Finally! WFPB Pastrami for a Reuben sandwich. I got the idea to cure eggplant in the seasonings used in a corned beef brine, bake it and use it for sandwiches. At the same time, I slow cooked some jack fruit in the same brine. They both turned out really good, but I fell in love with the eggplant version of this sandwich!
These are recipes for the spice blend, bread and dressings that I used. I made and tried both dressings and preferred the Russian. Thousand Island is traditional.
Pastrami
| Pastrami spice blend | Black Forest Pumpernickel Bread |
| Russian Dressing | Thousand Island Dressing |
Equipment
- Smoking Gun
Ingredients
- 2 Large eggplants
- 1 Recipe Pastrami Spice
- 1 Beet Optional - for color
- 1/2 Cup Brown Sugar
- 1 TBSP Hickory salt
- 1/2 Cup Water
- 1 Recipe Loaf pumpernickel bread - Sliced Or bread of choice
- 1 Recipe Russian Dressing Or Thousand Island
- 1 1/2 Cups Sauerkraut
- 8 Slices Vegan Cheese Follow Your Heart Provolone
- 16 Green olives
Instructions
- Peel and thinly slice the eggplants into 1/8" slices. Arrange on a baking sheet, shallow dish, or large plastic bag and spread out the slices.
- Mix pickling ingredients together. Put 1/2 the pickling ingredients in a blender and set the other half aside.
- Peel the beet and cut into small pieces. Add to blender with the water, pickling spices, salt and sugar and blend until smooth.
- Pour mixture onto the eggplant and make sure all of the pieces are coated well. If you have a smoking gun, infuse the marinade with hickory smoke. Refrigerate for 1 to 24 hours. Eggplant floats so you may need to flip the pieces from time to time.
- Remove eggplant from brine. Lightly rinse eggplant slices to remove excess marinade.
- Spread the eggplant slices on to a baking sheet. Sprinkle lightly with additional picking ingredients and bake at 350 ° for 25 to 30 minutes.
- Arrange eggplant slices on pumpernickel bread. Top with Russian dressing, sauerkraut (drained) and cheese slices. Place in panini press or cover each sandwich with parchment paper and bake about 5 minutes until the cheese melts.
- Put olives on tooth picks and put one olive on each side of the sandwich to hold it together when you slice the sandwich in half.
- Serve with chips and pickles of choice.
Notes
This is a Snap Pea Sheep recipe.
Typically a Reuben calls for a spread similar to Thousand Island dressing. I decided to try something different and created a Russian style dressing.
My husband experimented even more. He added equal parts of my Russian Dressing and vegan mayonnaise, then added fresh horseradish.
If you add horseradish, do a little at a time because the heat of fresh horseradish can vary considerably.
You can buy pumpernickel or rye bread, but my low gluten recipe for pumpernickel bread is absolutely delicious! It is easy too!
If you use store bought Pastrami spice you may need to grind it into a powder. I am including my recipe on this site as well.
