Living in Seattle, I was addicted to the banh mi. Ever since I had my first one years ago during a trip to San Francisco, I was in love, and while I do appreciate a good grilled pork version, it's nearly impossible to find a restaurant with sustainable, humanely-raised pork and therefore it's no longer in consideration unless I were to make it at home. And with the reduceatarian vibe we've embraced in our eating, the question we ask when we make anything these days is, "what is a good substitute for the meat in this?" Sometimes it's a root veg, sometimes tofu, sometimes mushrooms, sometimes cauliflower, etc. Depends on the food and the experimentation is fun, healthy, cheap and planet-friendly.
Now with banh mi, the vegetarian option we see is 99% of the time tofu. Which is fine and is really good when well prepared, but after immersing ourselves in the locally-written Shroom cookbook a few years ago? There's nothing like the beautifully marinated mushroom for this particular sandwich, and it can also be made vegan super easy with a quick cashew-based mayo that I've come to make up pretty frequently. With some quick-pickled daikon and carrot, vegan mayo and marinated mushrooms (plus some jalapeno for my spicier fella), it's a quick and filling and tasty AF meal.
PS - I refer to this photo as my 'kitchen sink' banh mi because I made it using some leftover organic hot dog buns we'd had in the freezer. Not my first choice compared to a good homemade hoagie, but still a quick healthy pick without all the chemical-laden crap of conventional buns in most grocery store aisles.
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