Recipe: Charred veal meatballs in bahn mi with fresh herbs and pickled carrot

Try this Vietnamese classic: charred veal meatballs in bahn mi - a delicious french stick sandwich filled with tasty goodness - they're a great hit with adults too and the best bit is they take less than 30 minutes to prepare and cook.

If don't want the bread, you can make this as a salad with vermicelli noodles. You can also adjust the chilli to taste.

For a salad option, simply serve the veal meatballs, pickled carrots and topping ingredients with vermicelli noodles and extra herbs.

Veal meatballs

500g veal mince

3 tsp brown (or coconut) sugar

3 tsp fish sauce

2 tsp soy sauce

1/2 lemon grass stalk (white part finely chopped)

1 clove garlic, crushed

Quick pickled carrots

4 tsp coconut sugar

Juice of 1 lime

4 tsp rice vinegar

3 carrots, shredded

Banh mi

1 French stick

1/2 cup (125 ml) whole egg mayonnaise

1 baby cos lettuce

1 cup coriander leaves

1 cup mint leaves

1 Lebanese cucumber, cut into ribbons using a speed peeler

1 spring onion, finely sliced

1 red chilli, seeds removed and finely sliced

Lime wedges

1. To make the veal meatballs, place the veal mince, brown sugar, fish sauce, soy sauce, lemon grass and garlic into a large bowl. Stir thoroughly until combined.

Take tablespoons of the veal mince and roll into rounds.

Heat a fry pan to medium heat and drizzle in a little olive oil. Add the veal meatballs and cook, turning occasionally for 5-7 minutes or until golden and cooked through.

Place veal meatballs onto a plate lined with kitchen paper.

2. For the quick pickled carrots, place the coconut sugar, lime juice and rice vinegar into a large jar and shake. Add the shredded carrot and shake again. Sit for 5-10 minutes prior to serving.

3. To assemble the veal meatball bahn mi, slice the French stick into 10cm lengths and halve horizontally.

Spread a generous layer of whole egg mayonnaise onto each piece of French stick. Top with baby gem lettuce leaves, coriander and mint leaves, cucumber ribbons, pickled carrot, veal meatballs, spring onion and chilli.

Serve with fresh lime wedges.

Serves: 4-6.

This recipe is courtesy of Australian Veal and Kayla from My Lovely Little Lunchbox.