When I was growing up in San Francisco, I went to Chinese school every Saturday morning. Yup, no Saturday cartoons for me! Just a few blocks away from the school was a popular Vietnamese café that sold banh mi sandwiches for $1.75. Chinese school was over at noon, which meant that the café would be crammed with hungry people. I was among that crowd. Their banh mi sandwiches were so tasty that I couldn’t help but squeeze my way up to the counter to order a BBQ pork one. If you’re not familiar with a banh mi sandwich, here’s a quick rundown of their key components:
bread: a toasted mini baguette that’s crunchy on the outside fluffy on the insidespice: sliced peppers, usually jalapeñospickled vegetables: typically carrots and daikon radish cut into matchsticksfilling: usually cold cuts or grilled meatcucumber slicesfresh herbs: cilantro and mintfat: a generous amount of mayonnaise, pâté, etc.
I thought it would be fun to adapt one of my favorite Vietnamese dishes into a salad! Here are some of the tweaks I made to transform the classic Vietnamese sandwich into a salad. Let’s start with the bread. Banh mi sandwiches are usually served inside a baguette-style bread. Here, I’ve turned the baguette into croutons. You can make croutons with a regular baguette or gluten-free bread. For the pickled vegetables, I used regular radishes instead of daikon radishes because they’re more readily available. I also soaked a few slices of jalapeño in the brine to give the vegetables spice. Usually, the pickling brine is made with distilled white vinegar or rice vinegar. I’m using Nature’s Intent Apple Cider Vinegar instead to give the vegetables subtle sweet flavor. It tastes great! The main protein I’m using in this salad is pan-fried lemongrass shrimp. I happened to have an abundance of lemongrass and shrimp in my fridge when I developed the recipe, so into the salad they go! To round out the entire salad, I made a vinaigrette with shallots, apple cider vinegar and olive oil. I know there are a lot of components to this salad, but they complement each other so well!
LOOKING FOR MORE FRESH SALADS?
Greek Salad with Chickpeas & Heirloom TomatoesFall Harvest Quinoa SaladQuinoa Tabbouleh SaladTeriyaki Salmon Salad with Strawberry Dressing
Disclosure: This post was sponsored by Nature’s Intent Apple Cider Vinegar! To learn more about their apple cider vinegar and to get more recipe inspiration, visit their website or follow them on Instagram.
