Recipe
🥙 LUNCH
Nom Banh Chok
Rice noodles under a fragrant green fish-and-lemongrass gravy, piled with raw vegetables, Cambodia's Khmer noodles.
Cambodian · medium · serves 4
prep 30 min · cook 30 min
~599 cal · 27g protein · 88g carbs · 18g fat · 9g fiber · 32g sugars · 13g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Nom banh chok, often simply called Khmer noodles, is a beloved everyday dish of Cambodia, traditionally eaten for breakfast or lunch and sold from baskets carried through villages and markets each morning. It is fresh, herbal, and quintessentially Khmer.
Handmade fresh rice noodles are topped with a soupy green gravy built on a kroeung paste of , turmeric, , and kaffir lime, thickened with fish. The whole thing is heaped with a generous, crunchy raft of raw vegetables and herbs, banana blossom, cucumber, bean sprouts, water lily stems, and mint, then dressed with the fragrant sauce and eaten cool.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally gluten-, dairy-, egg- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 4
1 lb fresh rice noodles
12 oz white fish, poached and flaked
1/2 cup , turmeric, and (kroeung)
1 cup
2 tbsp
1 tbsp prahok ( fish paste)
Hard to find? anchovy paste mashed with a little fish sauce - salty and fishy in the right direction, though prahok's fermented depth is stronger; Khmer and Thai grocers sell prahok in jars
1 tsp palm sugar
4 cups banana blossom, cucumber, and bean sprouts
2 cups fresh mint and Thai basil
Instructions
1
Pound the kroeung aromatics into a paste and fry until fragrant.
2
Add the poached, flaked fish, coconut milk, prahok, and palm sugar and simmer into a thin green gravy; season with fish sauce.
✎ Chef’s note
Keep the gravy loose and pourable, more of a fragrant sauce than a thick curry, so it coats the noodles and raw vegetables lightly.
3
Pile the rice noodles in bowls with a heap of raw vegetables and herbs.
4
Ladle the warm green gravy over and eat with everything tossed together.
Cambodian everyday tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Siem Reap. Siem Reap, gateway to Angkor, cooks Khmer classics, fish amok steamed in banana leaf, sour soups, and the fermented paste prahok. Tonlé Sap lake fish define Cambodia's temple-town table.
🗺️
Cambodia. The Tonle Sap reverses. For part of the year the Mekong pushes so hard that the river feeding the lake flows backwards and the lake swells several times over, flooding forest that becomes a nursery for fish. That single hydrological quirk is why Cambodia eats as much freshwater fish as it does, fresh, dried, salted and fermented into prahok.
🌍
Asia. Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, and its food spans the delicate seasonality of Japanese washoku, the chili-fired curries of India and Thailand, and the wheat-and-lamb traditions of Central Asia. Rice, noodles, soy, and fermentation recur across its regions, while ancient spice routes and religious traditions shaped distinct grammars of flavor. Whether from a street-cart wok or a monastery kitchen, eating is deeply communal and ritual-rich.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Cambodia
Fish AmokA silky steamed fish curry-custard in banana-leaf cups, built on pounded lemongrass kroeung and coconut cream.
Bai Sach ChroukThinly sliced grilled coconut-marinated pork over broken rice, with pickles and a clear broth.
Sankhya LapovA whole kabocha pumpkin steamed with a coconut-palm-sugar custard inside, a striking Cambodian dessert.
Browse all Cambodia recipes →
Good to know
Storing it: Best fresh. Leftovers keep 2 days refrigerated; loosen with a splash of water or oil as you reheat so they do not clump.
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Cuisine
Diet
Frequently asked questions
What is Nom Banh Chok?
Rice noodles under a fragrant green fish-and-lemongrass gravy, piled with raw vegetables, Cambodia's Khmer noodles.
Where does Nom Banh Chok come from?
Nom Banh Chok is a Cambodian dish from Siem Reap, Cambodia.
Can Nom Banh Chok be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Nom Banh Chok recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Nom Banh Chok safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Nom Banh Chok take to make?
About 60 minutes total (30 minutes prep, 30 minutes cooking), serving 4.
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