One of the best things about living in Seattle is the Vietnamese culture. Unlike Americanized “Chinese” food, Vietnamese dishes rely heavily on fresh vegetables and herbs. One of my favorite Vietnamese classics is bánh mì, a baguette sammich filled with fried tofu, sliced jalapeño peppers, spears of cucumber and pickled daikon radish & carrots, and fresh cilantro. What makes this sammich even better is the cost: $1.75 at my favorite Vietnamese deli. Cheaper than a taco truck and much more filling.
Making tofu bánh mì at home is easier than you think. The most time-intensive part of this recipe is making the pickled daikon and carrot. Everything else comes together quickly if you have all your ingredients prep’d.
Ingredients for tofu bánh mì:
- Baguettes: if you have access to a Việt grocery store, you’ll find these baguettes in the baked goods area. Or simply purchase a baguette from your local grocery store and cut into 8″-10″ pieces.
- Jalapeño Peppers: this ingredient is optional, especially for the folks that can’t handle heat. If you can withstand a wee touch of spice in your sammich, remove the seeds from the jalapeño slices.
- Daikon Radish and Carrots: if you’ve never seen a daikon radish, imagine a root vegetable that is a distant cousin of the carrot, only with five times the girth of a normal carrot and sprouting a few hairs along the surface. Oh, and the cousin is also albino. Notice my singular use of radish but the plural of carrot. You won’t need more than one daikon radish for this recipe, but you’ll want about 3-4 carrots.
- Cucumber: if you’re lazy and don’t especially feel like seeding a cuke, opt for the English seedless variety.
- Cilantro: I know genetics predispose some humans to equate the taste of cilantro with soap, but you shouldn’t keep this ingredient out of your sammich.
- Fried tofu: Unless you want to purchase a container of extra firm tofu, drain, press, slice then fry slices, it’s easier to simply buy a package of fried tofu from an Asian market. If you don’t have access to an Asian market that sells fried tofu, guess what you’ll be doing with your afternoon?
- Soy sauce
- Peanut or olive oil
- Black pepper (freshly cracked is best here)
- Vegannaise (vegan mayonnaise for the newly inducted veg*ns)
Now then, let’s pickle that daikon radish and those carrots:
- Peel the radish and carrots; cut into uniform ¼” x 4″ strips—you can always go smaller or shred ’em.
- Prepare the pickling brine:
- 3 cups warm water
- 3 Tbsp vinegar (white or rice works best here)
- 2 Tbsp evaporate cane sugar
- 2 Tbsp salt
- Soak the radish and carrots in brine for at least one hour or up to 3 days, depending on how you like your pickles.
Pepper that tofu!
- Slice the fried tofu into ½” x 2″ strips.
- In a skillet over medium heat, heat 1 Tbsp oil.
- Add tofu to skillet; stir often being careful not to break apart the slices.
- Sprinkle tofu with 2 tsp soy sauce and black pepper to taste; remove from heat.
Now let’s make a sammich!
- Slice the baguette lengthwise in half.
- Spread vegannaise on one side of sammich bread; lightly drizzle the bread with soy sauce on the other side.
- Place a few slices of peppered tofu in sammich along with the other ingredients. I like to include at least 3 slices of jalapeño peppers, 2-3 cucumber spears (cut in a similar fashion as the daikon & carrots), a few sprigs of cilantro, and 2-3 spears of pickled daikon and carrots.
Tips!
- Toast the baguette before you make the sammich.
- Use vegetarian fish sauce in your sammich instead of additional soy sauce. This stuff isn’t easy to find but I managed to score a bottle at a local Việt grocery.
If you have a lot of pickled daikon & carrots in your refrigerator after making bánh mì – and you will – I have a recipe that will easily absorb the rest into a fantastic (and healthy) salad. Which I’ll post tomorrow.