Vietnamese-Style Pork Sandwich

Do you enjoy banh mi, Vietnamese Pork Rolls? This street food is one of my favourite choices for lunch.

However, with a family history of diabetes, I need to be careful with the carbohydrates and sugars in my diet.

So I was pleased when I found this recipe in the Australian Diabetic Living magazine. In this version I've tweaked the pork marinade recipe and I use whatever fillings I have in the house.

Serves 2

Times

Preparation:

20 minutes
(+ 30 minutes for marinating and preparation of cooked vegetables)

Cooking:

10 minutes

Ingredients

Pork marinade:

• About 150g lean pork fillet
• 2-3 cloves of garlic, grated
• 1 Tbs (5g) chopped lemongrass
• 5ml soy sauce
• 5ml olive oil
• 5ml water
• Chopped chilli, optional

Sandwich:

• Four slices of low-carb bread or small Vietnamese rolls
• Your choice of spreads and salad veges

  The original recipe used fat-free mayonnaise and a salad of grated carrot and cucumber, coriander, shallots, and chilli dressed with lime juice and sweet chilli sauce.

  I like to use avocado as a spread and on colder days I'll pan fry vegetables such as capsicum, zucchini and eggplant.

Method

1. Put the pork in a bowl. Add the marinade ingredients and mix well. Cover and put in the refrigerator to marinate for about 30 minutes.
2. Prepare your bread and sandwich fillings.
3. Remove the pork from the marinade and fry in a frying pan. Drizzle over any leftover marinade, and continue until cooked.
4. Cut the cooked pork fillet into strips or cubes.
5. Spread two slices of bread with your chosen spread. Add pork and vegetable fillings and top with a second slice.

Tips

Buy 400g sizzle pork steaks, triple the marinade ingredients, and then freeze three portions for future lunches.

When you want the pork for lunch, defrost in the microwave and then pan fry.

You can also cook up the pork and freeze cooked portions instead.