Open Faced Reuben

One of my favorite guilty pleasures is a reuben.  Piled high with corned beef or pastrami and sauerkraut.  Slathered with thousand island dressing.  Topped with a gooey layer of melted swiss cheese.  Heaven on a plate.  I also love the reuben's first cousin - the turkey reuben.  It's marginally better for me, but the margins are pretty slim!  So, when I saw the recipe in The Dish for much lighter open-faced reuben, I thought, "What's the worst that could happen?"  The recipe called for a light slaw instead of the sauerkraut and Dijon mustard instead of thousand island dressing.  Absolutely worth a try.  Instead of the 1/2" thick slices of pastrami called for in the recipe, I used half of a package of thinly sliced pastrami from Trader Joes.  And, since my yellow bell pepper was better suited for the compost bin than the cutting board, I omitted it.  It's now working on creating some lovely soil for our vegetable gardens next year. 

I've got to say that I loved this sandwich.  Would it satisfy a craving for a real reuben?  Not on your life.  But, it is a great sandwich?  Absolutely!  The slaw was quite good and will be used in other recipes.  A make again for sure.

Open-Faced Reuben

Ingredients:

for the slaw:1/2 small head of green cabbage, cored and finely shredded

1 1/2 T kosher salt
2 T sugar
2 T cider vinegar
1/2 t Dijon mustard
1/4 small red bell pepper, thinly sliced
1/4 small yellow bell pepper, thinly sliced
1/2 small red onion, thinly sliced
2 scallions, thinly sliced
2 t poppy seeds

to assemble the sandwich:
1 T Dijon mustard
freshly ground pepper
2 T extra virgin olive oil
4 1/2" thick slices of pastrami
4 slices rye bread
1/4 pound sliced Swiss cheese


Directions:

for the slaw:
Shred the cabbage. 

Put in a colander or a small bowl and sprinkle it with the salt and sugar.  With your hand, squeeze the cabbage. 

You're trying to crush it to release the liquid.  By doing this, you'll need less dressing.  Really, it works.  Let the cabbage sit for about 10 minutes.  Squeeze it a couple of times during the 10 minutes.  Rinse the cabbage well with cold water and give it one final good squeeze.  Toss it with the rest of the slaw ingredients. 

Set the slaw aside.

to assemble the sandwich:

Brush the bread slices with one tablespoon of the olive oil.  Toast them under the broiler until they're golden.  Top them with the pastrami.  Brush the pastrami with a combination of one tablespoon of Dijon mustard and one tablespoon olive oil. 

Top the pastrami with the Swiss cheese.  Broil until the cheese melts. 

Top with the slaw and serve.

adapted from Food and Wine


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This post is part of a series featuring recipes from the FOOD and WINE archive. As a FOOD and WINE Blogger Correspondent, I was chosen to do four recipes a week from FOOD and WINE. I received a subscription to FOOD and WINE for my participation.