Reuben Sandwiches

I love it when I can make two meals out of one. Remember the other night when I made a traditional Irish meal of corned beef and cabbage? Today I used the leftover corned beef to make reuben sandwiches for lunch. Since I’m not really one to run to the grocery just to make lunch on a Saturday, I used what I had on hand. My reubens didn’t have all the traditional reuben ingredients, but they were definitely delicious.

In a traditional reuben you would use rye bread. I happened to have white sandwich bread on hand, so that’s what I used. I sliced the corned beef as thinly as I could and piled it on. Top it with a slice of swiss cheese. I used some baby swiss that I bought to make Cuban sandwiches, and I actually think I liked it better. Comparatively, the baby swiss has a milder flavor and makes the regular swiss seem too sharp. Next came sauerkraut. I tried to drain away as much of the juice as possible so that it wouldn’t make the bread soggy. Soggy bread is bad, bad, bad. I always thought that a traditional reuben used thousand island salad dressing, but as I searched the internet I found many different sauce options. Some used spicy mustard, some used a mayo/chili sauce mixture. Some used plain mayo. I opted for something I had in my fridge (SURPRISE!) – brown sugar and pecan spicy mustard. Butter both sides of the bread and cook it in a skillet just like a grilled cheese. I probably could have used my George Foreman grill as well. I cook mine on medium low so the bread doesn’t burn before the corned beef can get warm. It gives the bread a nice golden color. Presto! Not a bad lunch for a Saturday afternoon!