a friend of mine mentioned that she ate an eggplant bahn mi in san francisco and my brain exploded.

so i made this. i’ve never made any kind of vietnamese sub, so i’m sure there is room for improvement which i will share when i figure it out. until then, this was pretty delicious.

THE SUBS

a flat whole wheat baguette, with 2 sub sized segments cut out OR sub buns

1 large italian eggplant

1 square tempeh

a handful pea shoots

a big pinch of cilantro

carrot and cucumber pickles (see below)

3 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 inch piece of ginger, peeled and grated

1 heaped tbsp miso paste

1 tsp chili paste

zest of 1 lime and half the juice

a few drops sesame oil

1/4 c. soy sauce/tamari/bragg’s

a few shakes of nutritional yeast

preheat oven to 400.

first off, slice eggplant in half lengthwise then into long 1/2 inch thick slabs (think pear pear slices). salt generously and let drain in a colander while you prep the tempeh. slice tempeh. combine garlic, lime juice and zest, sesame oil and soy sauce in a shallow dish. add tempeh and let sit.

shake all the salt off your eggplant and blot with a clean cloth. lay out the eggplant on a baking sheet and drizzle with oil. bake for 15 minutes then flip and bake for another 10 or 15 (keep an eye, eggplant can go from cooking very slowly to shrinking up into nothing quite quickly).

in a frying pan, brown tempeh on both sides in a bit of olive oil. add remaning marinade and cook for a minute. take off heat and toss with nutritional yeast.

combine miso with 1/4 cup water, ginger and chili paste in a small dish. Once the eggplant has softened and browned slightly, spread miso mixture evenly on all the eggplant slices. broil until browned and the miso mixture is mostly absorbed.

arrange 1/2 the eggplant in a layer on each baguette or bun, then lay out the tempeh slices evenly. then peashoots, the cilantro, then pickles.

CARROT AND CUCUMBER PICKLES

2 carrots, ribboned with a peeler

1/3 cucumber, julienned

1/4 c. sugar

3/4 c. white vinegar

1/2 c. warm water

pinch chili flakes

1/2 tsp salt

combine water, vinegar and sugar and dissolve sugar. add chili flakes and salt. put all the veg in a 500mL jar and pour over vinegar mixture. let sit for a couple hours at least! tasty delicious.