Vietnamese Beef Pasta Stir-Fry (Nui Xao Bo) is composed of pasta, beef and your choice of vegetables, all coated with a tasty savory sauce. This quick and easy stir-fried pasta is great for any meals of the day.
What is Vietnamese Beef Pasta Stir-Fry
Vietnamese-style beef pasta (nui xao bo) is a stir-fry dish with pasta, beef and onions. You can add different kinds of vegetables for textures and colors. Everything is tossed with a savory stir-fry sauce that also has some sweetness and tanginess. The Vietnamese name of the dish is “nui xao thit bo“/”nui xao bo” (“nui” means pasta, “xao” means stir-fry and “bo” means beef).
This pasta dish is very popular in Saigon. It combines Western ingredients and cooking methods with Asian counterparts. You can watch the short video below to see how it is cooked (the full video showing how to prep and cook the dish is in the recipe card at the end of the post).
Watch the Video
Ingredients
The main ingredients for nui xao bo are pasta, beef, onions, garlic and your choice of vegetables.
- pasta: you will need to use a short type of pasta. I use fusilli because its spiral shape does a great job at trapping the sauce. Fusilli is also a great choice for Vietnamese macaroni soup.
- beef: I like to use flank steak in beef stir-fry dishes. You can use other cuts, just make sure you slice it thinly against the grain.
- vegetables: I often use carrots, bell pepper and baby bok choy. Other veggies I think you can use are yu choy sum, spinach and even mushrooms.
To make the stir-fry sauce, you will need soy sauce, oyster sauce, and ketchup. It may sound strange to you to see ketchup here, but in the South of Vietnam, people sometimes use it in cooking. In case you don’t like using ketchup, you can mix tomato paste with some water and sugar to your desired sweetness.
Cooking Notes
It takes only half an hour to cook this Vietnamese beef pasta stir-fry (nui xao bo) recipe. As most home kitchens don’t have a powerful stove as in restaurant kitchens, it’s best to stir-fry the beef and veggies separately to avoid steaming the beef. This rule is also true for all other beef stir-fry recipes such as black pepper beef or beef and potato stir-fry.
Once you start stir-frying, the dish will come together quickly, so please prep all ingredients before turning on the stove. Also, if you want to cook this stir-fried beef pasta for a lot of people, I think you may need to work in batches. Crowding the pan with too much food may affect the results.
Please find detailed measurements and instructions as well as a full video showing how to prep ingredients and cook the dish in the recipe card below. You can enjoy the dish for lunch, dinner, or even as breakfast (Vietnamese people love savory breakfast).
Related Recipes
I’d love to hear what you think about the dish, so please feel free to leave a comment. New recipes are added every week so let’s connect on Facebook, Youtube, Pinterest and Instagram for the latest updates. You can find my collection of Vietnamese recipes here.
