Who Needs Deli Meat??

Veggie Reuben Recipe

Hi, fellow food-lovers.  To relieve you of my recent verbosity, today I'm going to post a simple recipe, made up on the fly this afternoon by yours truly.  As a vegetarian, I had been missing the awesome flavor and texture combinations of the Reuben Sandwich (salty and chewy pastrami, sour and crunchy sauerkraut, pungent mustard, sweet thousand island, musky swiss), so I decided to attempt a vegetarian version.  It came out great!  It has a lot of potential too, as I had to make do with some less conventional ingredients.  But here's what I came up with.

Veggie Reuben Sandwiches (2 servings)

-1 package of Tofurkey deli slices (they didn't have fake pastrami at Trader Joe's)

-4 slices wheat bread (but rye is probably better)

-About 1 cup of sauerkraut, rinsed and drained (squeeze it to get all the water out)

-A few slices of white cheddar (but try swiss; I believe that's the tradition)

-Mustard to taste

-A few tablespoons of homemade Thousand Island dressing (see below)

Homemade Thousand Island: mix the following 3 ingredients

-1 1/2 Tbsp. ketchup

-1 1/2 Tbsp. mayo

-1/2 to 1 dill pickle, coarsely chopped

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Split the package of Tofurkey into two stacks on some tin foil, exactly as you would like them to appear on the sandwich.  I suggest folding a few of the slices in half and at different angles to bulk it up.  Lay your slice(s) of cheese on top of each stack.  Bake, then crank it up to broil in five or so minutes, to get your cheese all melty.

Toast your bread.  Slather one side of each pair with the T.I. dressing, and the other with mustard.  If you don't like too much mustard, which I don't, don't slather.  Just dab.

When the cheese on top of your "meat" has gotten bubbly and melty, take them out of the oven, and lay each on a slice of bread.  Split the sauerkraut between them, and put the remaining slices on top of each.

Cut each sandwich in half, and serve!  I'm very emphatic about slicing my sandwiches in half, even veggie burgers.  The cross section of a sandwich is fascinating-- you can see all the ingredients making their collision with one another into one whole flavor combination.  Plus, that way the meal lasts longer.

 

Food Tip #1-- Herby Samwidges

On a whim today I decided to dress up my sandwich.  I had some leftover salmon that I had breaded and baked the other night to rather unglamorous results, so I wasn't too thrilled about eating it for lunch.  Not only had it been only so-so, but now it was two days old, too.  But: waste not, spend not too much money.  So I toasted some bread-- good, Italian Como from our local bakery-- and went out to the garden to pick some lettuce.  While I was out there, the basil fluttered in the wind and I worried that if I didn't pick any soon it would bolt.  So I snapped a few leaves off, and as an afterthought, also grabbed a few leaves of the wild oregano, growing enormously right in the middle of our lawn.  I slathered one slice of bread with mayo, and nestled the herbs in it.  Then lettuce, salmon (microwaved just to room temp), and a thin smear of sweet, hot mustard on the other slice.  Oh my lord, it was good.  Crusty bread, meaty fish, crunchy lettuce, salty mayo, and a hint of sweet from the mustard.  And then, after chewing for a second, the fresh punch of flavor from the basil and oregano.  I'm definitely doing that again.