Sandwiches

I enjoy cooking, but I also enjoy putting together a meal WITHOUT cooking.

Especially when beautiful produce is delivered, I take advantage of the freshness and keep our meals simple and straightforward, which often means no (or minimal) cooking.

These sourdough loaves turned out great!

I didn’t time things well, and I wasn’t sure if I let the dough ferment long enough, but I’ve learned sourdough is forgiving.

I’ve stopped buying avocados because I realized that I’m not good at picking good ones.

It’s simply not good for my mental health (lol).

So it’s a nice treat when they include avocados in the delivery farm box.

The avocado toast was served with the salad and sweet balsamic glaze.

Yum!

By the way theses mangos I received this week were so sweet!

I noticed sticky syrup coming out from the top, which probably was a sign of ripeness.

Since we are closer to Vietnam now, I thought I would find many more Vietnamese food.

Surprisingly, that doesn’t seem like the case.

There are a few Vietnamese restaurants in Bangkok, but not as many as I expected.

I was craving for banh mi sandwich, and luckily, I happened to have all the ingredients needed.

The only thing missing was the bread.

I couldn’t find any Vietnamese bakery where they sell banh mi bread.

I thought about getting a regular French baguette from a French bakery, but at the last minute I decided to make bread myself.

I found some authentic banh mi bread recipes (posted by Vietnamese), but quickly I learned that they require some unique ingredients, tools, and techniques, which discouraged me.

So, I followed a banh mi bread recipe that I found on one of the largest Japanese recipe sites, Cookpad.

I did not follow even her instructions strictly because of a lack of a tool or simply me being lazy(!), but my bread still turned out well.

It was crunchy outside and light, soft inside.

I used soy meat for the “meat” part.

Pickles were ready.

Plus, homemade vegan mayo, cucumber, and cilantro.

Yum!

The next day with the leftover “meat” and veggies I prepared lunch.

Banh Mi Sushi Rolls!

I was planning to drizzle my homemade mayo.

But I used coconut oil (because I was out of olive oil) for this batch, and it became firm in the fridge.

So I scraped and sprinkled small pieces on top.

It does become creamy quite quickly at the room temperature.

Initially I panicked, but we actually enjoyed this mayo “crumbles”.

I’m so happy that I’ve been having success with my new oven that I want to keep baking (lol).

My trusted bee wax wrap.

I use it all the time.

Focaccia is one of those breads that are easy AND fun to make.

I particularly enjoy the process where you make holes in the dough.

Ta-da!

Since I had the fresh focaccia, I decided to make sandwiches for lunch.

The tempeh is from Happy Grocers.

https://sideb.culinarytribune.com/2024/10/03/trying-to-eat-more-sustainably/

First, I spread homemade vegan mayo and Dijon mustard.

And then, lettuce, tomato, and tempeh, thus, TLT.

It was simple but so good.

I served it with a bowl of creamy veggie soup.

I cut the rest of the bread into small pieces.

We will enjoy them with olive oil for snack :).