Vegan reuben jackfruit sandwich with Thousand Island

Step 1

In a small bowl, combine vegan mayonnaise, ketchup, lemon juice, and dill pickles. Set aside.

Step 2

In a blender, combined cooked beets, water, tamari, Better Than Bouillon no beef base, and dill pickle juice. Blend until the beets are completely broken up and smooth. Set aside.

Step 3

Thoroughly rinse the jackfruit in a colander. The jackfruit will still hold a lot of brine flavor from the can. So rinse it well. Then blot it on a towel. (If it's too wet, it won't brown as well.)

Step 4

Put the jackfruit into a food processor. Pulse it 5 or 6 times, stopping to scrape down the sides if necessary. It should be broken up into even, smaller pieces.

Step 5

Bring canola oil to a medium high heat in a large non-stick skillet. Evenly lay the shredded jackfruit across the skillet. Brown it really well on one side. You want it to get a some nice color and to dry out. (If you move it too often, it won't brown as well.) Once it has nicely browned on one side, flip the jackfruit with a spatula and brown the other side.

Step 6

Once it is nicely browned, it's time to infuse it with flavor. Add the liquid from the blender, as well as granulated onion & dried dill. Fully combine it with the jackfruit. You want the liquid to be at a simmer, so adjust your heat accordingly. Allow it to simmer in the liquid for ten to twelve minutes, until all of the liquid has cooked off.

Step 7

Once the liquid has cooked off, turn off the heat. Add tahini to the jackfruit mixture, and thoroughly combine. It will make the jackfruit sticky enough to stay on the sandwich, and it evens out the flavor.

Step 8

Bring a large, non-stick skillet to a medium heat. If desired, lightly butter one side of the bread on all 8 slices of rye. Lay the slices buttered side down onto the skillet. (If you'd rather not butter the bread, you can skip that step. It just won't brown quite as nicely.) Allow the bread to toast for about 4 minutes, until it gets nutty brown on one side. Then turn off the heat, and remove the slices from the skillet.

Step 9

Now it's time to make the sandwiches. Put a few spoonfuls of jackfruit mixture onto four of the bread slices. Then top with sauerkraut (about ¼ cup of sauerkraut for each sandwich). Then drizzle Thousand Island on top of the sauerkraut (about a Tablespoon of dressing per sandwich). Top the sandwiches with the remaining slices of toasted bread and serve right away.