Comfort Food Made Healthy: Vietnamese Vermicelli Bowl (aka Bún)

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I love trying to find ways to transform comfort foods into healthy versions of themselves. Sometimes it’s a major fail, but sometimes its a real gem! I love vermicelli bowls (aka Bún) but I want to be smart with my carbs and eat clean and the rice noodles just won’t do. So I created a healthy “vermicelli” bowl by subbing in roasted spaghetti squash for the rice noodles and omitted the deep fried spring rolls.  It’s delicious!

Spaghetti squash is a low-calorie, low-carb, and low-fat food that contains fiber, vitamins and minerals. There are only 42 calories per cup of spaghetti squash vs. 220 calories per cup of vermicelli noodles. Spaghetti squash fits well into a low-carb or diabetes meal plan. It contains only 10 grams of carbs per cup, 2 carbs of which are fiber. Which means it will fill you up without adding a lot of empty calories or fat to your daily total, and won’t spike your blood sugar. Vermicelli noodles contain 43 grams of carbs; only 2g of which is fiber, which means it’s full of calories but won’t keep you as satiated.

Nước chấm (Sauce) Recipe:

2-4 cloves of garlic, minced or crushed

1 small red chile pepper or a couple dashes of crushed dried chile peppers

1 tbsp sugar

2 tbsp fresh lime juice

1/4 cup rice or white wine vinegar

1/4 cup fish sauce

1/4 cup water

Combine the ingredients and pour over your prepared noodle bowl.

 

Noodle Bowl Recipe:

6 half chicken breasts *marinated and grilled

1 spaghetti squash

Equal proportions of:

Celery

Carrots

Red pepper

Cucumber

Green onions

Lettuce

1/2 bunch of cilantro

1/2 bunch of mint

*Marinate chicken breasts in soya sauce, 3 tablespoons fresh chopped ginger, 1.5 tablespoons fresh chopped garlic, and 2 green onions (sliced).

Halve, remove the seeds and roast a spaghetti squash at 400 degrees until the flesh is easily pierced with a fork. Allow to cool and then scrape the flesh with a fork to turn it into noodles. Julienne the vegetables, coarsely chop the herbs, and slice the chicken breasts.  Combine together in a large bowl.

 

It will look something like this – enjoy!

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