These caramelized pork meatball “vermicelli” bowls are made with paleo-friendly caramel and spaghetti squash instead of noodles.
My favorite thing to order at our local Vietnamese restaurant is bún chả, a bowl of vermicelli topped with pickled vegetables, peanuts, and grilled sliced pork or pork meatballs, served with a generous bowl of nước chấm (sweet fish sauce) on the side. This caramelized pork meatball “vermicelli” bowl is a paleo version that hits all the right notes without refined sugar, legumes, or actual vermicelli–the noodles are spaghetti squash instead!
I’m not always a fan of swapping spaghetti squash for regular noodles, but it really works in this dish. There are so many flavors and textures intermingling that the squash flies almost completely under the radar.
is all these meatballs need to become the umami-packed superstars of your dinner. I modified the caramel to make it paleo-friendly: it’s made mostly with honey, with just a tad of raw or coconut sugar added in.
Vietnamese Caramelized Pork Meatball "Vermicelli" Bowls
These caramelized pork meatball "vermicelli" bowls are made with paleo-friendly caramel and spaghetti squash instead of noodles.
Ingredients
For the bowls:
- 2 large spaghetti squash
- 1 large carrot, peeled and julienned or spiralized
- 1 large seedless cucumber, peeled and julienned or spiralized
- 1/4 cup toasted, chopped cashews
- Sprigs of fresh cilantro and/or Thai basil
For the meatballs:
- 3 tablespoons honey
- 1 tablespoon raw sugar or coconut sugar
- 3 tablespoons Red Boat fish sauce
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 pounds ground pork
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 2 cloves garlic, finely minced
- White parts of 2 scallions, finely minced
For the sauce:
- 2 tablespoons Red Boat fish sauce
- 2 tablespoons unseasoned rice vinegar
- 2 tablespoons raw sugar or coconut sugar
- Juice of half a lime
- Green parts of 2 scallions, thinly sliced
- 1 long red hot chile pepper, deseeded if desired, thinly sliced*
Instructions
- First, prepare the spaghetti squash. Preheat the oven to 400. Cut each spaghetti squash in half crosswise and scoop out the seeds and pulp with a spoon. Place the halves cut side down in a roasting pan and pour in enough water to fill the pan about 1/4-inch deep. Roast for 30-45 minutes, or until the squash is tender when pierced with a fork. Set aside to cool. When cool enough to handle, use a fork to pull out the squash noodles.
- While the squash is roasting, get started on the caramel for the meatballs. Mix the honey, sugar, and 1/3 cup water in a medium saucepan. Set the heat to medium-high and stir gently just until most of the sugar is dissolved. Let the mixture come to a boil undisturbed and cook for about 10 minutes without stirring, or until the syrup is a darker shade of amber and smells slightly burnt. Turn off the heat and stir in the fish sauce. Let the caramel cool for at least 15 minutes, so it is warm but no longer hot.
- While the caramel is cooling, make the sauce. Mix the fish sauce, rice vinegar, sugar, and lime juice in a large bowl. Add 1 cup warm water and stir until the sugar dissolves. Transfer about 1/4 cup of the sauce to a medium bowl, add the carrots and cucumber, and toss to coat. Add the scallions and chiles to the large bowl of sauce. Set the bowl of sauce and the bowl of marinating carrots and cucumbers aside.
- Preheat the broiler and line a large baking sheet with foil.
- Next, stir the baking soda into the warm caramel until no lumps remain (it will bubble and froth). Put the pork, pepper, garlic, and scallions in a large mixing bowl, and pour in the caramel. Knead thoroughly with your hands until the mixture is uniform. Form meatballs about the size of golf balls and place them in a single layer on the baking sheet.
- Broil the meatballs for about 5 minutes, until charred on top. Remove the pan and carefully flip the meatballs over. Broil for 5 more minutes, until charred on the second side and cooked through. (Cut open one meatball to check for doneness. If the meatballs are still pink in the center, place them in the oven for 5-10 minutes. Even though the oven is off, the residual heat from the broiler will finish cooking them.)
- Divide the squash noodles between 4-6 serving bowls. Top with meatballs, carrots and cucumber, cilantro or basil, and toasted cashews. Serve the sauce on the side so each person can spoon on as much as they'd like.
Notes
*I like the long red chiles pictured in these photos because they are less spicy than the tiny red Thai chiles, but you can use any chile you like (or omit it if you're spice-averse). Asian markets have a good selection of chiles, but you can also use minced jalapeño in a pinch!
Meatballs and sauce adapted from Saveur.
Recommended Products
As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 6 Serving Size: 1 servingAmount Per Serving: Calories: 674Total Fat: 35gSaturated Fat: 12gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 19gCholesterol: 142mgSodium: 1626mgCarbohydrates: 49gFiber: 6gSugar: 31gProtein: 44g
The nutrition label provided is an estimate for informational purposes only and may not be accurate. I am not a nutritionist or medical professional.
You might also enjoy these other paleo recipes:
Matcha Mug Cake
Pumpkin Soup with Crispy Shallots
Paleo Flour Blend
The meatballs were amazing! For me, the sauce needed quite a bit of salt added to bring the flavors together but I used a different brand of fish sauce so that may have been part of it. Served it over japanese sweet potato glass noodles instead of spaghetti squash – so good! Will definitely make again.
Yay, I’m so happy you liked it! Yes, I use Red Boat, which is very salty, but other brands may be less so. Love the idea of serving over glass noodles!
Your recipe looks wonderful.
But I see it has a rather high calorie & high fat content so wondering if you think it could work if I replace the pork with ground chicken or turkey? What do you think?
Thanks
You could try it but the fat in the pork is part of what gives this recipe great flavor! If you’re looking for low-cal or low-fat food this is probably not the recipe for you.
This dish is AMAZING! Well worth all the steps. My husband took one bite and asked if we could have it again tomorrow! You don’t miss the noodles at all. And the meatballs are to die for. Good job!
So glad you loved it! 🙂
Hi it seems like there is fish sauce in the meatbaldl in the ingredients but not in the instructions???
Hi Liz! It gets stirred into the caramel at the end of step 2, and then the caramel goes into the meatballs.
You are a genius! I tried this dish tonight and it tasted amazing, just like the Vietnamese restaurant but without the rice noodles. I swapped the spagetti squash for zoodles and that it gave it a nice crunch. I was very impressed by the meatballs! I made them in the broiler and they were cooked perfectly just like in your picture. Thanks for this recipe.
I am so glad you liked the meatballs, Viviana! The zoodles are a great idea. Thanks so much for letting me know how it went!
Wanna make these tonight they sounds great! Just got back from Vietnam and trying to recreate some of the food in a healthier way. I’m out of coconut sugar and don’t like to use chemical sweeteners or pure sugars – any ideas? Can I use maple syrup instead of the coconut sugar? Or will it totally flop the recipe?
Hi Liz! I haven’t tried it like that, but since it’s just a small amount of granulated sugar I think a liquid sweetener would probably work as a replacement. Let me know how it goes if you try it!
The most tasty and soft meatballs i ever made, or had. They are great even when they are cold.
Thank you for the recipe and thanks to my friend Christina for introducing this recipe to me.
Thanks so much for the comment, Naama! I am so happy you enjoyed the meatballs! I will have to try them cold, too, next time I make them.
I must being doing something wrong bc this was a total flop. I made the caramel 4 times and each time it just clumped when I added it to the meat. Finally on my 5th attempt I just left out the baking soda and glazed my already cooked meatballs with that and then shocked them in the oven one last time. I tried following the directions as best I could but they were written in a way the jumped around a bit and I found it confusing. Any advice with the caramel so I can try this again? They look great but not sure I would make this one again unless I can figure.out what went wrong. Thanks!
Hi Rachel! I’m so sorry this didn’t work out for you. I haven’t seen the caramel clump when added to the meat, so I’m trying to think about why it might have happened. If the caramel has had enough time to cool, it should mix in just fine. Did the caramel clump into pieces that were too hard to mix into the caramel? Also, did the caramel seize up when you stirred in the baking soda, or when you added it to the meat? (It sounds like you’re saying it happened when you added it to the meat, but since you said you tried leaving out the baking soda, I wanted to check.)
Since this recipe is complicated and involves several components coming together, I wrote the steps out in the order that you should actually do them. (I thought this would be less confusing than writing all the instructions for each component together, since then readers would have to jump up and back down as they proceeded through the recipe. Perhaps that backfired–I apologize that it was confusing! I also fixed some formatting issues left over from my Blogger to WordPress transfer so the spacing is more consistent.)
You could also check out this recipe from Saveur, which I adapted to create the meatballs and sauce for this recipe (http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Bun-Cha-Vietnamese-Pork-Meatball-Noodle-Salad). The technique is very similar and perhaps you’ll find those instructions useful.
I hope this helps! I’m happy to continue helping you troubleshoot, and will re-make the recipe again myself as soon as I get a chance so it’s fresher in my mind 🙂
This looks amazing but I’m allergic to honey, do you have a recommendation for a substitution?
Hi Cristina! You can use more sugar (coconut, raw, or even regular granulated sugar if you eat that) in place of the honey (so it’d be 1/4 cup sugar total). You’ll need to add a little more water–I’d try 2/3 cup, which is twice what’s listed in the recipe, since you won’t have the moisture from the honey.
Hope that helps!
Wow! … It looks so good and the photographs are gorgeous, too!!
Thank you so much!! 🙂
Also, this looks great, I'm going to give it a try!
I hope you love it as much as I did, Terri! If you get a chance, stop by and let me know how it went.
Oh man this looks fantastic! I love a good vietnamese bowl!
Thank you, Lauren–me too!
This looks amaaaazing!
I always wondered how they got that unique sweet and sour and umami flavor. Now I know!
I will definitly be trying this-noodles + meatballs + bowl= perfect dinner!
Thank you! I agree with that equation 🙂
Did you say, CARAMEL??? SOLD!!!!!!! I thought I wanted to make this dish before reading that magical word but now I KNOW I have to!
Haha, glad I included one of your favorite keywords, Betsy!
This dish looks absolutely amazing! Now I want to try those meatballs!
Thank you, Michelle!
This is so interesting Becky – I cook Asian cuisines at home all the time but have to say I haven't dabbled much in Vietnamese. This caramel technique is so interesting. I really want to try these meatballs!
I highly recommend it, Beth! It gives the flavor great depth–not just sweetness.
This looks fantastic! I just started using fish sauce in my recipes and I love the unique taste it brings to the dishes. And subbing spaghetti squash for noodles just puts this recipe in my to-try-soon file. Thx!
Thanks, Linda! Isn't fish sauce the best??
This looks so amazing!
Thank you, Aaron!
This looks absolutely delicious! And I love that it is packed with protein and no actual vermicelli. Will definitely try it soon!
Thank you! Stop by again and let me know what you think 🙂
They look absolutely spectacular! I make batches of meatballs almost every weekend for lunches during the week ahead, so I'm saving this one for a future "experiment" 😉
Thanks, Sally! It sounds like you have a great cookup routine–I should make meatballs every weekend, too.
Yummmmm! Those look amazing
Thank you, Crystal!