Summer Sardines and Brussels Sprouts Pho

Summer sardines and Brussels sprouts pho takes the long-simmered comfort of a classic pho and turns it into something you can actually make on a warm evening without standing over a pot for hours. Fresh sardines, seared hard and fast, replace the traditional beef, and shaved Brussels sprouts go in raw at the end for a crunch that a typical pho garnish doesn’t usually offer. The broth itself comes together in under 30 minutes, built on charred aromatics rather than a long bone simmer.

This isn’t a purist’s version of pho, and it’s not trying to be. It’s a quicker, lighter riff that borrows the technique and structure while working with what’s actually good and available in the summer months.

Why This Recipe Is Worth Making

Sardines are one of the more underused fish at the counter, and searing them fresh — rather than reaching for a tin — gives you a completely different experience: crisp skin, tender flesh, and a flavor that’s rich but not overwhelming. This recipe gives them a real showcase rather than tucking them into a sandwich or a salad as an afterthought.

The 30-minute broth is the other reason this is worth making on a weeknight. Traditional pho broths simmer for hours to extract flavor from bones; this version leans on charring onion and ginger hard under the broiler to get a similar depth much faster, which means you can realistically have this on the table before you’d normally even start a slower version.

What You’ll Need

• 1 lb (450g) fresh whole sardines, scaled and gutted, or 8 oz (225g) sardine fillets if you’d rather skip dealing with the bones — ask your fishmonger to clean them if buying whole
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• Salt and black pepper
• 1 large onion, halved, skin on
• 3-inch knob fresh ginger, halved lengthwise
• 6 cups (1.4L) fish or vegetable stock — fish stock gives you a more traditional pho-adjacent depth, but vegetable stock works fine and keeps things lighter
• 2 star anise
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 tablespoon fish sauce, plus more to taste
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 lb (450g) Brussels sprouts, trimmed and very thinly shaved on a mandoline or with a sharp knife
• 8 oz (225g) rice noodles
• Fresh mint, cilantro, sliced jalapeño, and lime wedges, for serving

How to Make Summer Sardines and Brussels Sprouts Pho

1. Preheat your broiler. Place the onion halves and ginger, cut-side up, on a baking sheet and broil for 8 to 10 minutes, until they’re visibly blackened in spots. This char is doing the heavy lifting on flavor here, so let it go further than feels comfortable — you want real dark spots, not just a light tan.
2. Toast the star anise and cinnamon stick in a dry pot over medium heat for about a minute, until fragrant. Add the stock, charred onion, and ginger. Bring to a simmer and let it cook gently for 20 minutes to pull flavor from the aromatics.
3. Strain the broth through a fine-mesh strainer, discarding the solids. Return the clear broth to the pot and stir in the fish sauce and sugar. Taste it — it should be savory with a little sweetness underneath, and the char should come through as a background note rather than dominating.
4. While the broth simmers, cook the rice noodles according to the package instructions. Drain and set aside.
5. Pat the sardines completely dry with paper towels — this matters more than you’d think, since any moisture on the skin will keep it from crisping properly. Season with salt and pepper.
6. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat until it shimmers. Add the sardines, skin-side down if using fillets, and cook for 2 to 3 minutes per side, until the skin is crisp and deeply golden and the flesh is opaque throughout. If using whole sardines, cook for closer to 3 to 4 minutes per side depending on size.
7. Remove the sardines and let them rest for a minute. If using whole fish, this is a good moment to flake the flesh off the bones in large pieces.
8. Divide the noodles among bowls. Ladle the hot broth over top, then scatter the raw shaved Brussels sprouts directly into the hot broth — they should wilt slightly on contact but keep most of their crunch, which is the whole point.
9. Top each bowl with the seared sardines, fresh mint, cilantro, sliced jalapeño, and a squeeze of lime. Serve immediately.

Tips That Actually Make a Difference

Really commit to the char on the onion and ginger. This is the step that’s standing in for hours of bone simmering, so a light broil won’t get you the depth this broth needs. Push it until you see genuine black spots, not just golden edges.

Shave the Brussels sprouts as thin as you can manage. Thick shavings stay tough even after hitting hot broth, while thin ones wilt just enough to soften while keeping their bite — that contrast is a real part of what makes this bowl work.

Dry the sardines thoroughly before searing. Wet fish skin steams instead of crisping, no matter how hot your pan is, and crisp skin is a big part of what makes this dish worth the extra step of searing fresh fish instead of using a tin.

Mistakes to Watch Out For

Skimping on the char. If the onion and ginger only get lightly browned instead of genuinely blackened, the broth will taste thin and one-dimensional. Give it the full 8 to 10 minutes, even if it looks aggressive.

Adding the Brussels sprouts too early or letting them sit in the broth too long. They’re meant to retain crunch, and prolonged heat exposure turns them soft and loses the contrast entirely. Add them right at the point of serving, not while the broth is still actively simmering.

Overcrowding the pan when searing the sardines. If they’re touching, you’ll get steam instead of a crisp sear. Work in batches if your pan isn’t large enough to fit everything with space between pieces.

Skipping the dry step before searing. Wet skin simply will not crisp, no matter how hot the oil is. Take an extra minute with paper towels before the fish goes anywhere near the pan.

Easy Ways to Change It Up

• Swap sardines for mackerel — similarly oily and quick-cooking, with a slightly bolder flavor that still works well against the broth.
• Use shredded cabbage instead of Brussels sprouts — a similar crunchy, slightly bitter contrast, though cabbage holds its crunch even longer in hot broth than shaved sprouts do.
• Make it vegetarian — skip the fish entirely, use vegetable stock, and add pan-fried tofu for protein; you’ll lose the fish sauce’s depth, so consider adding a splash of soy sauce to compensate.
• Add more heat — a spoonful of chili oil drizzled over the finished bowl, alongside the fresh jalapeño, pushes the whole thing in a spicier direction without changing the base recipe.

What to Serve It With

This bowl is pretty much a complete meal on its own, but a simple side of pickled vegetables — quick-pickled carrots or daikon — adds another layer of acidity that plays well against the rich, seared sardines. Keep anything else on the table light; this dish doesn’t need much company.

It’s a good one for a warm evening when you want something that feels substantial without being heavy, and it comes together fast enough to work as a genuine weeknight option rather than a weekend project.

Leftovers and Reheating

Store the broth, noodles, and sardines separately in airtight containers in the fridge for up to 3 days. The Brussels sprouts don’t really keep their crunch once they’ve sat in broth, so if you have leftovers, consider adding a fresh handful when you reheat rather than storing the wilted portion and expecting it to hold up.

Reheat the broth on the stovetop until it’s back to a simmer. Warm the sardines gently in a low oven or a dry pan rather than the microwave, which tends to leave fish rubbery and uneven. Cook fresh noodles if you can, since rice noodles get gummy and stick together after a day in the fridge.

Approximate Nutrition Per Serving

Values below are estimates for informational purposes only and will vary based on specific ingredients and portion sizes.

Final Thoughts

This is a good one if you like the idea of pho but don’t always have hours to give it, and it’s a genuinely solid way to use fresh sardines beyond the usual grilled-and-squeeze-lemon routine. Give it a try, and don’t be shy about pushing the char on the onion and ginger — that’s really where the flavor of this whole bowl comes from.