Vibrancy Found in Tofu Banh Mi

I've said this before, but Bahn Mi is my favorite sandwich-- ever. Made with an airy Vietnamese-style baguette stuffed with the vibrant colors, textures and flavors of Southeast Asia, it's a brilliant melding of two famously good culinary cultures and is one of the few good things to come from French colonial rule of the country.

This easy plant-based banh mi only takes about 15 minutes to make and yet it's packed with so much flavor you won't miss the meat. To give the tofu a more substantial texture, I like wringing out the excess liquid it's hanging onto, before pan frying it until it's well browned on the outside. Then, an intensely flavorful sweet and savory sauce gets caramelized around the outside of each curd of tofu, which not only tints the tofu a meaty shade of brown, it loads the tofu up with heaps of garlicky umami.

The trademark flavor of the meat that's often found in banh mi comes from Chinese five spice powder, which is a spice blend that usually includes spices like star anise, cloves, cassia, white pepper, fennel and sichuan pepper. You can usually find it already mixed at upscale markets, or Chinese grocery stores, or you can make your own five spice.

Another key to a great banh mi is the quick pickled radish and carrots that give the sandwich a marvelous crunch, while adding a sweet and sour juxtaposition to the spicy chilies and savory meat. Finally, I like to carve out some of the bread from the inside of each baguette before toasting them. This creates a trough that helps keep the ample fillings in check, and it also improves the filling to bread ratio.

Wrapped together with some cucumbers, cilantro and chili peppers and you have one of the most vivid and flavorful sandwiches you'll ever wrap your two hands around.