Our banh mi xiu mai recipe makes a Vietnamese meatball banh mi or meatball baguette sandwich filled with xiu mai, moist Vietnamese style meatballs in a rich tomato sauce. ‘Banh mi’ means ‘bread’ in Vietnamese but has come to refer to both the Vietnamese French-style crispy baguette and Vietnam’s famous sandwiches made with those baguettes, and this is one of our favourite Vietnamese banh mi.
If you’re a lover of meatballs – more meatball recipes here – and you made our xiu mai recipe for Vietnamese style meatballs in a rich tomato sauce and have leftover meatballs, this is what to do with them. Follow our banh mi xiu mai recipe to make this deliciously addictive Vietnamese meatball banh mi or meatball baguette sandwich stuffed with xiu mai.
If you didn’t and you’re a fan of banh mi, the quintessential Vietnamese filled baguette sandwich, you need to cook these juicy Vietnamese style meatballs in tomato sauce just so you can make banh mi xiu mai – crispy baguettes stuffed with tender meatballs in tomato sauce, on crunchy cucumber batons, sprinkled with fresh coriander, crunchy peanuts and spicy chillies.
And if you are a lover of Southeast Asian style baguettes and sandwiches, especially Vietnamese banh mi and Cambodian num pang, do check out our recipes – especially if you have leftover Turkey from Thanksgiving – for our best baguette and sandwich recipes for ideas for leftovers. We also have juicy pork meatballs and num pang with meatballs in Cambodia.
Looking for more cooking inspo? Do browse our archives. We’ve got hundreds of recipes from around the world from places we’ve lived, worked and travelled. If you’ve enjoyed our recipes, please consider supporting Grantourismo by buying something on Amazon, such as these cookbooks for culinary travellers or classic cookbooks for serious cooks. I’ll tell you more about this Vietnamese banh mi xiu mai recipe below.
Banh Mi Xiu Mai Recipe for a Vietnamese Meatball Banh Mi
Our Vietnamese banh mi xiu mai recipe makes one of my favourite Vietnamese filled baguettes – and that’s saying something, as we munched on banh mi for lunch almost every day when we lived in the ancient port town of Hoi An in Central Vietnam.
If you haven’t eaten a lot of Southeast Asian food or Chinese food, you would be forgiven for thinking this is a Vietnamese take on an Italian-American meatball sub – and you wouldn’t be the first to assume this, despite meatballs only being introduced to the USA around 140 years ago, between the 1880s and 1920s by Italian immigrants.
Meatballs date to Ancient Rome. The Roman cookbook De Re Coquinaria (On the Subject of Cooking) by Apicius, features recipes dating to between the 1st and 5th centuries, including many recipes for meatballs. They weren’t all that different, with pork mince, breadcrumbs and seasoning, including spices, herbs and garum, an ancient fish sauce.
Meatballs have a long history in China, dating to the same period. Chinese lion’s head meatballs originated in ancient Yangchow (now Yangzhou), in Kiangsu Province (now Jiangsu), and are a classic of Huaiyang cuisine – as is yangchow or yangzhou fried rice, baozi (aka bao), jiaozi (aka ‘potstickers‘), and shumai.
Lion’s head meatballs were cooked up during the Sui dynasty (589-618) in the kitchens of Emperor Yang – who had palaces in his capital Luoyang (which at its height during the Jin Dynasty (266-420) was the world’s second largest city after Rome) and Yangchow (where Emperor Yang was strangled in a coup). His achievements include completing China’s Grand Canal and the conquest of Champa, present-day Central and Southern Vietnam.
Like lion’s head meatballs, these Vietnamese meatballs also feature soy sauce, as well as fish sauce. As does the tomato sauce. Worth noting: tomato sauce, also known as ketchup started out as kê-tsiap, an old Hokkien-Chinese word for fish sauce in ancient China. Sweet and sour sauces also have a long history in China, made with vegetables and fruit, including tomatoes.
If any more evidence of the origin of the Vietnamese-Chinese origin of these meatballs was needed, xiu mai (‘meatballs’ in Vietnamese) comes from siu mai or shumai, which are those small Chinese dumplings often served as dim sum during yum cha. Somewhere along their journey they lost their skins.
Bread or pain was introduced by the French during the colonial period (1858-1954), with the oldest bakeries established in Hanoi in the 1880s. Along with bread with “golden crusts” – both “household bread” and “luxury bread”, according to newspaper advertisements of the period – Hanoi’s bakeries sold brioche, croissants, cakes, biscuits, boxes of chocolates and caramels, ‘tisane’ (herbal/floral infusions), virgin olive oil, wine, and brandy.
During the same period, there were many French merchants with businesses that traded in ‘grocery shop goods’ such as canned products, including canned meats, preserves and jams, pasta, flour, maize, rice, European vegetables, local fruits, dairy products, cheeses, charcuterie, sausages, and more, much of which was made on farms and in factories they established in French Indochina, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.
So it should be no surprise to learn that the Vietnamese – like any of us who are curious and excited to try something new and different to eat – adopted French habits such as frequenting cafes to eat baguettes with butter and jam, or ham and cheese, or pâté or other charcuterie. It’s easy to imagine that Vietnamese cooks gradually began stuffing baguettes with their own fillings… such as these Chinese-Vietnamese meatballs.
Just a few tips to making this Vietnamese banh mi xiu mai recipe as it’s super easy if you’re making this with xiu mai leftovers and comes together quickly.
Tips to Making this Banh Mi Xiu Mai Recipe for a Vietnamese Meatball Banh Mi
I only have a few tips to making this Vietnamese banh mi xiu mai recipe as it comes together quickly if you’re making these filled baguettes with leftover xiu mai – and if you don’t have any Vietnamese meatballs in the fridge, then you better make those first using our xiu mai recipe.
Warm the Meatballs
Assuming you made our xiu mai recipe and you have leftover Vietnamese meatballs in tomato sauce to reheat, we recommend using a large deep fry pan with lid or skillet to warm the meatballs over medium heat.
When the tomato sauce begins to bubble and has reduced right down to a thick sauce, you can turn the heat to low and simmer while you prep the baguettes. So that your sauce doesn’t disappear entirely, put the lid on.
Warm the Baguettes
Turn the oven onto low, slice open the baguettes – either along one side if you have proper French-style baguettes with a crispy brown crust, or right down the top centre if you have soft bread rolls to prevent them from falling apart.
Take care not to slice right through, as you don’t want to separate the baguette into two. Generously spread butter on both sides of the interior, close the baguette, transfer it to an oven tray, and repeat. Once you’re done, slide the tray into the oven and warm the baguettes for a few minutes until crispy.
Assemble the Banh Mi
When your baguettes are warm and crispy, generously spread on some creamy mayonnaise, and create a layer of 3-4 cucumber batons in each baguette. This prevents the sauce from soaking right through the bread, as well as adding crunch, texture and contrast.
Use some tongs to transfer the saucy meatballs to the baguette, then sprinkle on fresh coriander leaves and crushed nuts, and you’re done. Serve the banh mi xiu mai with more fresh herbs, nuts and sliced red chillies so guests can customise their own baguettes. Enjoy!
Banh Mi Xiu Mai Recipe
Ingredients
- 20 Vietnamese meatballs in tomato sauce - see this recipe
- 4 demi-baguettes - or one long baguette sliced into portions
- 4 tbsp butter - preferably French or a good quality butter
- 4 tbsp creamy mayonnaise - optional
- 1 large cucumber - cut into batons
- 2 cups fresh coriander leaves - or fresh basil, mint, dill
- 1 long mild red chilli - sliced, or small bird’s eye chillies for more spice
- 4 tbsp peanuts - crushed in a mortar and pestle, or dukkah
Instructions
- Warm the meatballs: reheat the cooked meatballs in tomato sauce in a large deep pan or skillet over medium heat. When the sauce begins to bubble has reduced right down to a thick sauce, reduce the heat to low and simmer. When the meatballs are warmed through, prep the baguettes.
- Warm the baguettes: turn on your oven to low, cut open the baguettes, either along one side or straight down the centre, taking care not to slice right through; you don’t want to separate the baguette into two. Generously spread the butter on both sides, close the baguette, transfer to an oven tray, and repeat. Slide the tray into the oven and warm the baguettes until crispy.
- Assemble the banh mi: when the baguettes are crispy and warm, generously spread on the creamy mayonnaise, create a layer of 3-4 cucumber batons, use tongs to transfer the saucy meatballs to the baguette, sprinkle on fresh coriander leaves and crushed nuts, and serve with more fresh herbs, nuts and sliced red chillies.
Notes
Nutrition
Please let us know in the comments below if you have any questions or feedback if you make our banh mi xiu mai recipe for a Vietnamese meatball filled baguette. We love hearing how our recipes turn out for you and we reply to every comment.
