This Sweet Potato Pastrami Reuben Sandwich recipe is a vegan revelation! It is warm, melty, golden-brown and has all the flavors of your favorite sandwich.
I did something weird. Really weird. I took sweet potatoes and made them into pastrami. The weirdest part? It worked and its delicious. Just stick with me on this one.
I was in the middle of a three-hour drive, smack dab in the wheat lands of Washington daydreaming about food. Because what normal person doesn’t think about vegan pastrami on a long drive? Okay, semi-normal?
I had spent the weekend on the Oregon Coast and had a tofu based Reuben sandwich over the weekend that I was still thinking about. It was less than amazing and I was dreaming up all the ways to make a better version. I wasn’t too into the tofu that they used as faux-pastrami.
As I was thinking about all of the vegetables I could possibly slice and season with pastrami, I may have gasped out loud when sweet potatoes crossed my mind. They are slightly sweet like a good pastrami, play well with spice, and can be dried out in the oven until they have slightly chewy texture.
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Once I got home, I went straight to the kitchen to experiment on my Sweet Potato Pastrami Reuben Sandwich.
I sliced the sweet potatoes really thin, whipped up a homemade pastrami seasoning blend, slid them into the oven and crossed my fingers.
After a few attempts, we hit the jackpot. A spicy, slightly sweet, chewy, sweet potato pastrami.
Once we had the main ingredient for our Sweet Potato Pastrami Reuben Sandwich, it all became about the toppings.
I borrowed the amazing dairy-free thousand island dressing from my Taco Salad recipe and spooned it on thick.
Sauerkraut was easy. Just grab your favorite kind from the grocery store. I like a good garlic kraut.
And bread, the vehicle to get this perfect Sweet Potato Pastrami Reuben Sandwich to our lips. I used my favorite gluten-free loaf, but choose your favorite mild tasting bread – you want the flavors of the sandwich to really shine.
Finally, here’s one thing you don’t want to skimp on: the butter. If you don’t have a problem with dairy, go for one of those gourmet grass fed sticks. If dairy is a no-go for you (I am with you), find a really high-quality vegan butter. Whichever you choose, slather it on thick. Get every inch of your bread, all the way up to the crusty edges, coated in an even layer of butter. It will give you the perfect golden-brown color and crunch – not too crispy and not too soggy, just right.
Sweet Potato Pastrami, who would have thought?
Sweet Potato Pastrami Reuben Sandwich
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 50 minutes
- Total Time: 60 minutes
- Yield: 4 sandwiches 1x
- Category: Entree
- Cuisine: dairy-free, gluten-free, vegan
Description
This Sweet Potato Pastrami Reuben Sandwich recipe is a vegan revelation! It is warm, melty, golden-brown and has all the flavors of your favorite sandwich.
Ingredients
- 2 sweet potatoes
- 8 slices bread
- 2 cups sauerkraut
- 1 cup Thousand Island Dressing*
- Butter (vegan or regular)
For the Pastrami Spice Mix:
- 2 tablespoons coriander seeds
- 2 tablespoons mustard seeds
- 2 tablespoons freshly ground black pepper
- 2 tablespoons Celtic sea salt OR Himalayan pink salt
- 1 tablespoon smoked paprika
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- ⅛ teaspoon cloves
Instructions
For the Pastrami Spice Mix:
- Add the coriander seeds and mustard seeds to a spice grinder (or blender) and pulse until they form a coarse grind. Add all of the spices together and stir to combine.
For the Sweet Potato Pastrami:
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two sheet pans with silicone mats to prevent the sweet potatoes from sticking.
- Slice the sweet potatoes very thin lengthwise, about ⅛th of an inch. Line the slices up on the baking sheets. Spray one side of the sweet potatoes with water. Sprinkle on some of the spice mix. Flip the slices over and repeat. Bake for 30-40 minutes or until the potatoes are tender and chewy. Remove from the oven and set aside.
To make the sandwiches:
- Heat a skillet over medium-high heat. Butter one side of each slice of bread. Place one piece of bread in the skillet, butter side down. Top with a spoonful of Thousand Island, ¼ of the sweet potato pastrami, ¼ of the sauerkraut and another spoonful of the dressing. Place the top piece of bread on top, buttered side up. Cook until the underside is golden brown, and then flip the sandwich. Cook until the second side is golden brown. Repeat with the other sandwiches and serve.
Notes
* You can find my homemade dairy-free Thousand Island Dressing here.
Are the cloves ground cloves? And if we can use mustard powder (instead of buying and grinding the seeds), what would be the amount? Also, it would seem much easier to slice the potato cross-wise, instead of length-wise (the latter being rather dangerous to try to do with a potato rolling around the table). This looks like a great recipe and I cannot wait to try it.
Hi Susan! All good questions. You could easily cut the potato cross-wise, I just cut it lengthwise for the photos so it looks more like a cut of pastrami :) It gets trickier with seed substitutions. When you grind the coriander and mustard seeds yourself the seeds stay much courser and are a different texture than the store bought powder. With the powder, I think you will be getting a lot more weight per teaspoon. I am not really sure if these measurements would work or taste the same, but best guess you could try 4 teaspoons of coriander and 3 teaspoons of mustard. And the cloves are ground. If you can use the whole seeds, the results will be much better in flavor and texture, but if you try the ground, let me know how it works out.
Happy cooking!
Laurel
Me, again, LOL. Same question, as above, with the coriander. I only have ground, so what would be the measurement on that?
Thanks, Laurel. I looked for coriander seeds, today, but that particular store did not have them. I'll look elsewhere. I found mustard seeds (so tossed my ones that stale dated over a year ago), and I have ground cloves. So, as soon as I find the coriander seeds, I'll make this.
I "won" my bookclub potluck with sweet potato pastrami sliders! In the book Remarkably Bright Creatures, one of the characters' introduction to Seattle is a yam pastrami sandwich. Thanks for the great recipe!