Vietnamese Beef Stew with Green Peppercorns (“Bo Ham Tieu Xanh“) features tender beef cubes in a flavorful sauce with mild heat and zestiness from fresh green peppercorns. It also often includes potatoes and carrots, and is served with crusty bread to soak up the yummy sauce.
There are quite a lot of ways to make beef stew in Vietnam. If you are somewhat serious about Vietnamese cuisine, you probably have heard of “bo kho“, a Southern Vietnamese beef stew dish. Bò hầm tiêu xanh is a different Southern Vietnamese beef stew dish, which I sometimes enjoy even more than bò kho.
What is Green Peppercorn (“tieu xanh“)
Green peppercorns are unripe peppercorns. Though they are milder than black peppercorns, the green counterparts are more flavorful and fresher with fruitiness and zestiness.
Fresh green peppercorns can be kept in the refrigerator for several weeks. They will slowly get darker, losing the beautiful green color.
As far as I know, it is not very common to see green peppercorns in Northern cuisine. They are usually used in Southern dishes both for their flavors as well as their aesthetic appeal.
Main Ingredients
To make bo ham tieu xanh, the main ingredients you will need are:
- cubed beef: my favorite cut of beef for stew is beef shank. If you cannot find this cut, beef chuck also works.
- fresh green peppercorns
- potatoes and carrots
- aromatics and seasonings you may already have such as garlic, shallots, bay leaves, onion and salt.
Savory Southern Vietnamese dishes often have some sweetness from added sugar, the level of which is sometimes pretty pronounced. For bo ham tieu xanh, I braise the beef in coconut juice to add natural sweetness to the dish (just like in my thit kho tau recipe), and avoid the need to use refined sugar.
An Easy Beef Stew To Make A Large Batch
This dish is very easy to make at home, and you can cook a large batch to enjoy over a couple days. I cook mine on the stovetop in a Staub cocotte. An enameled Dutch oven is also excellent.
The cooking steps are quite straightforward. Make sure you sear the beef cubes first until browned. Then sauté the aromatics, add the beef back along with green peppercorns and other ingredients. Braise until the beef is tender to your liking.
After being simmered, the fresh peppercorns will burst and lose their green color. You can add some uncooked green peppercorns to serving bowls for garnishing. It’s best to serve this Vietnamese beef stew with banh mi (or baguettes and other crusty bread) to soak up the flavorful sauce.
I’m quite sure you can also cook this dish in a slow cooker or pressure cooker (such as an Instant Pot) though I haven’t tried it out for myself yet. My guess is it may take 3-4 hours on High in a slow cooker or 30 minutes in a pressure cooker. If you try these two methods, I’d love to hear how it works for you.
⭐️ I’d love to hear what you think about the dish, so please feel free to leave a comment and a rating if you have tried it. 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.
Hoặc