Vegan Pastrami Reubens

Homemade Rye Bread with vegan pastrami, thousand island, and homemade purple sauerkraut.

Okay, okay, I know reubens are the cliche sandwich of the mock-meat vegan cooking world. But there's a reason: reubens are delicious, and it is easy to make a delicious vegan pastrami with my old pal vital wheat gluten. I'm sure you can get vegan thousand island dressing at like Whole Foods but it is also wicked easy to make your own with Vegannaise and a few other basic condiments. I will share that recipe on here as well as a "bonus!"

Served with Sweet & White Potato Salad

My biggest breakthrough with the pastrami was to steam it rather than bake it. The first time I made it I tried to bake it and it came out kind of hard and dry. Steaming, followed by a quick roasting, yields a moist and tender pastrami sausage with just a tiny bit of a rind. So good.

My big tip: when steaming, don't get distracted and let all the water in your pot boil off. I was making a loaf of rye bread at the same time that I made this and accidentally let the pot boil dry and almost had a real emergency situation on my hands. Jill gives me a hard time because I ALWAYS freaking do this whenever I am steaming anything. It is dangerous and can result in loss of cookware, so please, don't be like me, stay focused, and check the pot every so often to see if you need to add water.

Also: stay tuned, tomorrow I am sharing my recipe for homemade sauerkraut!

Ingredients:

1½ C Vital Wheat Gluten
¼ C Nutritional Yeast
¼ C Garbanzo Flour
2 tsp paprika
¼ tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp ground cumin
½+ tsp black pepper
⅛ tsp chili powder
⅛ tsp allspice

¾ C veggie broth
4 Tbs tomato paste
2 Tbs soy sauce
2 Tbs olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
½ tsp mustard

To make:
1. Get a covered pot of water boiling with a steamer or strainer inside.
2. Mix together all dry ingredients (the first block of ingredients) in a large bowl.

3. Mix together all wet ingredients in a small bowl.
4. Pour wet into dry, and mix well.
5. Knead the dough well for 1-2 minutes, until firm.

6. Roll the dough into a large log about 10 cm long. Wrap in tin foil like a Tootsie Roll.

7. Carefully place the wrapped pastrami log in the steaming apparatus. Steam for 40 min.

8. Pre-heat oven to broil. Place still-wrapped pastramis in oven on a sheet for 15 min, rolling over once.
9. Let cool. Slice paper thin and serve!

BONUS RECIPE: Kinda Do-It-Yourself 1000 Island

2 parts vegannaise
2 parts sweet pickle relish
1 part ketchup
salt and pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients well. Spread liberally over rye bread. Add pastrami and sauerkraut. Chow down.