Zucchini Noodle Shrimp Pho

Zucchini Noodle Shrimp Pho - Eat Spin Run Repeat

Want a twist on traditional Vietnamese pho? Try this high-protein, cozy Zucchini Noodle Shrimp Pho made with soothing, flavourful broth, fresh herbs and spiralized zucchini. It’s paleo and Whole30 friendly too!


I know it’s probably the 50481293627th time I’ve told you guys that it’s cold outside, but it is. Weather has got to be THE #1 conversation starter, don’t you think? At least in Canada it has to be. Intercept conversations in Tim Horton’s lineups across the country and I’m willing to bet at least 6 out of 10 will be about the weather. The other 4 will likely be about Roll Up the Rim, because it’s that time of year, and by the way, did you know that this year there are more prizes than there are Canadians? That’s a lot of free coffees and donuts.

Zucchini Noodle Shrimp Pho | Try this high-protein, cozy paleo-friendly soup made with soothing broth and spiralized zucchini noodles | My Fresh Perspective | #paleo #pho #glutenfree #whole30

In exactly one week I will be heading down to Vegas for a 4-day training camp with my coach, and I can’t. freaking. wait. My eye has been on the Vegas weather reports all month long, and they’ve been mostly sunny in the high teens/low 20s (Celsius). This is tropical in comparison to home and I’m so excited that my packing has begun early. 1 week. 7 sleeps. But who’s counting?

fresh ginger and cilantro

On one particularly snowy day recently, there was a 2.5 hour ride on my half Ironman training schedule. Off to the gym I went with my fully-charged iPod (full of podcasts like these), bottle of sports drink, cycling shoes and everything else that gets hauled along with me on a daily basis. I adjusted the bike, clipped my shoes in, started my Polar V800, and got down to business.

Try this high-protein, cozy Zucchini Noodle Shrimp Pho made with soothing, flavourful broth, fresh herbs and spiralized zucchini. It's paleo and Whole30 friendly too!

Being on the bike for 2 and a half hours leaves plenty of time for thinking. Sometimes I play games to keep my mind occupied, sometimes I watch TV, sometimes I listen to podcasts, and sometimes I do a mental triathlon of all 3 at once. After playing a game of “think of a fruit or veggie for every letter of the alphabet” (which I won), my mind drifted into recipe ideas for the blog.

At the time I was hot and sweaty and a smoothie sounded most appealing, but I figured those of you who also live in snowy regions of the world would probably appreciate something that doesn’t need to be consumed from under a blanket.

Try this high-protein, cozy Zucchini Noodle Shrimp Pho made with soothing, flavourful broth, fresh herbs and spiralized zucchini. It's paleo and Whole30 friendly too!

My recipe-creating brain shifted over to soups and stews. So far this winter, I’ve made curried sweet potato soup, harvest vegetable and bean soup, spicy chicken and okra gumbo, smoky 3-bean chili, and Thai carrot and sweet potato soup – and a whole bunch of variations of these that weren’t unique enough to be blog-worthy. Because I will never be able to consume enough Asian food, my brain cycled through a number of Asian soup ideas while my legs cycled along to the tunes on my iPod.

Try this high-protein, cozy Zucchini Noodle Shrimp Pho made with soothing, flavourful broth, fresh herbs and spiralized zucchini. It's paleo and Whole30 friendly too!

Then it hit me: Pho! I’ll make pho!! For those of you that are wondering what this is, it’s a Vietnamese noodle soup dish that goes waaaaaay back in history and is now popular in North America. Thank goodness for that, because it’s flippin’ delicious. But before I give you my recipe, understand that it is a far cry from traditional pho. (I guess that makes it faux pho? I’m sure that one hasn’t been used before. Pun 110% intended.)

Real, traditional pho is made with beef broth, prepared by simmering bones with a crazypants number of spices and aromatics for something like 12 hours. Most people don’t have time for this (although my roomie Jess and I have been making our own turkey bone broth which is absolutely delicious), so you don’t have to worry about it if you’d like to make this version. Use whatever broth you like – it’ll be our little secret.

Zucchini Noodle Shrimp Pho | Try this high-protein, cozy paleo-friendly soup made with soothing broth and spiralized zucchini noodles | My Fresh Perspective | #paleo #pho #glutenfree #whole30

In addition to the broth that takes forever to make, traditional pho normally contains chicken or beef. Mine contains shrimp because I like to be different. And zucchini noodles. The Vietnamese and pho purists of the world are probably cursing me right now for having the gall to even put pho in the title of this post.

I think the main reason why I love this soup so much is because it’s kind of like a big salad in disguise. A whole bunch of veggies, juicy shrimp, fresh herbs and some peppers for a hit of heat. When I finally hit the “stop” button on my watch at the end of my workout, I pretty much leapt off the bike (you would too if your butt had been glued to a saddle for 2 and a half hours) – but not for water, not for sports drink, and not for a towel to wipe down my bike.

Zucchini Noodle Shrimp Pho | Try this high-protein, cozy paleo-friendly soup made with soothing broth and spiralized zucchini noodles | My Fresh Perspective | #paleo #pho #glutenfree #whole30

I snatched my workout journal up off the floor and scribbled all the ingredients for my faux pho down on a page. (This is not unusual for my little notebook – it’s sort of like a journal and a recipe book in one, only the recipes are barely legible because they’re typically jotted down in a very glycogen-depleted state.)

And this, my friends, is how the recipe goes:

Try this high-protein, cozy Zucchini Noodle Shrimp Pho made with soothing, flavourful broth, fresh herbs and spiralized zucchini. It's paleo and Whole30 friendly too! #paleo #whole30

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Zucchini Noodle Shrimp Pho | Try this high-protein, cozy paleo-friendly soup made with soothing broth and spiralized zucchini noodles | My Fresh Perspective | #paleo #pho #glutenfree #whole30

Zucchini Noodle Shrimp Pho


  • Author: Angela Simpson
  • Total Time: 30 mins
  • Yield: 3-4 servings 1x

Description

Try this high-protein, cozy Zucchini Noodle Shrimp Pho made with soothing, flavourful broth, fresh herbs and spiralized zucchini. It’s paleo and Whole30 friendly too!


Ingredients

Scale
  • 2 cloves minced garlic
  • 3 green onions, sliced thinly
  • 2” piece of fresh ginger, peeled and thinly sliced
  • 1 tbsp fish sauce
  • 1 tbsp coconut aminos
  • juice of ½ lime, plus more wedges to garnish
  • 6 cups broth of choice – if you have homemade bone broth, this is perrrrrfect
  • 3 cups water
  • 3 kaffir lime leaves (optional)
  • 275g raw shrimp, defrosted
  • 2 medium zucchini (or actual pho noodles – you can find these in the Asian section of most grocery stores, but this will make the recipe no longer grain-free)
  • 2 cups bean sprouts
  • 2 cups sliced organic mushrooms
  • 1 jalapeno pepper, thinly sliced (remove seeds to bring the heat level down)
  • fresh cilantro, mint, or Thai basil (or all 3)

Instructions

Place a large pot on the stove over high heat. Add the garlic, onions (just the white parts for now – set the green bits aside), ginger, fish sauce, tamari and lime juice. Stir for 1-2 minutes or until fragrant.

Pour in the broth, water, and kaffir lime leaves, if using. Cover the pot with a lid, turn the heat to medium, and let the flavours develop for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, take the tails off of the shrimp and set them aside. Prepare all remaining ingredients (zucchini through fresh herbs) and place them in a large bowl or on a plate.

Pour the shrimp into the broth mixture and remove from the heat. The shrimp should be cooked in about 4 minutes if you leave the lid on, and should turn completely opaque.

Distribute the zucchini noodles, bean sprouts and mushrooms evenly between 3-4 bowls.

Remove the kaffir lime leaves from the pot. Ladle the shrimp and broth mixture into the bowls.

Arrange the remaining ingredients (light green parts of the onions, lime wedges, jalapeno pepper slices and fresh herbs on top and serve immediately.

  • Prep Time: 15 mins
  • Cook Time: 15 mins
  • Category: soup
  • Method: stovetop
  • Cuisine: Vietnamese

Keywords: pho, paleo, whole30, grain-free, seafood, soup

 

Zucchini Noodle Shrimp Pho | Try this high-protein, cozy paleo-friendly soup made with soothing broth and spiralized zucchini noodles | My Fresh Perspective | #paleo #pho #glutenfree #whole30

So tell me…

  • Do you have your own unique version of pho?
  • What do you think about when you’re in the middle of a long workout?

18 thoughts on “Zucchini Noodle Shrimp Pho

  1. Holy moly Angela this sounds incredible. I totally cannot wait to get my butt to the store to get the ingredients.
    Also, 2.5 hours on the bike huh? You are a champ. I feel like you would have to peel me off my bike at that point. I’m not sure I could do much standing let alone leaping off anything 😉

  2. I. Can.t. Even. The spiralizer is 100% worth the investment just for this. I adore pho, but I’m not a big noodle person (even though rice noodles are probably as close to what I like as anything). This revolutionizes it!

  3. Can you believe I have never had pho before?! I think I am really missing out!
    That fruit and veggie game comes to show that for long workouts everything works! Ha! My mind is really active and I will come up with crazy games too. I will try to find words that rhyme with gym equipment, count the reps of other people working out and even start making up new songs…all in my little mind 😉

  4. I’m with lauren here–I think I’d need an ambulance after three hours on a bike! You are incredible.

    To get myself through some pretty intense sessions, I’ll try to make up harmonies to whatever music I’m listening to. I sing, so this isn’t entirely random, and certainly not even half of what I come up with in my head sounds good, but it it’s at least a little distracting and sometimes hilarious.

    Oh, the things we’ll do.

    1. I think that’s a fantastic thing to do! Anything to pass the time, right?! I’m sure you’re far better at this game than me. I like to think I can sing… but that’s when the radio is on way too loud to hear my own voice! 🙂

  5. Hi Angela! I am totally making this! Looks delicious! Just wondering where does one buy kaffir lime leaves? thx!

    1. Hi Jaime! I actually got them (dried) from the New City Supermarket (the Asian one) in Kitchener. They seem to be really hard to find fresh, but if you can get those, they’re even more flavourful. These are pretty much like an Asian version of bay leaves and they leave a really nice taste in broth-based dishes and curries. Not a mandatory ingredient, but they’ve got such an authentic taste and I love em!

  6. Well this looks glorious!
    I adore a good bowl of pho that’s for sure. And I’m with you, I also cannot get enough Asian cuisine, I crave it all the time!
    I have a quick version of pho that uses veggie stock, Chinese five-spice, soy, ginger and cilantro stem in the broth that also does a pretty good job at replicating traditional pho flavours.

    Stay warm and good luck on winning a free coffee 😉
    Although there are more prizes to be won, I think someone would have to pay me to drink Tim Horton’s coffee. Ha!

    1. Your version sounds lovely, Cara! I’ve found it quite difficult to find cilantro roots lately but am really hoping to re-make this recipe once I track them down again. And I’m on the same page as you with the Tim’s coffee. If I ever DO win anything, it will be from a cup with tea inside! 😉

  7. I made this last night for dinner, and it was so easy and delicious! Significant other asked me to add it to the weekly meal rotation.. 🙂

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