Microwave banh mi rice bowl
Savory fish-sauce pork, quick-pickled carrots, cilantro and sriracha mayo over rice, all the flavors of the Vietnamese sandwich in a bowl.
- 22 min total
- 12 min hands-on
- Follow-a-recipe easy
- Serves 1
- About $2.81 a serving
- 660 calories
- Gluten-free
- Dairy-free
Dolly says: Read the steps once before you start. Everything goes smoother after that.
Ingredients
For 1 servings.
- ⅓ cup shredded carrots
- 4 oz ground pork
- 2 tsp fish sauce
- 1 tbsp mayonnaise
- 1 tsp sriracha
- 1 cup microwave rice pouches, half an 8.8 oz pouch
- 2 tbsp cilantro, leaves torn
- 1 mini cucumber (optional)
- 1 tbsp pickled jalapeños (optional)
From your pantry
- 2 tbsp rice vinegar
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 pinch salt
- 1 tsp brown sugar
- ¼ tsp garlic powder
- 1 pinch black pepper
Each serving has about 660 calories, 25 g protein, 56 g carbs and 37 g fat, and costs about $2.81 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No shredded carrots? Carrots work.
- No sriracha? Hot sauce works.
- No cilantro? Fresh parsley works.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
the vinegar, sugar and salt in a mug until the sugar dissolves, then add the carrots and leave them to pickle.
Stir. Stirring means moving food around with a spoon or spatula so it cooks evenly and doesn’t stick. Unless the recipe says constantly, every so often is plenty, and it gives food time to brown.
How you’ll know: When you drag the spoon across the bottom, nothing is sticking or scorching.
Dolly’s tip: Ten minutes turns the carrots tangy and crisp, like the pickles in a banh mi sandwich.Snap the cucumber into short spears with your hands and drop them into the pickle too.
the pork into a microwave-safe bowl with the fish sauce, brown sugar, garlic powder and pepper, cover with a paper towel, and microwave 2 minutes.
Crumble. Crumbling means breaking food into small, rough bits with your fingers or a spoon, like feta or ground meat in the pan. Small bits spread through the dish, so there’s some in every bite.
How you’ll know: The pieces are small and uneven, about pea-size, with no big clumps left.
Timer: 2 min
Food safety: Wash your hands, the board and the knife with hot soapy water after touching raw meat, and don’t rinse raw chicken in the sink.
Break the meat into small pieces with the fork and microwave 1 to 2 minutes more, until no pink is left.
Timer: 1 min 30 sec
Food safety: Ground beef, pork and lamb are done at 160°F. When it’s cooked through there’s no pink left anywhere in the pan.
Tip the bowl over a wad of paper towel to pour off the fat, holding the meat back with the fork.
Stir the mayonnaise and sriracha together in a small cup.
Heat the rice in its pouch as the package says, usually 90 seconds, and put half in a bowl.
Timer: 1 min 30 sec
Top the rice with the pork, the pickles, the jalapeños and torn cilantro, and with the sriracha mayo.
Drain. Draining means pouring off liquid, like tipping pasta into a colander or spooning extra fat out of the pan. Pour hot grease into a can or jar, not the sink, where it hardens and clogs the pipes.
How you’ll know: Only a few drips are left, and the food isn’t sitting in a puddle.
Drizzle. Drizzling means pouring a thin, slow stream over the top of something. A thin stream spreads a little flavor a long way.
How you’ll know: You see thin lines across the food, not a puddle collecting underneath.
Plan this in Dollop, and get the grocery list
Dollop puts this dinner on a night that suits your week, lists only what you still need to buy, and walks you through each step while you cook.
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