Vegetarian Bahn Mi – A Challenge And I’m Bringing To Fiesta Friday #63

The Wynn Resort in Las Vegas teamed up with famous vegan chef Tal Ronnen to create exquisite menus of vegan and vegetarian cuisine for every restaurant at the Wynn. 

The challenge was to pick an item off the the amazing menu and make it my own, in other words I could pick any item and change it, putting our own spin on the dish. I am always up for a challenge and looking at the menu it was hard to decide from all the amazing dishes that Chef Ronnen created for Wynn.

I chose the Gardein “Vegan” Meatballs with Tomato Sauce and Creamy Polenta.  So you wonder what Bahn Mi has to do with this right, well I took creative license and took the meatballs and created an entirely new dish, Vietnamese not Italian.  I appreciate and love vegetarian food but am not vegetarian, I have never cooked with a “meat substitute” before, therein lies the challenge. I wanted to make meatballs and to stay somewhat true to the dish I found Gardein “Meatless” meat. I was happy to see that Gardein is non GMO and has very few ingredients, I can pronounce all of them. My dish is Vegetarian not Vegan, I needed egg to hold the patties together and wanted to use Mayonaise on the sandwich. This could easily be veganized I am sure by using flax seed egg substitute and a vegan mayo.

I’m bringing a bunch of these Vegetarian sandwiches with me to the party today. Our host, Angie@The Novice Gardener is making good use of our new digs throwing a great party with our wonderful co hosts, you can party with Julianna @Foodie On Board and Hilda @Along The Grapevine.

I thought I could take this product and form it into meatballs, it didn’t work very well. I added some corn starch and egg along with some ginger, soy sauce and chili paste. They would not form a ball so I made a patty and fried them. Honestly, they were very tasty.

Gardein Patties

I pickled some vegetables, whats Bahn Mi without pickled veggies. I used cucumber, carrot, and watermelon radish which I made into thin strips by using my vegetable peeler, then you simply mix rice wine vinegar, sugar, sesame oil and salt and pepper together and pour it onto the vegetables. Let it sit for a little while, about 30 minutes.

Pickled vegetables

Next you clean your cilantro, make spicy mayo. I used garlic chili paste and mayo, cut a piece of a baguette approximately 6 inches long, slice it in half and hollow out the middle. Slather with the spicy mayo, place some cilantro, then the patties and top with the pickled vegetables, drizzle some of the vinegar onto the top inside half of the bread and put your sandwich together.

Vegetarian Bahn Mi

Makes 4-6 sandwiches

The patties

2 cups meatless meat (I used Gardein brand)

2 eggs lightly beaten

2 tbs corn starch

1 tsp minced fresh ginger

2 spring onion the light colored part chopped finely

1 tbs soy sauce

1 tbs chili paste

salt and pepper to taste

Mix everything together and let sit for about 15 minutes. Heat skillet with some oil, place a spoonful of the mixture into the hot pan, flatten a little with your spoon and fry until nicely browned. Flip over and fry the other side. Set aside.

Pickled Vegetables

1 watermelon radish

1 large carrot

1 cucumber peeled

1/3 cup rice wine vinegar

1 tsp sugar

2 tsp sesame oil

Juice of 1 small lime

handfull of cilantro

1 jalapeno pepper seeds removed and thinly sliced

Using a vegetable peeler peel off thin slices of the vegetables and place in a bowl, Mix the vinegar, sugar, oil and lime juice and pour over vegetables and let it sit while you prepare the bread and mayo.

Putting the sandwich together.

Hollow out both halves of the baguette, mix some mayo with chili sauce and spread on the bottom half, place some cilantro and jalapeño pepper on the bread, lay seveeral patties on and top with some of the pickled vegetables. Drizzle some of the vinegar from the veggies on the other half of bread and put it together. Enjoy!

Bahn Mi