Delicious and easy to make, our Vietnamese Pork Meatball Banh Mi’s can be enjoyed on a baguette or piled into a lettuce cup.
While most of the school year tends to be busy, we really gear up in May and June. Two kids in two different Fastpitch leagues keep us running 6 nights a week all over Calgary and beyond for games and weekend tournaments.
This is when organization and menu planning is key to ensure there are no greasy food stops along the way, but instead we keep pace with healthy, quick meals filling bellies and giving everyone tons of energy for the evenings adventures.
For the next month we have partnered with local business Sunterra Market to help promote their own farm pork in celebration of pork month in June. We will be creating some quick family meals using pork and accompanying store products.
With quick and easy meals our theme, we’ve created a Vietnamese Port Meatball Banh Mi. We initially had planned on a variation of a Pork Kofta recipe, (also an easy way to use pork for a quick meal) but changed to meatballs, because who doesn’t love a good meatball?!
This recipe can be started the night before by mixing the meatball ingredients, even making the meatballs and leaving in the refrigerator, covered and uncooked. Making the mayonnaise spread in advance also allows the flavours to blend nicely.
For those on a low carb diet or keto, all the ingredients can be placed into a lettuce cup or on top of a salad using all the ingredients you have prepared for the Banh Mi’s. This recipe makes up to four dozen meatballs or 8 sandwiches. After feeding our family of four we had a handful of meatballs left!
The traditional Banh Mi sandwich itself is actually a French-Vietnamese hybrid consisting of a baguette, pickled vegetables, cilantro, a spicy chili component, cooling cucumber, a spicy or garlicky sauce and a protein.
These days any protein can go into one of these sandwiches allowing them to be unique to each person. Ours do not include the pickled vegetables since I am the only one who enjoys pickles in the family, therefore we keep our vegetables crunchy and everyone happy!
Did you know Sunterra Farms started over 40 years ago in Acme, Alberta. Since then they have been perfecting their pork. You can read more about Sunterra Farms and how they came to be through a conversation in Oxfordshire, England and the Pig Improvement Company (PIC) back in the 1960s by clicking on the link: Over Forty Years of Perfecting Pork
Sunterra Farms Facts:
- Sunterra Farms raises pigs in rural Alberta, producing top-quality pork that is processed at Sunterra Meats and available at Sunterra Market locations. The pork is traceable from farm to fork.
- All the pork sold in Sunterra Market comes from Sunterra Farms. Valbella processes their hams in Canmore then sends them to Sunterra Markets.
Bright, yet simple flavours are what make this Vietnamese Pork Meatball Banh Mi shine. We served the meatballs in a traditional Banh Mi style bun, in a lettuce cup, and the next day in a salad for lunch.
Do you enjoy Vietnamese food?! If so what are your favourite dishes?!
We are working in collaboration with Sunterra Market and they have provided the ingredients for this recipe. All opinions, views expressed and recipe development are, as always, my own.
