Sweet, sticky and full of fragrance, these pork patties are perfect with a cold vermicelli noodle salad
I like to serve this all laid out on the table – herbs, noodles, crunchy vegetables – and let everyone build their own bowl. It’s interactive and endlessly customisable.
For our honeymoon some years ago, we spent a few unforgettable weeks soaking up the energy and flavours of Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh City was electric – motorbikes weaving endlessly through chaotic traffic, the clang of woks hitting flames and the scent of street food drifting through the air. The smell of grilling meat seemed to follow us everywhere, mingling with the constant hum of the city. Crossing the road felt like a leap of faith. From there we travelled south, where the markets were alive with colour and scents: towering piles of herbs, bundles of lemongrass, and branches of fragrant lime leaves.
Those days felt wonderfully untethered – we were in a beautiful country with nothing but time on our hands. No plans, no structure, just the freedom to wander and experience new things; we let our stomachs guide us. We spent our days chasing meals, uncovering roadside treasures, and letting each bite lead us to the next.
Our favourite meal of the trip was found as most favourite meals are ... entirely by chance, at a roadside stall, where we perched on upturned buckets around a charcoal grill. Sticky pork patties sizzled over open flames; the smell was enough to stop us in our tracks. We assembled salads from hand-rolled rice noodles, crisp vegetables, fresh herbs and a punchy, addictive sauce, building bowls alive with flavour.
Vietnamese is the kind of food I crave most at this time of year – it’s vibrant, fresh and perfectly balanced – and the memory of that particularly spectacular meal on our honeymoon is what inspired today’s recipe. These lemongrass and lime leaf pork patties are my nod to that dish, bun cha. Sweet, sticky and full of fragrance, they’re perfect piled on top of a cold vermicelli noodle salad. I like to serve it all laid out on the table – herbs, noodles, crunchy vegetables – and let everyone build their own bowl. It’s interactive and endlessly customisable.
I keep my dressing on the sharper, more acidic side rather than leaning into the sweetness that’s more traditional. But the usual rule applies: taste, adjust, and find the balance that works for you. This salad is also a great base for prawns, shredded chicken or a grilled steak.
For the ingredients, your local Asian fruit and veg market is the place to go. You’ll find big bunches of mint, shiso, Thai basil and coriander, all at a fraction of the price you’d pay elsewhere. When it comes to fish sauce, Megachef is my pick.
While this may not be quite the same as sitting on a street corner in Vietnam, I hope it brings a little of that magic into your kitchen.
Lemongrass pork patties
I use a small food processor to chop and blitz the ingredients together for speed, but everything can be chopped and mixed by handIngredients
- 1 stick lemongrass, white part only, finely chopped
- 3 makrut lime leaves, stems removed, finely chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 3 spring onions, finely chopped (dark green ends reserved for serving)
- ½ bunch of coriander, stems finely chopped (leaves reserved for serving)
- 500g free-range pork mince
- 2 tablespoons fish sauce
- 2 teaspoons caster sugar
- Salt and pepper
- Neutral oil, for frying
Dressing
- 50ml fresh lime juice (about 2 limes)
- 3 tablespoons fish sauce
- 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar
- 1 teaspoon caster sugar
- 1 red bird’s eye chilli (deseeded), finely chopped
Method
- In a small food processor, blitz lemongrass, lime leaves, garlic, spring onions and coriander stems together. Add pork mince, fish sauce and sugar, and season with salt and pepper. Blitz again until well combined and sticky. Alternatively, place everything into a bowl and mix with your hands until sticky and well combined.
- Using wet hands (this makes handling the mixture easier), mould the mixture into patties roughly 6cm wide and 2cm high. Don’t overthink this – just aim to keep them consistent and not too big.
- To make your dressing, place all the ingredients in a jar with 1 tablespoon of water and shake vigorously.
- Place a large frying pan over a medium heat. When hot, pour in the oil (about 2 tablespoons, or enough to coat the pan). When the oil is hot, fry the patties in batches for about 4 minutes to form a nice crust. Don’t overcrowd the pan – it’s better to cook them in batches. Flip the patties and cook for 3 or so minutes until golden and cooked through. The sugar will help them caramelise.
- Serve with the noodle salad in this recipe, or simply pile them onto lettuce cups filled with vermicelli noodles and the reserved spring onion and coriander leaves.
Makes 16 patties