These Banh Mi Meatball Bowls are such a delicious combo of deep umami flavors paired with tangy, crunchy pickled veggies and bright, fresh herbs! I lightened up the meatballs by using a mix of ground pork and ground chicken instead of all pork. They’re packed with flavor thanks to fresh cilantro, lemongrass paste, sriracha, and fish sauce and made perfectly tender with an easy panade (just breadcrumbs soaked in milk!). Keep scrolling for my tips on how to meal prep this recipe!
serve it with:
Quick Pickled Veggies
This Asian inspired mix of quick pickled veggies is super versatile and perfect for bowls, salads, and sandwiches – especially a Banh Mi!
Ingredients and Substitutions
Here’s what you’ll need to recreate these Banh Mi Meatball Bowls at home:
- Ground meat – I used a 50/50 mixture of pork and chicken to lighten things up a bit since it can be hard to find lean ground pork. It would be more traditional to go all pork, but I’ve tried these meatballs with all pork and actually prefer the ones with chicken mixed in.
- Breadcrumbs – This is something you won’t find in a lot of Banh Mi meatballs, but when mixed with some milk and letting them rest, you end up with a panade. Panades are known for making more tender meatballs, which I can confirm since I tested these meatballs side-by-side both with and without the panade.
- Milk – Whole milk, half and half, skim milk…whatever you have will work. Just be careful about using non-dairy milk since they it’s probably sweetened and has vanilla flavoring. Canned light coconut milk would be a great dairy-free option.
- Cilantro – If you don’t like cilantro, Thai basil would work too.
- Garlic – 2 or 3 cloves will work great!
- Lemongrass paste – Find this in the produce section near the herbs in one of those little squeeze tubes. If you can’t find it, skip it or opt for ginger paste instead.
- Sriracha – Add a little spice and color. Sambal or another similar chili garlic paste would work too.
- Brown sugar – Light or dark is fine.
- Fish sauce – Adds umami and salt to the meatballs. If you don’t have any, you could try some soy sauce instead, but it won’t have nearly as much flavor as the fish sauce.
- Cornstarch – This is the binder for these meatballs. You could always opt for an egg instead if you don’t want to use cornstarch.
- Salt – Just a touch of added salt – be careful not to add much since there are already salty ingredients in these meatballs.
- Quick pickled veggies – I used a mix of daikon, cucumbers, carrots, and Fresno chilis. Use a mandoline slicer to make quick work of slicing them all up, then dunk them in a quick pickling solution made of water, vinegar, salt and sugar. Rest overnight in the fridge and that’s it!
Making Panade:
A Tip for Tender Meatballs
This is one of the secrets for tender meatballs that’s often overlooked as we dump all the ingredients into a bowl and mash them together. Instead of adding the milk and breadcrumbs right in with the ground meat to begin, we soak the breadcrumbs to rehydrate them and form a sort of paste.
While it’s more traditional in Italian cuisine, panade still works like a charm in these Banh Mi Meatballs. It helps keep the proteins in the meatballs from contracting too much and drying out. If you want to read more about the science behind why panades work, check out the link!
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Meal Prep this Recipe
To meal prep this recipe, I recommend using a 2 compartment container and a dressing container. Add the rice to the base of the larger compartment and top it off with the meatballs. Add the pickled veggies to the other compartment. To make it easier to reheat the rice and meatballs, you can add the pickled veggies into one of these rectangle shaped silicone baking cups to make it easy to remove them before reheating. Finally, add the sriracha mayo to the dressing container and add it where you can find space. You can include a wedge of lime, but I recommend adding any herbs fresh before serving to avoid wilting.
Recipe
Banh Mi Meatball Bowls
Ingredients
Meatballs
- 1/2 lb ground pork, (8 oz)
- 1/2 lb 98% lean ground chicken, (8 oz)
- 1/4 cup plain breadcrumbs, (28 grams)
- 2 tbsp milk, (1 fl oz)
- 2 tbsp cilantro, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, grated, (8 grams)
- 1 tbsp lemongrass paste, (0.5 fl oz)
- 1 tbsp sriracha, (0.5 fl oz)
- 1 tbsp brown sugar, (13 grams)
- 1 tbsp fish sauce, (0.5 fl oz)
- 2 tsp cornstarch
- 1/4 tsp salt
Bowl Ingredients
- 1 pouch Ben's Original Ready Rice Jasmine Rice, (8.5 oz)
- 1 batch Quick Pickled Veggies
- 1/4 cup sriracha mayonnaise, (60 grams)
- Optional: fresh herbs like cilantro, basil, and mint
- Optional: sesame seeds
Instructions
Make the Meatballs
- To a small bowl, add the breadcrumbs and milk to create a panade. Mix to coat the breadcrumbs and set aside for 5-10 minutes or until the breadcrumbs have absorbed the milk.
- To a large bowl, add all remaining meatball ingredients and the breadcrumb/milk mixture. Mix with your hands until ingredients are evenly distributed in the meat, being careful not to overmix.
- Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil. Using a 1 1/2 tbsp cookie scoop, roll into about 1" meatballs and place on the lined baking sheet. Refrigerate for 30 minutes before baking.
- Pre-heat oven to 400°F while the meatballs rest. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until the tops of the meatballs begin to brown and are cooked through.
Assemble the Bowls
- Add cooked rice to the base of the bowls, then layer with Quick Pickled Veggies and meatballs. Top with sriracha mayo, fresh herbs, and sesame seeds before serving.
Tips & Tricks
- This recipe yields 16-20 meatballs with 4-5 meatballs per serving. I recommend doubling the meatball portion of the recipe and freezing half of them for later. Just let them cool, vacuum seal, and freeze them for up to 6 months.
- Scan the barcode below or search for “Peanut Butter and Fitness Banh Mi Meatball Bowl” to log this food in My Fitness Pal.
Nutrition Information
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