Salad in a Sandwich! Sweet Potato Bahn Mi
It looks rather unassuming, but this sandwich will knock your socks off!
A few weeks ago Alan and I took a little impromptu road trip to explore part of the North Cascades Loop in Washington state, going clockwise from Burlington to Monroe. It had been years since Alan had done this and I don’t recall ever going on the section between Concrete and Wenatchee, Washington. We found ourselves with a couple of free days and off we went! It was amazing and we will be going back to do some future hiking, swimming, skiing, and vacationing!
On our way home, we stopped in Leavenworth, one of our favorite little towns, for lunch. Tucked in the central Cascades, this little town looks as if it was dropped right out of the Bavarian Alps. Not only are the mountains reminiscent of the Alps, but the whole town was transformed in the 1960s to Bavarian design! It is full of shops, restaurants, festivals, and activities that fit into this alpine theme. If you’ve not been, definitely make plans to go.
Leavenworth, WA
Yodelin Broth Company
Yodelin’s mission statement. Nice to see some zero waste philosophy in a restaurant.
Instead of having traditional Bavarian or German food, we opted to try out a new place, Yodelin Broth Company, because it was a beautiful summer day and they had outside seating adjacent to the Wenatchee River. And I’m so glad we did! I had the best sandwich in my life, a Sweet Potato Bahn Mi—and that’s a tall statement coming from someone who believes the ONLY sandwich to have is a vegan Reuben! It sounded so intriguing and was available vegan (omitting sriracha mayo and fish sauce), so I gave it a try.
It was so good that I had to figure out how to make it at home the next day!
There were several key parts to this sandwich:
- Toasted baguette
- Fresh herbs, including mint, Thai basil, and cilantro
- Thinly sliced, crispy veggies
- Chilled cooked sweet potato
- A Sesame Miso Dressing
To start, I made the dressing. Because I don’t use oil, I needed something to substitute for that, and used aquafaba, the liquid from cooking chickpeas (garbanzo beans). This gives the dressing some viscosity and gets it to stick to the veggies. I toasted sesame seeds for an oil-free substitute for toasted sesame oil. To this I added brown rice vinegar, miso, maple syrup, sesame seeds, and soy sauce. I blended it all in the blender and chilled in the refrigerator to let the flavors meld.
I had a sweet potato I’d baked earlier in the day chilling in the refrigerator. You can bake them at 350˚F for 45 minutes or pop them in the microwave for about 5 minutes. Leave the skin on. Chill the baked sweet potato until you’re ready to use in this sandwich.
Spiralized purple daikon radish. Isn’t it just beautiful inside?
Next, I prepped all the veggies. I used the spiralizer for many of them so I’d get nice thin slices, but you can use a mandolin, like this one I’ve had for years, or a knife.
A rainbow of prepped veggies. Top, left to right: Mint, cilantro, speckled trout lettuce, cucumber, chioggia beet. Bottom, left to right: Purple basil, Japanese and orange sweet potatoes, carrot, and purple Daikon radish.
I split and toasted a 6-inch piece of baguette and then layered on:
- Sweet potato – you can use any type you like or have on hand. If they’re organic, leave the skin on.
- Carrot
- Daikon radish – or any other type of radish you like or have available. Watermelon radishes are gorgeous.
- Chioggia beet – or any other type, I just like the color and design of these, plus they don’t stain like red ones do.
- Cucumber – use the skins if they are organic, otherwise peel.
- Lettuce (the restaurant used mung bean sprouts, but I didn’t have any growing since we had been on vacation)
- Mint
- Basil – Thai or any other kind.
- Cilantro
I served with the dressing, some Sriracha, a lime wedge, and an ear of fresh Quincy, Washington corn we’d picked up on our trip. To eat, pour that tangy dressing all over the veggies and bread, drizzle on some Sriracha, press the top baguette down as best you can so you can squeeze this sandwich into your drooling mouth!!
Oh man, I’m about to lick the computer screen!
It’s crispy from the perfectly toasted baguette,
It’s crunchy, with all those fresh, thinly sliced veggies,
It’s got this herbal pop from the mint, basil, and cilantro,
It’s earthy from the chioggia beet,
It’s tangy from the dressing and lime,
It’s spicy from the radishes and Sriracha,
It’s creamy from the sweet potato,
It’s absolutely frickin’ delicious!
I know I say you should try each and ever recipe I post, but I REALLY MEAN IT this time. Make this sandwich, today!
This post is Day 20 of VeganMoFo (Vegan Month of Food) 2019, with a new blog post every day for the month of August. Check out these other posts you may have missed from last week:
Day 14—Fresh Fava Beans & Fava Bean Pod Green Enchilada Sauce A recipe to use those big fava bean pods which usually go to waste!
Day 15—What’s Up Doc? Carrot Top Pesto Another recipe to reduce food waste!
Day 16—What a Jerk! BBQ Jerked Jackfruit Sliders Make this for your next BBQ to blow peoples minds!
Day 17—I Was Addicted to Cheese—Recipe for Trimazing! Mac and Cheeze I was just like you with a cheese addiction. See why it’s so hard to break, how I kicked it, and get my recipe for the best mac and cheeze recipe out there!
Day 18—Alan’s Tears—Featured Cocktail at the Lakehouse Like a spicy-sweet cocktail? No crying over spilled cocktails…You’ll need to try this one!
Day 19—Aww Shucks—Fresh Rainbow Corn Salad Another gorgeous rainbow-inspired meal!
And don’t forget, today is the LAST DAY to enter to win the cookbook by JL Fields. I’ll be drawing the winner tomorrow, so don’t wait any longer to enter to win!
Fast & Easy Vegan Cookbook Giveaway
I’ll draw one winner August 21, 2019 for JL Fields’ new , before you can even buy it online or in stores!
You want this cookbook! It brings a new selection of fresh meals to your table, pronto! From one-pot to pressure cooker, choose your favorite cooking method―without being held hostage for hours in your kitchen. It includes 100 quick and tasty vegan recipes, plus tips for ingredient substitution and other easy customizations, and handy labels for gluten-free, nut-free, oil-free, or soy-free diets.
So hurry and enter by August 20th. Open to U.S. residents only.
JL Fields Fast and Easy Cookbook Giveaway
Sweet Potato Bahn Mi
Ingredients
- 1 sweet potato baked and cooled, either in oven or microwave, cut crosswise into ¼-inch rounds
- 1 baguette whole-grain, gluten-free if sensitive
- 2 carrots thinly sliced or spiralized
- 1 chioggia beet thinly sliced or spiralized
- 1 purple daikon or watermelon radish thinly sliced or spiralized
- ½ cucumber thinly sliced or spiralized
- 2 cups sprouts or shredded lettuce
- ½ bunch Thai basil or other basil
- ½ bunch mint
- ½ bunch cilantro
- sriracha sauce
- 1 lime cut into wedges
Sesame Miso Dressing
- ⅓ cup aquafaba liquid drained from a can of chickpeas, or other light-colored bean
- ⅓ cup brown rice vinegar
- 2 tbsp miso
- 1 tbsp date paste or maple syrup
- 3 tbsp toasted sesame seeds
- 1 tsp soy sauce or tamari
Instructions
Toast Sesame Seeds
- Add your sesame seeds to a dry skillet. Heat over medium heat for 3-5 minutes or until lightly browned, stirring occasionally so they brown evenly. Pour onto a plate and let cool (they may burn if you try to let them cool in the skillet)
Make Dressing
- Combine all of the dressing ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth. Chill until needed.
Prepare Baguette
- Cut baguette crosswise into four equal sections.
- Heat baguette in 350°F oven for 5-10 minutes until crispy on the outside but still soft in the inside.
Assemble Sandwich
- Layer on sliced sweet potato, carrot, beet, radish, cucumber, sprouts or lettuce, and herbs. The more herbs, the better!
- Serve with Sesame Miso Dressing, Sriracha, and lime wedge. Pour dressing onto cut surfaces of bread, drizzle on some Sriracha, and squeeze lime over veggies. Enjoy!
Nutrition
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[Trī-māz-ing]
Cindy wants you to be Trimazing—three times better than amazing! After improving her health and fitness through plant-based nutrition, losing 60 pounds and becoming an adult-onset athlete, she retired from her 20-year firefighting career to help people just like you. She works with people and organizations so they can reach their health and wellness goals.
Cindy Thompson is a national board-certified Health and Wellness Coach, Lifestyle Medicine Coach, Master Vegan Lifestyle Coach and Educator, Fitness Nutrition Specialist, Behavior Change Specialist, and Fit2Thrive Firefighter Peer Fitness Trainer. She is a Food for Life Instructor with the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, Rouxbe Plant-Based Professional, and Harvard Medical School Culinary Coach, teaching people how to prepare delicious, satisfying, and health-promoting meals.
She provides health and lifestyle coaching at Trimazing! Health & Lifestyle Coaching. Cindy can be reached at info@trimazing.com.
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