“Always Be My Maybe” is one of my newer favorites, in large part because one of the main characters is a chef and restaurateur.

There are so many scenes that revolve around food in this movie, so there was a smorgasbord to choose from when brainstorming a recipe. I wound up choosing teriyaki chickpea bao based on a scene involving the two main characters and some coveted free buns.

This vegan teriyaki chickpea bao is the first recipe I ever made using my bamboo steamer baskets a few years ago. Here, I’ve adapted the recipe to also be gluten-free and low FODMAP. It makes 10 “servings” (10 buns).

Filling Ingredients
1 15-ounce can chickpeas (a.k.a. garbanzo beans)
1 8.5-ounce bottle low FODMAP, gluten-free teriyaki sauce

Dough Ingredients
0.75 cups warm water
1 packet (or 2 teaspoons) yeast
2 tablespoons sugar
2 cups 1-to-1 gluten-free flour
0.25 teaspoons salt
0.5 teaspoons baking powder
1 tablespoon shallot-infused olive oil

Instructions
Drain and rinse the chickpeas. Heat them and the teriyaki sauce in a pan so the chickpeas are coated in sauce. The sauce will become a little sticky, which helps it thoroughly coat the beans.

Once this happens, set them aside so they are cool before you fill your buns.

Activate the yeast in a bowl with the warm water and sugar for two minutes.

In a different bowl or a stand mixer, mix together the flour, salt and baking powder. Add the activated yeast mixture and the oil, then knead until it is smooth. You will likely need to stop your mixer and get into the dough with your hands.

Spray some oil over the top and let it sit for an hour, covered with a towel.

When the hour has passed, punch and knead the dough, then divide it into 10 pieces.

Take each of the pieces of dough and flatten them out to be about 4 inches wide. Place approximately 2 tablespoons of teriyaki chickpea filling in the middle then wrap the dough around to form a ball-shaped bun.

Place the shaped buns on parchment paper squares and let them sit for 10 minutes.

Set up your steamer basket over a pot or wok with boiling water.

Place the buns (with their parchment paper) in the basket and steam them for 15 minutes (or until the dough is cooked).

Allow the buns to cool before eating! We recommend serving them with a vegetable like carrots or green beans.

The Easy Route
Order some bao or buns from your favorite Chinese restaurant. Some grocery stores also sell frozen ones where the only step is for you to steam them.

The Pairing
Even though “Always Be My Maybe” came out in 2019 and I cover a lot of ground in my movie- and TV-watching, I’ve somehow managed to see this movie four times already.

Ali Wong and Randall Park play Sasha and Marcus, childhood best friends who went their separate ways after an awkward sexual encounter.

They find themselves reunited 20 years later when Sasha, a renowned chef and restaurateur, returns to San Francisco to open a restaurant.

Marcus and his father, Harry (James Saito), are hired to update the HVAC system at the house Sasha is renting.

We soon discover that while Sasha’s life has changed a lot in the last couple decades, Marcus has pretty much stayed the same. There are pros and cons to how each of them have found themselves operating in life, but this disconnect between them leads to both tension and a chemistry that is unrivaled in many modern romantic comedies.

Wong and Park are pretty damn perfect as Sasha and Marcus, probably due in large part to them co-writing the script with Michael Golamco and having frequent collaborator Nahnatcha Khan direct.

From the opening scenes of Sasha learning to cook with Marcus’s mom to a variety of different restaurant moments, “Always Be My Maybe” is a food-forward film.

There’s something about food-forward movies that I’ve always found so comforting, and I frequently return to many of them, from “Chocolat” in my teens to “Always Be My Maybe” in my thirties.

And I like to think of “Always Be My Maybe” as a terrific example of a comfort movie, something you can curl up on the couch and watch after a difficult day.

Plus “I Punched Keanu Reeves” by Hello Peril, Marcus’s band, is a banger.

If you decide to make these buns and/or watch “Always Be My Maybe,” let us know! Tag us in your Instagram posts & stories, tweets or TikTok videos: @veg_out_recipes