🇻🇳 Vietnamese
Vietnamese Vermicelli Bowl (Bún Thịt Nướng)
⏱ 35 min (plus 20 min marinade)
🍞 ~22g (½ cup vermicelli + veggies + nước chấm)
🍽 4 servings
⭐ 5/5
⚠️ Estimates only — not medical advice. Carb counts vary by brand and portion. Always verify with your endo or CDCES.
🌍 Cultural note
Bún is the Vietnamese-American lunch staple — a big bright bowl of cold rice vermicelli topped with grilled meat (usually pork or chicken), pickled veg, herbs, peanuts, and a generous pour of nước chấm. It's everything we love about Vietnamese food in one bowl: hot meat, cool noodles, crunchy veg, fresh herbs, salty-sweet-sour dressing. Eat it on a hot day and you'll never miss takeout.
Why this recipe is T1D-friendly
- Vermicelli is the only major carb — easy to portion (½ cup cooked = ~22g)
- Cold noodles + lots of veggies + protein give a slower, steadier glucose curve than hot rice
- Nước chấm has minimal sugar when made with monk fruit
- The bowl format lets you swap noodles for shredded lettuce on lower-carb days
Ingredients
Grilled pork
- 1.5 lbs pork shoulder, sliced thin OR boneless chicken thighs (0g)
- 2 stalks lemongrass, minced (2g)
- 3 cloves garlic, minced (2g)
- 1 small shallot, minced (2g)
- 2 tbsp fish sauce (1g)
- 1 tbsp soy sauce (1g)
- 1 tbsp oil (0g)
- 1 tbsp monk fruit (or 1 tbsp brown sugar = 12g) (0–12g)
- ½ tsp black pepper (0g)
Bowl
- 4 oz dry rice vermicelli (bun) — yields ~2 cups cooked (~88g total / ~22g per ½ cup serving)
- 4 cups shredded butter lettuce (4g total)
- 1 mini cucumber, julienned (3g)
- ½ cup quick-pickled carrot + daikon (see banh mi bowl recipe) (4g)
- ½ cup fresh mint leaves (1g)
- ½ cup fresh cilantro (1g)
- ¼ cup crushed roasted peanuts (5g)
- 2 scallions, sliced (1g)
Dressing
- 1 cup nước chấm (see foundation sauce recipe) (about 4g for ¼ cup serving)
Directions
- Make the marinade: mix lemongrass, garlic, shallot, fish sauce, soy sauce, oil, monk fruit, and pepper. Toss with pork. Marinate at least 20 minutes.
- Cook vermicelli per package — usually 3–4 minutes in boiling water. Drain, rinse cold thoroughly. Set aside.
- Make a batch of nước chấm if you don't have it already (see foundation sauce recipe).
- Heat a grill, grill pan, or large skillet over medium-high until very hot.
- Cook pork in a single layer, working in batches, 2–3 minutes per side until caramelized at the edges and cooked through.
- While meat cooks, set out all bowl components: lettuce, cucumber, pickled veg, herbs, peanuts, scallions, vermicelli.
- Build each bowl: shredded lettuce at the bottom, vermicelli on top, grilled pork on one side, pickled veg + cucumber on the other, big pile of herbs in the middle.
- Sprinkle peanuts and scallions.
- Pour ¼ cup nước chấm over the top (or serve on the side for kids who like to dip).
- Toss at the table just before eating so everything gets coated in dressing.
Dash's kid tips 🐆
- Dash says the peanuts and crunchy pickled veg are kid magic — texture matters
- Serve nước chấm in a small ramekin for dipping rather than pouring over — kids love control
- Pre-slice meat into small bite-size pieces for younger kids
- Skip mint if your kid is iffy — extra cilantro and lettuce are always safe