I took a few too many liberties with this recipe. Or, at least one too many, rather.

Banh mi are meant to be made on baguettes. And that is, indeed, what this recipe calls for. Unfortunately, I didn't have any baguettes. And I didn't want to wait until tomorrow to make this, so I decided that I'd just roll with some non-honey-filled honeycakes as the bread component of these sandwiches. Go for little banh mi sliders rather than the traditional sub. Sadly, the honeycake flavour profile doesn't really mix well with the banh mi flavour profile. They are two great tastes that do not taste great together.

That said, all the individual components were good! So I do think this would have been fine had I made it on the right bread. The cilantro, mint, pickled veggies, and sri racha mayo were all delicious. And I think the bacon and eggs would have been great with them. Although I say "would have" because I did end up making another substitute here. First off, because I was making sliders rather than subs, I went with scrambled eggs rather than fried. I think scrambled worked well here, but I'd be interested to try it with fried sometime, just to see how I like it. And the other change was to swap the bacon out from some turkey breast deli meat. I was going to use smoked tofu, but I hadn't realized that TF had used up the last of it while I was away camping and neither of us had ever restocked. So turkey breast was the best substitute I could manage in the end. It was fine, but I think that smoked tofu, tempeh, or bacon would have been better.

Still, despite a few... less-than-ideal substitutions, this worked out alright as a last-minute breakfast. I would definitely keep this in my back pocket to try again someday. Especially if I had some nice baguettes on hand!

Breakfast Banh Mi

Slightly adapted from The Breakfast Bible by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

Pickled Veggies

• 1 carrot, grated
• 1 shallot¹, halved and thinly sliced
• 1/4 c. rice vinegar
• 1/2 Tbsp. sugar
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt

Sri Racha Mayo²

• 1/4 c. mayonnaise
• 1 Tbsp. sri racha
• 2 tsp. lime juice³

Sandwich

• 8 slices bacon or smoked tofu
• 4 large eggs
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 1 baguette
• 1/4 c. chopped fresh cilantro
• 2 Tbsp. chopped fresh mint

Directions

1. Combine the carrot, shallot, vinegar, sugar, and salt in a jar.
2. Close jar tightly and shake to mix. Set aside for at least 20 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, combine the mayo, sri racha, and lime juice and mix well. Set aside.
4. Cook your bacon or tofu until crisp. If using tofu, add a little fat to the pan to help it crisp up.
5. Set the bacon/tofu on a plate and either drain fat from or add fat to the pan as appropriate.
6. Either fry or scramble your eggs in the pan, seasoning with salt and pepper to taste.
7. Cut the baguette into four equal pieces and slice each piece in half lengthwise.
8. Spread both halves of each baguette section with sri racha mayo.
9. Top the bottom half of each baguette section with bacon/tofu, eggs, pickled veggies, cilantro, and mint and place the top piece of the baguette on top.

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¹ The original recipe called for half a red onion, but I didn't have red onions and I did have shallots. And, honestly, I felt like a shallot would go better here anyway, so I would 100% keep this substitution in the future. That said, I think red onion would also be fine. Especially if it'd save you a trip to the grocery store. So, use whichever one is most convenient. ^Back
2 I've halved the quantities called for here because the original recipe made way too much mayo! ^Back
3 The original recipe called for lemon juice, but, after giving it some thought, I decided to go with lime juice instead. I felt like the lime would complement the other flavours better. I think either one would be fine though. Also, the recipe didn't call for any zest and I didn't use any, but I might try tossing in a pinch next time. I think it would be nice. ^Back