I’m not very good at following or writing down recipes, so this is more an idea than an actual set of instructions, but hopefully still of interest:
Watermelon Banh Mi
I’m a vegetarian white guy, which means that a large portion of my diet is culturally-appropriated and arguably-ruined Asian food. Sorry! But banh mi are super delicious, and I don’t think I can be faulted for trying to figure out a version I can actually eat. The idea here is to take the usual vegetarian banh mi approach – marinate some firm tofu in some soy sauce, sesame oil, and maybe some sri racha or something, then throw between mayo’d-up slices of a baguette with jalapeno, cilantro, maybe some shredded carrots or something, etc. – and make it a little more exciting by throwing cubed watermelon into the marinade, too.
The things to watch out for are:
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You want to start the tofu marinating well before the watermelon, since it’ll suck up the liquid much quicker – if you leave it sitting too long, the watermelon will get super salty and the balance will be ruined.
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I know it’s overly precious to make your own mayo/aoli – and god knows that I don’t have time for it these days, post-kid – but it’s actually not that hard, and super delicious (hand-whipping whipped cream is the other hill like this I will die on).
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Figuring out how to cut everything so it can be assembled into a sandwich that won’t be so tall it messes up your mouth, or so overstuffed it falls out when you bite into it, can be tricky. There’s no simple way to convey the right approach, but when I go wrong it’s usually because I cut the watermelon too big.