I’m really excited to share this new sandwich recipe: corned beef seitan reubens! I don’t remember when I last had a reuben, but it has been forever and I’m not even sure what made me think to make it.  I love the combination of sauerkraut and horseradishy Russian dressing. And this recipe I found on hell yeah it’s vegan for corned beef seitan is fantastic! Tender and flavorful, I might use it as a base for other styles of seitan.

Seitan is “wheat meat”. You take vital wheat gluten (available at Whole Foods) and mix it with a few items, bake or steam it and voila! High protein meat substitute. Vital wheat gluten is basically the protein in wheat after all the starch as been taken out. If you can’t find vital wheat gluten, you can actually rinse the starch out of whole wheat flour to make seitan. I did this years ago, but it is way easier to just buy the gluten.

While there are a lot of ingredients in this recipe, it really is a throw them all together kind of thing and it doesn’t take long. I used ground ginger and garlic to keep it as simple as possible but the original uses fresh. You do have to bake the seitan for 1 hour and 15 minutes, but while that is cooking you can make the Russian dressing (adapted from this recipe), get out the bread and swiss cheese, open the can of sauerkraut, and relax a little, maybe read 11/22/63 by Stephen King, the book I am loving right now! 🙂

Corned Beef Seitan
1 1/4 cup vital wheat gluten
1/2 tablespoon ground mustard
1/2 tablespoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon coriander
1/2 tablespoon fresh ground pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves (if you have whole grind them with the powdered spices in a spice grinder)
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice (if you have whole grind them with the powdered spices in a spice grinder)
1 tsp salt
1 cup cold water
1/2 cup kidney beans
2 Tbsp oil
1 Tbsp brown sugar
1 Tbsp tomato paste

1. Heat oven to 325 degrees.
2. Mix all the dry ingredients (from gluten to salt) together in a bowl.
3. Mix all the wed ingredients (from water to tomato paste) together in another bowl. Blend with an immersion blender to get the kidney beans mashed up (or mash them first and just mix them in).
4. Mix the dry and the wet ingredients together and knead for a few to activate the gluten then shape into about an 8 inch log. This part is pretty cool, it is such a wet dough that at first I didn’t know if it would hold together, but then it gets really elasticy almost so that it is hard to pull apart or shape.
5. Roll up tightly in aluminum foil and twist the ends to seal.
6. Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes turning it over once in the middle of cooking.

Russian Dressing (enough for about 2 saucy sandwiches)
3 tablepoons mayonnaise
2 tablespoon sour cream or yogurt
3-4 teaspoons prepared horseradish (depending on how much you like the stuff)
1 1/2 tablespoon ketchup
1 1/2 teaspoon pickle relish
1/2 teaspoon vegetarian worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon paprika (I had smoked paprika and used that)
2 tablespoons onions minced
Pinch fresh ground pepper

• Mix all together.

Veggie Reubens
Rye bread (2 pieces per sandwich)
Butter
Russian dressing
Swiss cheese
Corned Beef Seitan
Sauerkraut (water squeezed out)

1. Butter the rye bread on one side.
2. On the unbuttered sides, spread on the Russian dressing.
3. Top one side with sliced corned beef seitan, then sauerkraut, then swiss cheese, then flip over the other bread to make a sandwich.
4. In a skillet over medium high heat, cook the sandwich on each side until browned and the cheese melty. I used a Lodge grill press to squish the sandwiches a little.