Banh Mi Inspired Meal Prep Bowls

These incredible Banh Mi Inspired Meal Prep Bowls feature pickled vegetable salad, mini ground turkey meatballs, and a next level sriracha mayo sauce served over your favorite rice. Elevate lunchtime with this make-ahead option!

There are times when getting a little creative with how you package up your meal preps really pays off. And this is one of those times! Keeping the veggies packaged separate from the meatballs and rice makes it so easy to heat only what needs to be heated.

And in this situation, having cool and crisp fresh veggies alongside your steaming hot lunch bowl takes this meal from basic to spectacular. It also means: everyone will be wondering where you got your lunch!

What is Banh Mi and where does it come from?

Traditional banh mi is a sandwich which originates in Vietnam. It consists of a quality baguette, sweet and salty pickled vegetables, thin sliced meats (usually pork based), pork pate, mayonnaise, and cilantro leaves.

It’s often served by street vendors in Vietnam, and now other places around the world as well. Check out these banh mi pictures on Hungry Onion to get a better sense of this popular Vietnamese street food.

Try these authentic recipes for Banh Mi:

In this meal prep recipe, we swapped the baguette for jasmine rice, rolled up some ground turkey meatballs for the protein, and smothered everything in the most addicting spicy mayo sauce.

Keep the pickled veggies stored separately until you’re ready to eat gives that perfect contrast of warmed vs chilled components you’d find at a restaurant! But you made it in your own kitchen 😉 I hope you love this flavorful and unique meal prep lunch as much as I do!

*Note: I’ve rated this recipe as moderate difficulty because there are a few different components that come together for the final meal. In addition, some parts are put together for reheating while others are kept separate, so there’s a little more going on than just a simple meal prep lunch! But SO worth it!

What are the ingredients in these Banh Mi Inspired Meal Prep Bowls?

This meal prep bowl recipe contains three main components, plus rice and cilantro for serving. There’s the pickled veggie salad, the ground turkey meatballs, and the out-of-this-world spicy mayo sauce. All ingredients should be easy to find; if not, I’ve got easy swap ideas!

• carrots, radishes & green onions – These are the veggies we’re slicing thin and setting up for a quick pickle. Leave the cucumber out of this mix so it stays crunchy!
• rice vinegar, white sugar & salt – This combo of mild rice vinegar, the smallest amount of sugar, and a touch of salt provide the simplest quick pickle mixture. I like to prep these first so the veggies have the most time to absorb all the flavors.
• ground turkey – This recipe was written with ground turkey and it works shockingly well! Adding fat and flavor with the mayo helps keep these meatballs nice and moist.
• panko breadcrumbs – Using breadcrumbs for the meatballs helps absorb the flavors and bind everything together.
• Kewpie or regular mayonnaise – For both the meatballs and sauce, you’ll need some mayonnaise. I recommend going the extra mile for Kewpie mayonnaise, which you can find in the Asian section of the grocery store. However, regular mayo will work too! It just won’t have that extra umami flair.
• fresh garlic & ginger – Be sure to mince both of these up really small since they go right into the meatball mixture. You don’t want giant chunks, you want tiny minced pieces that blend right in.
• avocado oil – For frying the meatballs, I like to use avocado oil because of the high smoke point. I used a total of about 2 tablespoons for my 2 batches of meatballs.
• sriracha – Along with the mayo base, the zesty lime, and the sweet maple syrup, sriracha of course brings the spice. If you like it less spicy, feel free to reduce the amount of 1/2 tablespoon or so.
• fresh lime juice – About 1/2 of a lime is all you need to bring the perfect amount of zest, acidity, and oomph to the sauce.
• maple syrup – Adding just a touch of maple syrup to the sauce helps balance out the spice, salt, and zest from the lime. Don’t skip! This sauce is seriously addicting.
• salt – It’s important to salt all components of the recipe as you go, instead of just adding a bunch of salt at the end. This recipe calls for salt in the meatballs, the pickled veggie salad, and the sauce. I also add a touch of salt to the rice. Don’t be afraid of salt – since everything is made from scratch, most of these ingredients have zero salt to begin with.
• rice of choice + cooking liquid – For this meal prep recipe, I used jasmine rice cooked with chicken broth in my Instant Pot. Using broth for cooking instead of water adds way more flavor!
• English cucumber – We decided to omit the cucumber from the pickled salad and plop it right on top instead. If the cucumbers sat in the liquid, they would soften up and lose any crunch. This way, they stay fresh and crisp.
• cilantro leaves – Traditional banh mi has full stems of cilantro placed in the sandwich, but I like to chop it up and sprinkle it over this meal prep bowl. I don’t like getting huge leaves in my mouth 😂

How do you make these Banh Mi Inspired Meal Prep Bowls?

This meal prep lunch recipe has three main components plus serving additions, so let’s go through them one by one, starting with the pickled veggie salad. This part is probably the most similar component to traditional banh mi!

First, peel the carrots and half them lengthwise, then slice thinly on the diagonal into half moons. You want them as thin as possible, which gives you the most surface area for flavors to absorb! Trim the radishes and green onions, then thinly slice into half moons the same size as the carrots. Slice the green onions diagonally as well.

Toss the sliced veggies in a medium sized bowl – one with a lid so you can put this pickled salad into the fridge while you make the rest of the meal. Pour rice vinegar over the veggies, then sprinkle the white sugar and salt. Give it a few shakes to mix, then cover and set aside in the fridge. I think these veggies taste even better after they’ve chilled!

Next, cook the rice following your package directions and then set aside to cool while you prepare the rest of the meal. The amount of cooking liquid you need will vary depending on your cooking method. I like to cook my rice with chicken broth in the Instant Pot, and then fluff with a fork and add a sprinkle of salt once it’s done.

For the meatballs, you’ll need a large bowl and some gloves. I personally prefer to use gloves but you can also wet your hands to reduce sticking. Combine the ground turkey, panko breadcrumbs, mayonnaise, minced garlic and ginger, along with a very generous pinch of salt.

Mix all this together with your hands until it’s a uniform mixture. It will seem wet, but that’s okay. One by one, roll the meat mixture into balls just smaller than a tablespoon, placing them on a large plate or cutting board before frying.

You should get approximately 28 meatballs, which gives you 7 meatballs per serving. It’s okay if they aren’t perfectly round! They’ll form distinct sides when browning as well. Just do your best!

Grab a large frying pan, deep skillet, or use a Dutch oven like I did. Over medium heat, add just enough avocado oil to cover the bottom of the pan. Brown the meatballs on all sides, setting them aside on a paper towel lined plate to absorb excess cooking oil when they’re done. Don’t crowd the pan – work in batches and add more oil as needed.

Turn the meatballs every 3 minutes or so; each batch should take about 10-12 minutes. I cooked two batches of 14 meatballs each, which took about 22 minutes of active cook time. You can also do three batches for more space, but it will take more time overall.

Once all the meatballs are done cooking, it’s time to make the sauce. Whisk together the mayonnaise, sriracha, fresh lime juice and maple syrup in a small bowl until smooth, adding a pinch of salt at the end to help balance out the sweetness.

Transfer the sauce directly to small sauce containers for meal prep. Alternatively if you’re serving immediately, simply keep the sauce in a bowl and drizzle over each serving.

Lastly, slice the half a cucumber the same way as the carrots: split down the middle then into thin long half moon slices on the diagonal. Don’t mix the cucumber directly into the pickled veggie salad. We want to keep it out of the moisture so it stays crisp and fresh.

If you’re serving right away, stick the cucumbers and chopped cilantro on top of each bowl as you assemble. If you’re meal prepping, follow the instructions described below – stack the herbs and cucumber on top of the pickled veggies, but don’t mix in!

This meal is incredible if you serve it right away, but we’re also including specific instructions for enjoying it later in the week! To meal prep, it’s important to keep the rice and meatballs separate from the pickled veggie mixture. This makes reheating super easy!

Best tips for making these Banh Mi Inspired Meal Prep Bowls:

Here are my best tips for making this meal prep recipe successfully at home:

• Brown the meatballs on every side. When frying meatballs, you’ll notice you start with 2 or 3 distinct sides, and then you kinda keep moving them around to get the rest browned. You’ll see what I mean. But keep going until they’re brown all over; more browning = more flavor
• Use fattier ground turkey, and avoid 99% lean. With ground turkey, you want more fat. This helps the meatballs stick together, but also, fat = flavor!
• Don’t skip the sauce. I mean it. This is absolutely the best part of this meal and ties the whole thing together!!

How do you meal prep these Banh Mi Inspired Bowls?

This recipe was developed specifically for meal prep and makes a delicious make-ahead meal for lunch or dinner. 

Here are the specific meal prep storage steps:

1. Divide the meatballs and rice between four meal prep containers with lids (the big container you’ll eat from).
2. Divide the pickled salad between four more smaller containers with lids.
3. Lay 1/4 of the cucumber and the herbs on top of each salad container.
4. Divide the sauce between 4 small salad dressing containers (affiliate link!), and stash these in the salad container for easy storage.

Where do you get those containers?

All of the glass containers pictured in this post are Pyrex brand. The rectangular containers are the 3-Cup Pyrex Rectangle Glass Containers (affiliate link!). The smaller round containers filled with veggies are the 2-Cup Pyrex Round Glass Container (affiliate link!).

Additionally, I love these little sauce containers because they are relatively flat. This means they can fit into most other meal prep containers. Plus, the lids are very sturdy and truly do seal the container. The sauce containers are these salad dressing containers (affiliate link!) from Amazon.

Ways to customize this meal prep recipe:

• Change up the protein and use what you have: ground pork, ground chicken, or aim for a more traditional option and use Vietnamese cold cuts (read more in Nagi’s Banh Mi article).
• Add some fresh sliced jalapenos if you like it even spicier!
• Skip the rice and go more traditional with a baguette! You can you a light, crusty bread roll or go specifically for Vietnamese baguettes.

Is this recipe freezer-friendly?

I would not recommend freezing this recipe as a whole due to the fresh components. However, I do think the turkey meatballs could be frozen after cooking and reheated by simmering in a sauce or adding to a pasta bake.

How to store Banh Mi Inspired Meal Prep Bowls:

Store as described above in airtight meal prep containers in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.

How to reheat Banh Mi Inspired Meal Prep Bowls:

To reheat the meatball and rice portions, add a tablespoon of water to create steam and loosely cover with the lid, then microwave on High in 1 minute until heated through.

Recipe developed by Rachel Phipps.