I fell in love with banh mi, Vietnamese sandwiches, while living in New York, and they have been a favorite of mine ever since. The combination of the crusty baguette, crunchy pickled vegetables, fresh herbs, salty meat, and all of the sauces is a bright party of texture and flavor, and I cannot get enough. This version plops some juicy meatballs into the filling and they are dangerously good!
| Level: | Easy |
| Total: | 45 min |
| Active: | 45 min |
| Yield: | 4 sandwiches |
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 1/2 cup julienned carrot (2 inches long)
- 1/2 cup julienned daikon (2 inches long)
- 1 pound ground pork
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 2 teaspoons cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 cloves garlic, grated
- 2 green onions, thinly sliced
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 2 French baguettes, cut into 4-inch pieces
- Hoisin, sriracha and mayonnaise, for serving
- 4-inch-long thin slices seedless cucumber, fresh cilantro sprigs and jalapeno sliced on an angle, for topping
Instructions
- For the pickled vegetables: Stir the vinegar, sugar, salt and 1/2 cup water together in a small bowl until the sugar and salt are dissolved. Add the carrots and daikon. Marinate until ready to serve.
- For the pork meatballs: Mix the pork, cilantro, soy sauce, cornstarch, sugar, salt, garlic and green onion together in a large bowl. Scoop the meatball mixture into 12 golf-sized balls and roll. Heat the oil in a pan over medium heat and add the meatballs. Cook for 4 minutes. Flip and cook until completely cooked through, another 4 minutes.
- For the bahn mi: Cut the pieces of baguette in half lengthwise and warm in a 375 degree F oven or on a skillet until slightly toasty. Spread hoisin on one side, sriracha and mayonnaise on the other. Add the cucumber slices, cilantro sprigs and jalapeno slices. Add 3 meatballs and the pickled vegetables. Serve.
Nutrition Facts
| Serving Size | 1 of 4 servings |
| Calories | 789 |
| Total Fat | 31 g |
| Saturated Fat | 10 g |
| Carbohydrates | 90 g |
| Dietary Fiber | 4 g |
| Sugar | 16 g |
| Protein | 36 g |
| Cholesterol | 82 mg |
| Sodium | 1241 mg |
Reviews
Nailed it with this! Our picky teens loved them. From the hoisin, to the pickled carrots and radishes (I didn’t have daikon), to the super flavorful meatballs, these sandwiches did not disappoint!
Wonderful summer meal. No offense, but I prefer to bake my meatballs (less grease). Also, I’m in the mid-west, it is difficult to find daikon so I sub radishes. This recipe is in my summer rotation!
These were so good!! The meatballs were excellent!! I was curious as to why the cornstarch was added so did a little research and found out that it is a technique used by Asians to alter the structure of meats, called velveting. I would highly recommend this sandwich. I did use Ree’s mayo (1/2 cup mayo, 1 tbs sambal and 1/4 tsp sesame oil) though.
So good! Meatballs were perfectly seasoned. I will next time make a double batch as somehow my husband and I managed to eat all 12 meatballs! The best part was how quickly it all came together, easy week night meal. No complaints here!!
Wasn’t bad.. but definitely missing bold flavors. We will go back to our regular recipe
Wow! Delicious!
This is so delicious. The only change I’ll make is to double the meatballs because they were that good!
This was delicious! Will definitely be making this again!
Love banh mi, but I could never quite recreate it until now! This recipe is so easy and delicious. I made a second batch right after we ate because I wanted leftovers.
Absolutely superb!!!