Tofurky Reuben

When Silver Hills Bakery sent me the Steady Eddie bread, a soft blend of wheat, rye, and soy, I thought, "What a great opportunity to make a reuben!" And so it happened.  In the new cookbook,  Betty Goes Vegan by Annie & Dan Shannon, they describe how to make a Tofurky Reuben that sounded pretty good so I gave it a go.

The bread in particular was delicious. It is not your typical rye bread because it is also made with sprouted whole wheat, whole apples, vital wheat gluten, and whole sprouted soybeans so it had enough of the rye flavor, but with the goodness of sprouted grains. It was perfect for this sandwich.

As you may have noticed, I am leaning towards a more natural way of eating so I am going to be writing less and less about overly processed foods. The Tofurky Peppered Deli slices paired with Daiya Swiss Style Slices went great together, but I can't say that I felt that great after eating this meal. I don't know if it was the excessive gluten or just the overly processed ingredients in general, but it didn't sit well with my tummy.

That said, this sandwich did taste pretty good. The Thousand Island dressing, while not authentic, had great flavor and you really can't go wrong with lots of sauerkraut! So if you have no problem with gluten and eating processed foods on occasion, go ahead and splurge on this sandwich!

Please note: some parts of this recipe have been modified.

Tofurky Reuben
Serves 1

Ingredients for Sandwich

• 2 Tbsp Bragg's liquid aminos
• 5-8 slices Peppered Tofurky Deli Slices, separated
• 2 slices Swiss Style Daiya vegan cheese
• 2 slices rye bread (I used Silver Hills Bakery Steady Eddie) 
• Sauerkraut
• 2 Tbsp Thousand Island Dressing

Ingredients for Thousand Island Dressing

• 1 cup Vegenaise
• 1 Tbsp fresh parsley, diced
• 2 Tbsp sweet pickle relish
• 2 Tbsp hot sauce
• 1 tsp diced red onion
• 1/2 tsp paprika
• 2 Tbsp nutritional yeast (I used Bragg's, which is rich in B12)

Instructions
First make the dressing by mixing all ingredients in a small bowl. Store tightly covered in the refrigerator until you are ready to make the sandwiches.

Preheat oven to 350-degrees. Place the Bragg's in a shallow bowl and dip the Tofurky slices in it to give it a corned beef-pastrami flavor.

Stack one slice of bread with all the Tofurky, then the Daiya vegan cheese slices on top of that. Put both slices of rye bread in the oven. Remove after the cheese begins melting on the one slice, about 15 minutes. (You may want to remove the slice that doesn't have anything on it after 7 minutes to avoid it getting too hard and overcooked.)

Put the sauerkraut on top of the cheese and top with Thousand Island dressing. Put the other piece of bread on top and serve.

Full Disclosure: Although the products were provided to me for free to review, that in no way influenced my veracious opinion.