Makes 4 sandwiches
There are many reasons to love Terry Hope Romero. Her shiny black hair, her Ewok style, and her huge heart among them. But even if she were like, totally evil, I would still love her for this Scramble Tofu Bahn Mi! I mean, who else would think of that? And who else would execute it so perfectly? This is another recipe from her new book Vegan Eats World. Do yourself a favor and preorder this book. No food lover should be without it! OK, now I’ll let Terry take it away…
“This hearty bahn mi filling of golden scrambled tofu packed in a toasted baguette is too good to eat only for breakfasts, eat them up for casual weeknight meals too. You could always just use carrot and cilantro for garnish, but for really amazing sandwiches make the Daikon and Carrot Star Anise pickles!”
Notes
Ingredients
1/2 pound cremini mushrooms, cleaned and thinly sliced
3/4 cup thinly sliced shallots
4 scallions, white and green parts divided and sliced very thin
4 cloves garlic, peeled and mince
1 pound firm or extra firm tofu, drained
1/2 cup vegetable broth
3 tablespoons soy sauce (preferably Thai thin soy sauce ) or tamari
2 tablespoons lime juice
2 teaspoons ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground white pepper
1 teaspoon curry powder, any variety
For assembling:
4 six to eight inch crusty sandwich rolls or sliced from 2 baguettes
Vegan mayonnaise
Cilantro springs
Thin slices of ripe tomato
Paper thin slices of red radish or matchsticks of daikon or jicama
Asian garlic chili sauce (such as Sriracha or sambal oelek)
For the pickles:
1/2 pound daikon radish (about one slender 10 inch radish)
1/4 pound carrots (about 2 large carrots)
6 large green jalapeño or serrano chilies, stems removed
1 cup rice vinegar
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup kosher salt
1 teaspoon whole peppercorns, black or mixed color
4 whole star anise
Directions
In a small saucepan bring to a gentle boil the vinegar, sugar, salt, peppercorns and star anise and boil for 2 minutes. Stir to dissolve the sugar and salt and then pour everything over the vegetables in the jar, including the star anise and peppercorns. Cover very tightly and chill for 30 minutes before using. Keep tightly covered and chilled when not using.
Make the sandwich:
Heat a wok or cast iron skillet until nearly smoking, then sauté mushrooms with 1 tablespoon of oil until tender and browned, about 4 to 6 minutes. Remove from wok, wipe down the surface and add remaining oil. Add the shallots and stir-fry until golden, about 4 minutes, then add white parts of scallion and garlic and stir fry for 1 minute. Crumble in tofu, add the mushrooms and stir-fry for 2 minutes. Whisk together vegetable broth, soy sauce, lime juice, coriander, white pepper, and curry powder and pour over tofu. Use a large wooden spoon or rubber spatula to stir fry tofu until all of the liquid has been absorbed and tofu is golden, about 8 to 10 minutes. Tofu should be moist, but not wet. Add the green tops of the scallions, fry for another minute and remove from the heat.
Slice rolls in half and toast if desired. Spread insides with mayo and distribute the tofu evenly on the sandwiches. Top each sandwich with cilantro, tomato, radish, chili sauce, and daikon pickles if using. Eat immediately but over a plate…these are messy goodness.
This looks ridiculously good. I love the flavors.
Consider my mind blown! Can’t wait for this book…
I pre-ordered it yesterday. So excited! I can hardly stand to wait!
I love vegan versions of Bahn Mi sandwiches! I’ve got some daikon and some carrots from my CSA this week, and I think I’ve got a few pint jars left, so, it’s lookin’ good for pickle makin’ on the homestead!
XOXO
This was my favorite recipe I tested for this book. I devoured it even before taking a picture. The pickles are also key. Mmm
I cannot wait to get this book!!
I just tried the pickle recipe to go along with a different (non-breakfast) banh mi recipe I like and they were delicious! I bought a julienne peeler just for the recipe but it’s something I can see myself using for other recipes and I am very excited about it. The only change I made was to add 1 cup of water to the liquid mixture and then bringing it to a boil. Other pickle recipes I’ve seen use equal parts vinegar and water. They still “pickled” and were tasty.
Delicious. The pickles were easy, took the advice to make them the day before. Otherwise would have been way too much for a weeknight. Required a purchase of a mandoline but pretty cheap and i think the ability to julienne may change my whole take on salads, so def worth the 15$ at crate&barrel! Really lovely mix of favors–have to admit I doubted at first but it was great.
Hi IsaChandra,
This looks like a delicious veggie sandwich. Maybe this one will convert my tuna-sandwich loving boyfriend. But what is Kosher salt en why is ‘normal’ salt not suitable for vegans or Jews?
I just recently heard about bahn mi sandwiches! So excited to try this! Thanks for sharing!
My pickles were not so tasty. Super salty with a funny aftertaste. I wonder if adding water would have helped. I love pickles and I love salt but this was over the top. I’ll try again to see if I made a mistake somewhere.
Great lazy Sunday breakfast, pickles were a hit and a new addition to just about every meal from now on. Didn’t have a mandolin, but one daikon and one large carrot don’t take that long to slice up. Delicious!
I’m trying a month as a vegan and love banh mi so had to try this! Though ended up making it with red lentils instead of tofu, and in a wrap, but hey, the inspiration was from your lovely website 🙂 The recipe for pickled vegetables is the best one I tried so far
WOW. I just made this tonight and it is one of the best things I have ever cooked!!! Epic! So satisfying to put work into a recipe and have it come out amazing! THANK YOU for this recipe!!! I took some photos of how it turned out and posted it to Instagram, feel free to just search the hashtag of your own names of you can find me at 77_cool_J. Looking forward to trying more great recipes from you!
Just made this and was blown away. I made the pickles last night. Instead of bahn mi style, i went burrito style, but did everything else the same. This dish is not for the faint of flavor! It is packed to the rafters with edgy flavors. Since ditching animal ive found my tastebuds appear more sensitive and the flavors i experience on a daily basis are mindblowing. You need to make this. As long as you do your mis en place it comes together very fast.
OH MY GOSH