Vietnamese-style Pork Meatball Bánh Mì

Hello dear reader,

Week two of the new year and everyone is going diet-crazy, whether planning to eat healthier or to lose weight.

When I think of healthy food my thoughts often turn to Southeast Asia, where many dishes are light and low in fat but packed full of flavour by the addition of delicious goodies like chillies, ginger, citrus and herbs.

Healthy Asian ingredients

Vietnam was ruled as a French colony until it finally gained its independence in 1954.  There are still many French influences in Vietnamese cuisine and chief of these has to be Bánh Mì, which are Vietnamese baguette sandwiches.

Vietnamese baguettes are lighter, airier and crisper than their French counterpart but are difficult to find, certainly in Scotland anyway.  A French baguette makes for a decent substitute, unless of course you are serving them to someone who is Vietnamese!

Here is my quick and easy recipe for healthy, delicious pork meatball Bánh Mì.

Vietnamese-style Pork Meatballs – recipe
1lb lean pork mince
1 tbsp cornflour
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp sugar
1 tbsp nam pla (fish sauce)
1 tbsp soy sauce
grated zest of ½ lime
juice of 1 lime
1 inch root ginger, grated
4 cloves garlic, crushed
4 spring onions, finely chopped
1 red chilli, de-seeded & finely chopped
1 tbsp coriander, finely chopped

Pork mince

Prepped healthy ingredients

1) Mix cornflour, black pepper & sugar together in a large bowl.
2) Add fish sauce, soy sauce, lime zest, lime juice, ginger and garlic.  Mix well.
3) Add spring onions, red chilli and coriander.  Mix well.
4) Add pork and mix again.
5) Form the mixture into about 20 pork balls, each about the size of a golf ball, using wet hands so the mixture doesn’t stick.
6) Place on a lightly greased baking tray and chill for at least half an hour.

pork meatballs

7) Cook in a pre-heated oven at 180°C (350°F, Gas Mark 4) for about 25 minutes until golden in colour, turning once during cooking.

Serve with accompaniments of sliced tomatoes, torn coriander leaves, finely sliced spring onion and shredded lettuce.

Asian accompaniment

Add a little bowl of sauce – this could be simple sweet chilli sauce or rustle up this (incredibly inauthentic) quick creamy sweet chilli sauce…

Creamy sweet chilli sauce – quick “recipe”
Mix together 2 tbsp low fat mayonnaise, 1 tbsp sweet chilli sauce and grated zest of ½ lime.

spiced dip

If you want to be really healthy, or are dieting, serve with whole lettuce leaves as wraps.
Otherwise serve in baguettes, as Bánh Mì.

Pork meatball baguette

Sorry my picture is a bit fuzzy – I was so keen to get to the table to start munching my Bánh Mì that I didn’t take the time for proper camera focusing!  Shows you how tasty they are!

Remember healthy, low fat food doesn’t have to be boring.  This dish zings with a whole host of fresh vibrant flavours!

Enjoy!

Vohn

x

P.S.  I am entering my Bánh Mì into an exciting bloggers’ challenge run by Chris from Germany. Chris’s blog Cooking Around the World is all about his love of world cuisine.  In his Bloggers Around the World challenge he chooses a new country each month for us to explore digitally and the country Chris has chosen for us all to visit this month is Vietnam. I can’t claim my Bánh Mì to be authentically Vietnamese but they do burst with the beautiful flavours of Vietnam.

Bloggers Around the World Logo

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12 comments

  1. Nice – Would love to see this submitted to FoodFotoGallery.com for all to see 🙂

    • Thanks so much for the invite C.J. I have now submitted it to FoodFotoGallery.com 🙂 Vohn x

  2. Good golly this looks fantastic! I want one RIGHT NOW! 🙂

    • Well Elizabeth, you’ll just have to make a trip south and come for lunch! Vohn x

  3. The Editors of Garden Variety says:

    This looks so delicious and has all of my favorite ingredients included. Thanks for sharing.

    • My pleasure. Thanks for popping by and leaving a comment! Vohn x

  4. Thank you for posting this…reading your post make me want to grab a Banh Mi to remind me about my homeland 🙂

    • wow – thank you so much for popping by and commenting. High praise indeed that my little blog made you think of home! Vohn x

  5. It looks SO good! I’m drooling over here. 😀

    • Hehe Lisa – drool on! Vohn x

  6. That looks so good, I’m impressed you stopped to take a photo at all! 🙂

    • Haha – thanks Melissa! 🙂

Comments are closed.