Cut the onion in 6 pieces, garlic in 3 pieces, ginger in 6 and break cinnamon stick in 2. Put all the broth ingredients in a pot, except bouillon cube, water and oil.
Heat the pot and stir 2 minutes. Then add oil and continue to stir a few more seconds. Add water, bring it to boil and then, reduce de heat. Cover your pot and let simmer for 25 minutes. At the end, filter the stock, transfer it in another pot and add the bouillon cube.
Put the cut vegetables in the pot and let it cook until it's soft enough (about 15 minutes or less).

Cut the tofu in thick pieces. Cover each surface with corn starch. Heat salted oil in a pan. Then fry the tofu pieces, 2 minutes each side. Then place them on kitchen towel which you roll to cover them. Gently press to remove excess oil.

In a boil, place cooked noodles, vegetables, broth, tofu and the topping of your choice (here, it's raw red bell pepper slices and some basil leaves. I also added sriracha sauce later).

Enjoy!