Banh Mi Impressed Meal Prep Bowls

These unimaginable Banh Mi Impressed Meal Prep Bowls function pickled vegetable salad, mini floor turkey meatballs, and a subsequent degree sriracha mayo sauce served over your favourite rice. Elevate lunchtime with this make-ahead choice!

There are occasions when getting somewhat inventive with the way you package deal up your meal preps actually pays off. And that is a type of instances! Protecting the veggies packaged separate from the meatballs and rice makes it really easy to warmth solely what must be heated.

And on this state of affairs, having cool and crisp recent veggies alongside your steaming scorching Lunch bowl takes this meal from primary to spectacular. It additionally means: everybody might be questioning the place you bought your lunch!

What’s Banh Mi and the place does it come from?

Conventional banh mi is a sandwich which originates in Vietnam. It consists of a top quality baguette, candy and salty pickled greens, skinny sliced meats (often pork primarily based), pork pate, mayonnaise, and cilantro leaves.

It’s typically served by avenue distributors in Vietnam, and now different locations around the globe as nicely. Try these banh mi pictures on Hungry Onion to get a greater sense of this standard Vietnamese avenue food.

Strive these genuine recipes for Banh Mi:

On this meal prep recipe, we swapped the baguette for jasmine rice, rolled up some floor turkey meatballs for the protein, and smothered the whole lot in probably the most addicting spicy mayo sauce.

Preserve the pickled veggies saved individually till you’re able to eat offers that excellent distinction of warmed vs chilled parts you’d discover at a restaurant! However you made it in your personal kitchen 😉 I hope you like this flavorful and distinctive meal prep lunch as a lot as I do!

*Word: I’ve rated this recipe as reasonable issue as a result of there are just a few completely different parts that come collectively for the ultimate meal. As well as, some components are put collectively for reheating whereas others are stored separate, so there’s somewhat extra happening than only a easy meal prep lunch! However SO price it!

What are the components in these Banh Mi Impressed Meal Prep Bowls?

This meal prep bowl recipe incorporates three essential parts, plus rice and cilantro for serving. There’s the pickled veggie salad, the bottom turkey meatballs, and the out-of-this-world spicy mayo sauce. All components must be straightforward to seek out; if not, I’ve acquired straightforward swap concepts!

• carrots, radishes & inexperienced onions – These are the veggies we’re slicing skinny and organising for a fast pickle. Go away the cucumber out of this combine so it stays crunchy!
• rice vinegar, white sugar & salt – This combo of gentle rice vinegar, the smallest quantity of sugar, and a contact of salt present the best fast pickle combination. I prefer to prep these first so the veggies have probably the most time to soak up all of the flavors.
• floor turkey – This recipe was written with floor turkey and it really works shockingly nicely! Including fats and taste with the mayo helps preserve these meatballs good and moist.
• panko breadcrumbs – Utilizing breadcrumbs for the meatballs helps take up the flavors and bind the whole lot collectively.
• Kewpie or common mayonnaise – For each the meatballs and sauce, you’ll want some mayonnaise. I like to recommend going the additional mile for Kewpie mayonnaise, which you will discover within the Asian part of the grocery retailer. Nevertheless, common mayo will work too! It simply gained’t have that further umami aptitude.
• recent garlic & ginger – Make sure you mince each of those up actually small since they go proper into the meatball combination. You don’t need large chunks, you need tiny minced items that mix proper in.
• avocado oil – For frying the meatballs, I like to make use of avocado oil due to the excessive smoke level. I used a complete of about 2 tablespoons for my 2 batches of meatballs.
• sriracha – Together with the mayo base, the zesty lime, and the candy maple syrup, sriracha after all brings the spice. For those who prefer it much less spicy, be at liberty to scale back the quantity of 1/2 tablespoon or so.
• recent lime juice – About 1/2 of a lime is all you must deliver the right quantity of zest, acidity, and oomph to the sauce.
• maple syrup – Including only a contact of maple syrup to the sauce helps stability out the spice, salt, and zest from the lime. Don’t skip! This sauce is significantly addicting.
• salt – It’s necessary to salt all parts of the recipe as you go, as a substitute of simply including a bunch of salt on the finish. This recipe requires salt within the meatballs, the pickled veggie salad, and the sauce. I additionally add a contact of salt to the rice. Don’t be afraid of salt – since the whole lot is constructed from scratch, most of those components have zero salt to start with.
• rice of alternative + cooking liquid – For this meal prep recipe, I used jasmine rice cooked with hen broth in my On the spot Pot. Utilizing broth for cooking as a substitute of water provides far more taste!
• English cucumber – We determined to omit the cucumber from the pickled salad and plop it proper on high as a substitute. If the cucumbers sat within the liquid, they might soften up and lose any crunch. This manner, they keep recent and crisp.
• cilantro leaves – Conventional banh mi has full stems of cilantro positioned within the sandwich, however I like to cut it up and sprinkle it over this meal prep bowl. I don’t like getting large leaves in my mouth 😂

How do you make these Banh Mi Impressed Meal Prep Bowls?

This meal prep lunch recipe has three essential parts plus serving additions, so let’s undergo them one after the other, beginning with the pickled veggie salad. This half might be probably the most comparable part to conventional banh mi!

First, peel the carrots and half them lengthwise, then slice thinly on the diagonal into half moons. You need them as skinny as attainable, which supplies you probably the most floor space for flavors to soak up! Trim the radishes and inexperienced onions, then thinly slice into half moons the identical dimension because the carrots. Slice the inexperienced onions diagonally as nicely.

Toss the sliced veggies in a medium sized bowl – one with a lid so you possibly can put this pickled salad into the fridge whilst you make the remainder of the meal. Pour rice vinegar over the veggies, then sprinkle the white sugar and salt. Give it just a few shakes to combine, then cowl and put aside within the fridge. I feel these veggies style even higher after they’ve chilled!

Subsequent, prepare dinner the rice following your package deal instructions after which put aside to chill whilst you put together the remainder of the meal. The quantity of cooking liquid you want will differ relying in your cooking methodology. I prefer to prepare dinner my rice with hen broth within the On the spot Pot, after which fluff with a fork and add a sprinkle of salt as soon as it’s completed.

For the meatballs, you’ll want a big bowl and a few gloves. I personally desire to make use of gloves however you can even moist your arms to scale back sticking. Mix the bottom turkey, panko breadcrumbs, mayonnaise, minced garlic and ginger, together with a really beneficiant pinch of salt.

Combine all this collectively together with your arms till it’s a uniform combination. It is going to appear moist, however that’s okay. One after the other, roll the meat combination into balls simply smaller than a tablespoon, inserting them on a big plate or slicing board earlier than frying.

It’s best to get roughly 28 meatballs, which supplies you 7 meatballs per serving. It’s okay in the event that they aren’t completely spherical! They’ll type distinct sides when browning as nicely. Simply do your greatest!

Seize a big frying pan, deep skillet, or use a Dutch oven like I did. Over medium warmth, add simply sufficient avocado oil to cowl the underside of the pan. Brown the meatballs on all sides, setting them apart on a paper towel lined plate to soak up extra cooking oil after they’re completed. Don’t crowd the pan – work in batches and add extra oil as wanted.

Flip the meatballs each 3 minutes or so; every batch ought to take about 10-12 minutes. I cooked two batches of 14 meatballs every, which took about 22 minutes of lively prepare dinner time. You can too do three batches for more room, however it would take extra time total.

As soon as all of the meatballs are completed cooking, it’s time to make the sauce. Whisk collectively the mayonnaise, sriracha, recent lime juice and maple syrup in a small bowl till clean, including a pinch of salt on the finish to assist stability out the sweetness.

Switch the sauce on to small sauce containers for meal prep. Alternatively in the event you’re serving instantly, merely preserve the sauce in a bowl and drizzle over every serving.

Lastly, slice the half a cucumber the identical approach because the carrots: cut up down the center then into skinny lengthy half moon slices on the diagonal. Don’t combine the cucumber instantly into the pickled veggie salad. We need to preserve it out of the moisture so it stays crisp and recent.

For those who’re serving straight away, stick the cucumbers and chopped cilantro on high of every bowl as you assemble. For those who’re meal prepping, observe the directions described under – stack the herbs and cucumber on high of the pickled veggies, however don’t combine in!

This meal is unimaginable in the event you serve it straight away, however we’re additionally together with particular directions for having fun with it later within the week! To meal prep, it’s necessary to maintain the rice and meatballs separate from the pickled veggie combination. This makes reheating tremendous straightforward!

Finest suggestions for making these Banh Mi Impressed Meal Prep Bowls:

Listed below are my greatest suggestions for making this meal prep recipe efficiently at dwelling:

• Brown the meatballs on each aspect. When frying meatballs, you’ll discover you begin with 2 or 3 distinct sides, and you then kinda preserve transferring them round to get the remainder browned. You’ll see what I imply. However preserve going till they’re brown throughout; extra browning = extra taste
• Use fattier floor turkey, and keep away from 99% lean. With floor turkey, you need extra fats. This helps the meatballs stick collectively, but in addition, fats = taste!
• Don’t skip the sauce. I imply it. That is completely the very best a part of this meal and ties the entire thing collectively!!

How do you meal prep these Banh Mi Impressed Bowls?

This recipe was developed particularly for meal prep and makes a scrumptious make-ahead meal for lunch or dinner. 

Listed below are the precise meal prep storage steps:

1. Divide the meatballs and rice between 4 meal prep containers with lids (the massive container you’ll eat from).
2. Divide the pickled salad between 4 extra smaller containers with lids.
3. Lay 1/4 of the cucumber and the herbs on high of every salad container.
4. Divide the sauce between 4 small salad dressing containers (affiliate hyperlink!), and stash these within the salad container for straightforward storage.

The place do you get these containers?

All the glass containers pictured on this submit are Pyrex model. The oblong containers are the 3-Cup Pyrex Rectangle Glass Containers (affiliate hyperlink!). The smaller spherical containers full of veggies are the 2-Cup Pyrex Round Glass Container (affiliate hyperlink!).

Moreover, I like these little sauce containers as a result of they’re comparatively flat. This implies they’ll match into most different meal prep containers. Plus, the lids are very sturdy and actually do seal the container. The sauce containers are these salad dressing containers (affiliate hyperlink!) from Amazon.

Methods to customise this meal prep recipe:

• Change up the protein and use what you’ve gotten: floor pork, floor hen, or intention for a extra conventional choice and use Vietnamese chilly cuts (learn extra in Nagi’s Banh Mi article).
• Add some recent sliced jalapenos in the event you prefer it even spicier!
• Skip the rice and go extra conventional with a baguette! You may you a lightweight, crusty bread roll or go particularly for Vietnamese baguettes.

Is that this recipe freezer-friendly?

I might not suggest freezing this recipe as an entire because of the recent parts. Nevertheless, I do suppose the turkey meatballs may very well be frozen after cooking and reheated by simmering in a sauce or including to a pasta bake.

Tips on how to retailer Banh Mi Impressed Meal Prep Bowls:

Retailer as described above in hermetic meal prep containers within the fridge for as much as 4 days.

Tips on how to reheat Banh Mi Impressed Meal Prep Bowls:

To reheat the meatball and rice parts, add a tablespoon of water to create steam and loosely cowl with the lid, then microwave on Excessive in 1 minute till heated by way of.

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Recipe developed by Rachel Phipps.