Vegan Reuben? I'll take cardboard - it's cheaper.
I had lunch with a friend at a vegan restaurant in Santa Monica last week. I thought, 'OK, I'm game'. Mistake.
I love reuben sandwiches. Can't beat the corn beef. But trust me - do not order a reuben at ANY vegan establishment. I wanted to heave. Now that's not to say everything on the menu is as distasteful as my reuben. My friend had a vegan pasta that was really good.
Which led me to investigate what exactly corn beef is made out of...if it's not meat.
INGREDIENTS
- 1/2 cup chickpeas
- 1 tbsp oil
- 1 cup water
- 2 tsp seasoned salt
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 tsp smoked paprika
- 1/2 tsp cloves
- 1/2 tsp allspice
- 1 tsp dried mustard
- 4 dried juniper berries, crushed into powder (optional)
- 1 1/4 cups vital wheat gluten
There's your vegan corn beef. It's almost as if they - well here, let me look around on my desk. I've got a calculator, yellow highlighter, cell phone, eye drops, manila file folder, rubber thumb protector, soda cup from Quiznos and a lava lamp. Put that all together and VOILA! - you got your vegan corn beef.
Had I seen this recipe beforehand I would've ordered that pasta.
UPDATE: The name of the restaurant in Santa Monica is Real Food Daily. And the reuben picture above is not my own, but from "Vegan Dad" on the Stanford Wellsphere site. I didn't have my camera with me that day to take a picture of my sandwich, which I will note was sadder looking than almost every other picture I've seen online. "Vegan Dad" enjoyed his vegan reuben and "Foodeater" in LA pointed out to me that a vegan reuben at one eatery is not necessarily the same as a vegan reuben at another. Good point.
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6 comments:
Too bad you didn't like it, when done well a vegan reuben sandwich can taste delicious. My blog post which you took this photo from shows a reuben sandwich from Flore, which is in Silver Lake, not Santa Monica... and it tastes nothing like cardboard. I'm guessing where you really ate was at Real Food Daily since they also serve a reuben, but it looks nothing like this one.
In the future would you please use your own photos instead of taking them from my blog without permission? Thanks.
BUSTED! hahaha!
sorry foodeater. my mistake. i emailed you at your blog. please read.
by the way lex, though it looks that way, it was never my intention to pass off this picture as my own.
no worries, good show on graciously remedying the problem.
btw, this part is HILARIOUS!
"It's almost as if they - well here, let me look around on my desk. I've got a calculator, yellow highlighter, cell phone, eye drops, manila file folder, rubber thumb protector, soda cup from Quiznos and a lava lamp. Put that all together and VOILA! - you got your vegan corn beef."
Check out portlandveganreubens.blogspot.com for some examples of tasty vegan reubens. In all the vegan reubens I've reviewed, probably only one tasted like cardboard, and that was made with grocery-store variety veggie slices. Personally tempeh is my favorite, though if you go into it expecting it to taste like corned beef, yeah, you're going to be disappointed. (I was a huge fan of meat reubens before I went vegan, and a vegan reuben is a different type of experience but one I obviously enjoy frequently).
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