It's finally here! A Gluten Free / Dairy Free Reuben that tastes just like the real thing!

I made a allergen-free Reuben sandwich for my dear hubby. To say he was completely surprised (and let me tell you, it is next to impossible to surprise my hubby!!!) and thrilled would be a major understatement!!

 When I first met my husband, he told me that the one thing he'd intentionally break his diet for was a Reuben sandwich. He'd done this twice in the 14 years he'd been gluten and casein free. The last time he ate one was in 2005, and he absolutely loves that sandwich. So for the last 3 years, I've been scheming to make him a Reuben he wasn't going to have to suffer the consequences for later by being sick for 3 weeks minimum as a result.

The first breakthrough came when I discovered that Karina (the AMAZING Gluten Free Goddess) had posted a new recipe to her blog: a GF "Rye" Bread recipe that tastes exactly like its gluten-filled counterpart. I was completely thrilled! Finally! A way to make the distinctive bread so critical to a Reuben!

Unfortunately, there isn't a non-dairy Swiss cheese on the market, nor a Swiss cheese made with a non-bovine animal's milk such as goat or sheep. A couple of years went by as I mulled over how to solve this dilemma. I started hearing about vegan cheese recipes. A very intriguing idea. I found a vegan Swiss cheese recipe online, but before I made it, I happened to run across The Accidental Vegetarian's tips on vegan cheese creation. According to her, in order for a vegan cheese to taste like its dairy counterpart, the vegan cheese recipe has to match as close as possible in the following macros: Calories, Fat, Sodium, Carbohydrates, and Protein. Following her instructions, I checked out the macros for the vegan Swiss cheese recipe I'd found against real Swiss. Yikes! That wasn't going to taste anything remotely close to real Swiss cheese! Determined, I dug into her primer and started playing around with macros to create a vegan Swiss that would taste as close as possible to the real thing and melt well. I spent days crafting a vegan Swiss "cheese" recipe that would taste as close as possible to real Swiss cheese, and it turned out beautifully!!! Here are my final macros:

Real Swiss: 108 Calories / 7.88 g Fat / 54 mg Sodium / 1.53 g Carb / 7.54 g Protein
My Swiss: 115.9 Calories / 8.0 g Fat / 58.8 mg Sodium / 4.8 g Carb / 5.7 g Protein

I found gluten-free corned beef (another hard thing to find these days, but it's available at Whole Foods). Thousand Island dressing was a snap to make, and buying my husband's favorite sauerkraut from a health food store was a breeze.

I impatiently waited for my hubby to run a very long errand on the day of the Big Surprise so I could make the bread without his knowing. Funny story though: the bread was almost finished baking when he got home. He dutifully didn't look in the oven so that he wouldn't figure out what I was making, but I had to have him listen to see if the bread sounded hollow when I thumped it. That really threw him off. He was at a complete loss for what I could be possibly making, because he said it smelled like chocolate cookies but sounded like a hollow loaf of bread, but it didn't make any sense because he knew I wasn't making soup and that I wouldn't have been surprising him with chocolate chip cookies because I make those frequently already, so obviously I wasn't making bread bowls for a soup. LOL! He had absolutely no idea what in the world I was making for this surprise I'd been telling him about for weeks!

After the kiddo got picked up for a fun evening with the grandparents, I got out the thousand island dressing for my husband to see if he could figure it out what I'd made before I got the more obvious ingredients out.  He looked rather perplexed at the jar of unknown identity, opened it up, tasted it, and decided it was Thousand Island. A second or two later, the light bulb went off; he asked with a look of total disbelief and shock: "you made Reubens???". I wish I'd had a camera! He was absolutely thrilled at the idea of getting to eat a Reuben sandwich that was safe for him to eat! Utterly and completely thrilled! (I don't guess I'll never be able to top this one, but it was totally worth it to see his face!). 

After that, I pulled out the rest of the sandwich fixings out of the fridge and got out the instructions on how to assemble a Reuben. We had a grand time putting them together, and I discovered that I actually like Reubens after all, despite not liking any of the components by themselves. I don't personally like Swiss cheese, sauerkraut, thousand island dressing (it's tolerable, but not my favorite), rye bread, or corned beef. But somehow together they make a really amazing sandwich. Dear hubby (a.k.a. a Reuben Connoisseur) says it was a perfect Reuben! Score! :)

If you'd like to enjoy a Reuben too, here's the exact recipe plus assembling instructions that I used:

Karina's Gluten-Free Rye Bread  (To sub any ingredients, please click on the link for ideas.)
 All ingredients should be at room temperature.

Begin by lining a 1.5 lb. ceramic loaf pan with parchment paper.

In a mixing bowl, whisk your dry ingredients together:
1 cup sorghum flour
1 cup potato starch
1/2 cup brown rice flour
2 teaspoons xanthan gum
1 1/4 teaspoons sea salt
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
2 teaspoons finely grated orange peel
2 teaspoons caraway seeds
heaping 1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon dill

In a glass measuring cup, proof your yeast:
Dissolve 1 teaspoon sugar in 1 1/4 cups warm water (110-115 degrees F).  Stir in 2 1/4 teaspoons rapid rise dry yeast. Allow the yeast to get poofy; pour the liquid into the dry ingredients.

Add:
4 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon cider vinegar
5 teaspoons molasses
2 large eggs, beaten

Beat till smooth batter forms. Pour into the lined 1.5 lb. ceramic loaf pan and smooth evenly with wet fingers. Loosely cover pan and let rise 20 min in warm spot (I use my oven at 160 degrees F).  Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake 35-45 min (40 min in my oven) until it sounds hollow when thumped. If soft, place loaf directly on oven rack for 10 min for a crusty finish, if desired. Cool on wire rack before slicing.  Store in bread bag (keeping the saved bread heel against the sliced surface) in fridge; slice as needed. Makes ten slices.


Thousand Island Dressing (Make 1/2 recipe for Reubens.)
1 c. mayo
1/3 c. ketchup
1/2 t. onion powder
dash salt
3 T. sweet pickle relish

Put all ingredients in a glass pint jar. Seal jar; shake until smooth and creamy.



Dairy-Free Swiss Cheese (make 1/2 recipe for Reubens)
Ingredients:
1 1/2 c. water
5 1/3 t. unflavored gelatin (2 envelopes)
1 1/2 c. slivered almonds
1 T. coconut oil
1/3 c. rice milk
1 c.  Bragg’s nutritional yeast seasoning (Note: This recipe is specifically calibrated to use the macros of Bragg's; use other brands of nutritional yeast with vastly different macros at your own risk.)
Juice of half a lemon (approx. 1.5 T. juice)
2 T. cider vinegar
4 T. tahini
1 T. dijon mustard (I use 365 brand from Whole Foods)
1 T. onion powder
3/4 t. garlic powder
Heaping 1/8 t. salt

Directions: Sprinkle gelatin on 1/2 cup of cold water. Add 1 cup boiling water; stir till completely dissolved. Place the almonds and oil in a high-powered blender (such as VitaMix) and process for 1-2 minutes on high speed until a smooth paste forms. Scrape down the sides, add the remaining ingredients, and process for 1 more minute. Add gelatin mixture to the blender, and process for an additional 2 minutes. Lightly oil a 3-cup mold or small loaf pan or two 1.5-cup Pyrex glass storage containers. Pour the cheese mixture into the mold, cover, and chill overnight. Un-mold the cheese. Slice thinly with a sharp knife for Reubens or use in your favorite recipes instead of real Swiss cheese. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 7-10 days. Freezes well.


Assembling the Reuben Sandwich
Needed for one Reuben sandwich:
3.5 or 4 oz thinly-sliced, lean GF corned beef (Wellshire Farms is available online or at Whole Foods. If not in the deli, it’s available pre-packaged in 7 oz. packages nearby.)
2 thin slices of dairy-free Swiss cheese (recipe above)
2 Tablespoons of sauerkraut—I use Bubbie’s sauerkraut
2 Tablespoons of Thousand Island dressing (recipe above)
2 slices of GF rye bread (recipe above)

Directions:
Add two Tablespoons of vegetable oil or a mixture of margarine/ butter and oil to frying pan, skillet or flat-top grill. (I used a panini press). Heat until hot, over medium-high heat. Place two slices of rye bread in the hot pan or grill. Atop each slice of rye bread, place one slice of Swiss cheese. As the cheese melts and the bread begins to lightly brown, place approximately four ounces of corned beef in pan or grill and sauté until hot and lightly browned. When the cheese on the bread is fairly well melted, place corned beef on one slice of bread. Place approximately two Tablespoons of sauerkraut in a pan or grill and sauté briefly, until hot and barely browned. Place sauerkraut on top of the corned beef. Pour approximately 1 1/2 Tablespoons of Thousand Island dressing on top of the sauerkraut. Place the other slice of bread on top of the sandwich and press down, gently, to help keep the sandwich together, nice and neat. (I used the top of the panini press to press it down.)

Remove the Reuben sandwich from the grill or pan. When slicing a Reuben sandwich in half, do it with the tip of the knife pointing down, toward the cutting surface. Cut the sandwich carefully, almost with a 'sawing' motion. Reuben sandwiches have a propensity for falling apart and becoming a sticky mess, when cut without care.

ENJOY!! :)