In Portland, Asian-fusion is its own food group, and while Pok Pok and Koi Fusion are among the city’s highest acclaimed Asian restaurants, Lardo is quickly rising through the ranks. The best Lardo menu item I’ve had thus far is their Pork Meatball Banh Mi, with its sweet, spicy, and pop of freshness flavor, this is a meal I can get behind any time of year. In an effort to limit how many times a week I want to eat out, I made my own Lardo-inspired banh mi, and while it’s not perfect, it’s pretty darn close!

Pork Meatball Banh Mi

Ingredients (serves 1)

• 1/4 cup Sriracha Avocado Coleslaw
• 2 oz Country sausage
• Sprig of cilantro
• Sprig of mint
• a few leaves of baby spinach, 1/2 leaf of kale, sliced cucumber, or some other form of leafy green (who doesn’t like a little extra crunch?)
• gluten wrapping of choice (I used whole wheat bread, but definitely try it with toasted ciabatta or sourdough)

Directions

I promise this isn’t an intimidating recipe, as long as you have the ingredients – took me all of 6 minutes to put it together.

• Chop the mint sprig and fold into sausage before frying it up. Cook over medium-low heat for about 5 minutes. Once the sausage is done, dry off excess grease on a paper towel. Or don’t.
• As the sausage is cooking, put together the coleslaw and add cilantro if you’re a cilantro fan (adds some really nice freshness)
• Pile the coleslaw, leafy greens, and chopped up sausage onto your preferred bread.

Get ready to sport your Nom, nom, nom face.