What's for Dinner, Sun., Aug. 25, 2024 [View all]

I made a vegetarian Reuben sandwich. Surprise! It was delicious and has the potential to be even better.

The inspiration for this came from a cookbook I ordered from the library called A Hearty Book of Vegetarian Sandwiches. It calls for beets as the substitute for the corned beef. I know--sounds weird--but it looks just like corned beef and having tasted it, makes a pretty good substitute!

The author, Jackie Freeman, says you can use canned or jar beets, or better yet, roast them. Of course I could not roast them because of my situation with the natural gas leak at my house. However, I'm thinking of doing second version of this with grilled beets, since I now have my gas grill working.

It's toasted rye or pumpernickel spread with mayo and toasted. Then Swiss cheese, the beets (she recommends shredding them, but the ones I used were already small enough to use out of the jar), then a layer of sauerkraut and a Thousand Island type dressing which she tells you how to make. I used her recipe but if I had it to do over again, I'd just use Thousand Island dressing that was already in the frig.

It is delicious! I'm having the other half tonight with Cassava chips and dill pickles.

Later on, a tossed green salad, already made up from fresh garden veggies.

Ginger kombucha.

Dessert: watermelon.

Link to Publisher's Weekly review of Veggie Sandwiches cookbook.

Also: this image search under vegetarian Reuben sandwich, will show you dozens of variations and you can see what it looks like. I made mine open-face to cut down on the bread.