TRUEBEN: Homegrown Smoker Food Cart

The Third Annual Try Vegan Week PDX is coming up in two weeks! What better way to observe it than engaging with the varied, vegan-friendly and much-lauded Portland food cart scene? Consider it a challenge--can you not only try vegan for a week, but try a week's worth of novel food cart creations?

Homegrown Smoker would be the ideal place to start. This cart is a dream come true for the vega-loca-cartavore; most everything seems to be from scratch, including the home-smoked fake meats, the servings are ample and well-priced, and not to mention bursting with flavor and deliciousness. I had almost given up on hounding out another vegan reuben in Portland to review, but on a brief visit early this summer, a post about a reuben special at HGS caught my eye. (Twitter is good for something). HGS serves quite a variety of Southern BBQ and comfort-food type dishes, and I'd been interested in visiting for awhile. Needless to say, this announcement trumped any reluctance I had to journey over to the PSU-region of Southwest Portland.



I could hardly wait to dig in to this unique take on my favorite sandwich, served to me by the owner's own sons. It hits all the right notes---messy, juicy, good temperature and ingredient balance (especially impressive considering it was constructed in a cart), and at 7 dollars, a good deal. 7 bucks is especially a good deal when you take into account the big side (and there's a lot of choices here, no 'salad or fries' but a variety of Southern-styled goodies). By comparison, it's more food than Vita Cafe, at a few dollars less. The bread was good, and we definitely enjoyed the fact that pickles and seared, grilled mixed peppers were snuggled up to the seitan pastrami. My only complaint would be that the meat flavor was a little hidden. The Daiya cheese was creamy and welcome, but I think the HGS-meister uses a Cheddar-like flavor as opposed to the Mozzarella-like flavor--maybe if the milder light cheese was used the smoky meat flavor would come through more.

We give this a 4.5, hats off again to the price, cart-ness, and the home-made smoked gluten pastrami. And let us not forget that this is an all-vegan establishment! I hesitate to rate this the best in PDX, but taking into account the price, novelty and DIY awesomeness, it's definitely tough. I'm a little on the fence--if the flavor was kicked up a bit, the meat made a little bolder, I think I could easily tip over into rating this the best vegan reuben in Portland.



Homegrown Smoker
SW 4th and College

Vita Cafe, Round 2

A few things seem to have changed at Vita Cafe since our first visit, right at the start of this blog. The restaurant relocated, just across the street, to a slightly more intimate but relatively similar building. The Reuben (available with vegan cheese or regular Swiss, but always with vegan protein and vegan dressing) is now available with house faux turkey, as well as with tempeh. I didn't recall the faux turkey being an option before, and was surprised to note it when perusing the Vita Cafe's menu recently. I felt compelled to return to Vita and review this iteration, especially because we found the tempeh version to be somewhat underwhelming, especially in contrast to the sandwiches we would go on to try for the blog.

The Vita reuben still comes on grilled marble rye, with kraut, vegan Thousand Islands and a vegan cheese that it neither bad nor particularly memorable. It doesn't melt much---clearly Vita has abstained from making the Daiya switch so many Portland restaurants have latched on to. I feel the Vita automatically loses points for having a fairly expensive sandwich (7.50 before veganization, a dollar extra for vegan cheese), that comes with no sides. With the Reuben, they do include some pickle slices nestled next to the sandwich, which other sandwiches there, such as the BLT, do not enjoy.

Though my memory of the tempeh reuben sampled at the Vita Cafe years ago was hazy, the version with faux turkey (basically a mild seitan that doesn't particularly resemble turkey but I guess resembles it just as well as any other sliced meat), was better. Instead of a bland hunk of tempeh you had a somewhat greasy, salty, chewy seitan layer pressed between the kraut, cheese and dressing. Again, the bread fell apart a little, which isn't entirely bad (but again caused B. to comment that he doesn't recommend a marble rye for a reuben). Though I enjoyed the sauce and cheese flavor combo, I would have recommended that this sandwich be a bit meatier (that is, add more seitan!)---both to balance the sandwich and make the price a little more worthwhile.

This version of the Vita Cafe reuben gets a 3.5, compared to the 3 we awarded the tempeh version.

Corned Seitan Reuben

I modified this recipe:

1/2 cup pinto beans, mashed well
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tbsp rice vinegar (didn't have any apple cider vinegar)
1 cup water combined with 2 teaspoons miso to create broth
1 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp liquid smoke
2 tsp paprika
1 tsp caraway seeds
1/2 tsp cracked black pepper
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
1 tbsp molasses (optional)
1/4 cup nutritional yeast flakes
1 1/4 cups vital wheat gluten

Mix the wet ingredients and dry ingredients in separate bowls, then add the wet to the dry, mixing well with your hands.

I used my pressure cooker to cook the seitan. The cooker I purchased in India has a metal insert, essentially two small stacking pans that fit inside the cooker, used to cook dal and rice at the same time. I thought the steel cylinder would be a good stand-in for the foil wrapping called for in the original recipe.



I kneaded the seitan dough then shaped it into a rough ball and plopped it into the cooking container (the lower of the two sections). I added a bay leaf to the steaming water. Instead of steaming for 50 minutes as the original recipe calls for, I pressure cooked it for about 45 minutes.



The unusual, um, texture you see there is the fact that my home-cooked, fork-mashed beans were not quite as well mashed as they could have been.

After cooking the seitan had expanded some, but not a ton, but was nice and firm so I pulled it out and let it sit.

We made the standard dressing of 2 parts vegan mayo, 1 part ketchup (or if like us, you don't use ketchup often enough to have it in the house, use tomato sauce), 1 part mustard, 1 part capers or minced pickle and 1 part minced onion.

B. baked this rye bread from a recipe I found online -- we just happened to have all the ingredients. Pretty good for a first attempt at baking bread (though he's become an expert bagel-baker).



After letting the seitan sit for about 20 minutes, we toasted the bread (the loaves were small, per the recipe, so a sandwich was about the size of a half sandwich), warmed up the kraut on the stove, and assembled!



Over all, I thought the recipe was pretty solid, though not too much different from other steamed seitan recipes I've tried. I like that I now have a method of cooking seitan that doesn't involve using tin foil, and look forward to experimenting to see if I can get a denser, firmer 'meat' by cooking longer. B. thought the cloves were a bit strong, so I might leave those out in the future. I've made steamed seitan before, and can't believe this is the first time I've offered a recipe. It's no Chicago Diner, but not bad, and incredibly easy. We recommend the bread, too!

TRUEBEN: Darth Reuben at the Georgetown Liquor Company, Seattle, WA

I first heard about the Georgetown Liquor Company, a bar in South Seattle with many vegan and vegetarian options, through a review in The Stranger, Seattle's alternative weekly. The sandwich sounded awesome -- the first time I'd heard of someone utilizing the "artisan" fake meat Field Roast in a reuben (but of course, not the first time the combo had occurred to me). The review praised the vegetarian version, and noted that it was available with vegan cheese. B. and I dropped in on the place on our way up to Canada -- it reminded me of a smaller, dive-ier Backspace. They had a few arcade games, a pin ball machine, and three or four game systems hooked up to TVs for patrons to use. It's essentially a dark, hip bar with a pretty large food menu. We split the Darth Reuben and the house vegan burger over a couple of Pabst.



The Darth Reuben (all the sandwiches reference sci-fi movies or TV shows) is Roasted Tomato Field Roast and kraut on marble rye with "remoulade" and cheese (sub vegan). It's 10 bucks, kinda pricey in my book, but probably normal for Seattle. You can choose a cup of soup, salad or chips and salsa as a side -- a cup of soup alone runs 4.50, chips 3, so maybe this justifies the price. And the sandwich is large. I certainly wasn't disappointed with the portions. (The veggie burger was smaller -- maybe this is why they felt compelled to add a pickle spear on the side. No pickle with the reuben, though.).

The sandwich looked fantastic, and with the extremely dark lighting in the bar, I'm surprised the pictures turned out as well as they did. Though it took the bartender a few moments to take our order and then bring us our beers, the sandwiches came out very quickly. In my mind, the bread was probably the best aspect of the sandwich. It was a square marble rye yet thick cut and crusty -- an artisan marble rye? It was thick and crispy with hints of caraway. I was as pleased with the Field Roast, as I expected I would be. Flavorful with a dense, meaty texture, it's a great stand in for corned beef -- maybe a little too dense and chewy. The only thing about the sandwich I wasn't so sure of was the dressing. It was plentiful and not bad, but much sweeter and tangier than I am used to. It reminded me of Kraft's California dressing. B. also was iffy on the dressing. He liked the bread, but he wanted more kraut to balance the Field Roast. I didn't expect to complain about too much Field Roast, as many places will skimp on stuff like this, but I found myself agreeing. More kraut would have balanced the sandwich a bit more. B. also thought this vegan cheese here was not as good as that at Liquid Earth -- so far we haven't been too excited about vegan cheese on reubens, as usually it is barely detectable and completely bland. Liquid Earth somehow managed to offer a melty vegan cheese that really added to the sandwich.



Though B. seemed less than impressed -- truthfully, I think the Liquid Earth tofu reuben is the only sandwich that trumps tempeh in his book -- I thought this was a hearty, flavorful and creative sandwich, and so I give it at least a 3. In any case, Georgetown Liquor Company is worth a stop for any vegan on their way north from Portland -- the enticing menu, with truly a wealth of vegan options, is excuse enough, if not the booze.

April Round-Up

"...indisputable evidence..."?



...that vegan leprechauns do exist?



Wedding season is coming up, and here's a resource for vegan wedding hors d'oeuvres-- I have to admit, the "Mini Open-Faced Vegan Reubens" sound pretty good, and apparently can be frozen for later.

You, too, can finally enjoy vegan reubens, while camping!

I feel tempeh reubens are a bit over-represented on this blog, so here's another tofu one for you, at My Veggie Kitchen.

Lastly, I was happy to see this inventive and tasty new recipe pop up. Thanks, Rhymes with Vegan!

February Reuben Round-Up

I've got a wealth of recipes and reuben spottings for you this month, both from recent reviews and postings and from the krauty annals of the vegan blog-world. There's really a lot, so I'll just get started, in no particular order.



Tami at Vegan Appetite teases us with the Corned Seitan recipe, a tester from well-loved vegan cookbook author, Robin Robertson, raving that it's even better than the Chicago Diner. That's high praise.



And here's a recipe from almost a year ago from Diet, Dessert and Dogs, another inventive vegan blog, it's an adaptation of the VWAV tempeh reuben, and seems well-worth testing out.

I'm always somewhat entertained when a small-circulation journalist takes on vegetarianism or veganism as a challenge, and is immensely terrified. Check out this Philadelphia writer as he tries out a week without meat, and consequently, seitan reuben sliders at Horizons. Living on the Vedge also clues us in on a good spot for vegan reubens in Philly.

Man, and that's just the beginning. Here are some more recipes from the blogs. We've got suggestions from the likes of Vegan Parenting, Vegan Footprints, VegWeb, Awesome. Vegan. Rad., Smarter Fitter, ...but what does she eat?, and the Food Network, of all places! Note this one is only vegetarian, but easily adaptable of course.

Can I just pause in all this and say how shocking/awesome (pick one) it is that a Wisconsin restaurant called The Cheese Factory has a vegan reuben on the menu? Speaking of which, apparently the Comet Cafe is the place to go for a vegan reuben in Milwaukee. And Falls Church, VA, another somewhat unlikely spot, has a reuben option as well.

And just for the hell of it, I'll throw in a book review.

Along those lines, and something a little closer to home for me at least, the Indy Week just did a feature on a recent vegan cookbook. I swear, the Triangle gets more like Portland every day. But for you real Portlanders, I've got confirmation that Backspace does indeed have a vegan Reuben -- or something like it.

January Reuben Round-Up

As the month draws to a close, here are a few tempting reuben images for you from the realm of vegan and vegetarian food blogs.




Brooke of simply vegetarian tracks what she eats and extols the delicacy of tempeh reubens (pardon the cheese, at least she uses vegan mayo).




Ate-Bit Vegan is apparently guilty of drinking and typing, but his passion for reubens and DIY seitan skillz make up for it. Also, I think his blog post title could be an allusion to yours truly.



Sick of Lettuce yet again makes me jealous of all the delicious vegan eats available in L.A. Despite the recent closing of reuben-offering The Vegan Spot, the options are obviously still plentiful.



And last but not least, some love from this PDX-N.C. team. B. just ended another wonderful visit here, full of delicious food, drink and merriment as usual, and of course one of the first things we did was whip up our own version of the apple-based Candle Cafe reuben again. Here you see B.'s attempt to polish off the excess kraut as well as a wonderfully dense rye bread called vollkornbrot, baked at the local co-op, with this marinated tempeh reuben slider. Cider vinegar instead of juice and a bit of Korean hot pepper in the marinade gave this reuben a bit more tang and bite than usual, and the squat little loaf resulted in a unique size that this picture probably doesn't convey. All around a tasty take on the classic.

The Chicago Diner's Radical Reuben

Recently the lovely Melisser of The Urban Housewife paid a trip to Chicago, another great city for vegans. I'm a bit jealous, because she got to try out the Radical Reuben at the Chicago Diner, an establishment that is practically historical in the fame of its vegan menu. Of course she loved the sandwich (it sounds like her entire trip was pretty awesome). When she posted, she mentioned trying to recreate it. I don't want to spoil any of her attempts, and I guess I've been holding this close to my chest because I had thought maybe one day B. and I would test the recipe and post about it, but the Vegetarian Times actually published The Chicago Diner's reuben recipe as part of a feature on the best vegetarian dishes in America. (Note Portland's own Vita Cafe was recognized for their vegan mac and cheese).

The reuben recipe is very unique, and I think brilliant, in that it uses some very intuitive ingredients to simulate the meaty, brininess of a traditional reuben. I haven't had the sandwich, but I imagine it's success stems from these innovations which include marinating the seitan overnight in pickling spices (duh, right?) and including beet juice for some color.

You can find the recipe here; scroll down to the very bottom for the reuben recipe. If anyone actually tries it out, be sure to let me know!

TRUEBEN: Veganopolis (NOW CLOSED)

UPDATE: Sadly, Veganopolis closed its doors on September 24th, 2008.



Veganopolis is a joint downtown that styles itself like a cafeteria. You order at the cash register and bus your own table afterwards. There is an extensive vegan sandwich and salad menu, and a hot brunch buffet on Saturdays. The space is clean and airy, with big street-facing windows. You can also pick up a few vegan grocery items over by the cash register. The staff in my experience has always been real friendly. It's one of those places that, if it were in another city, you'd expect to be some sort of mecca for vegans. In Portland, it's sort of just another cool place we can go to eat. There is some novelty to it. They make a number of things, like vegan chevre or ricotta, in house. And it's only one of a few places in Portland where you can go and know that everything is vegan. But I think their hours (closes at 5 every day), the their location (downtown), and the fact that they at least appear a little overpriced, gives them less of a draw. But I gotta say, they win hands down for the best sandwich presentation I've experienced in this city thus far.

And their food is good. And not that expensive for what you're getting, really. We got proof of this today. B. and I split a modest plate of their brunch buffet (a little under 8 bucks a pound) while we were waiting for our sandwich, and it was damn tasty. We passed over the typical brunch stand-bys of tofu scramble, french toast, biscuits and so on for a helping of savory bread pudding with asparagus and mushrooms, a little bit of potatoes and a sort of cabbage seitan sausage mixture and it was all delectable. I was glad we went that route as well, because, at 1 pm on a Saturday afternoon, it was pretty busy in there, and Veganopolis is the kind of place where your food takes time even with less customers. So the brunch held us over 'til the purpose of our visit arrived.



Like I said, pretty, huh? The Veganopolis reuben is "braised corned vegan ham," sauerkraut, your choice of dijon mustard or thousand islands, and soy mozarella (is there a vegan fake Swiss out there?). For a side you can get coleslaw, potatoes or a cup of soup -- we went with the soup, which was a tasty tomato bisque, very flavorful with big chunks of tomato. As you can see, the sandwich came with a couple pickle spears arranged on a small bed of baby spinach, with fresh chopped herbs dusted over the plate. The bread was a "rustic rye," and not a stand-out on its own, but it did the job well and was nice and crunchy. This sandwich met the bar in terms of temperature and textures, though the bread was more on the thin toasty side versus dense and absorbent, so this is one of those sandwiches you'll want at least one extra napkin for.

I liked that we got a side and a generous garnish with the sandwich. I think it was probably worth the extra 1.95 over the Vita Cafe's tempeh reuben, which came with no accompaniments at all. Another way in which this sandwich differed from the Vita's was that I could really taste the fake cheese -- and I liked it. Over all the sandwich's flavors were great, though there was a sort of not-unpleasant sweetness that I couldn't figure out the source of, maybe the Thousand Islands? B. thought there could have been more of the dressing and found the sandwich a little dry. We both wished that some of the sauerkraut had been swapped out for more of the corned seitan. The sandwich filling was easily 80% sauerkraut, and I could barely taste the seitan at all. I found myself picking up a fragment off my plate to eat just so I could see what it was like. I was impressed, which made me even more disappointed that my sandwich wasn't meatier. I understand that the seitan is probably the most expensive ingredient, but at 9 bucks, I'd like to be able to savor it.

Those were our only complaints really -- more dressing, and much more seitan. I love sauerkraut, and I didn't find the quantity overwhelming, but I wouldn't have missed some of it in exchange for the other ingredients. The cheese amount was probably perfect. I would probably get this sandwich again -- or maybe just come for the brunch buffet, now that I'm in the know.

3.5 out of 5

Veganopolis
412 SW 4th
Mon. - Sat. 9:30 am to 5 pm.

Corned seitan reuben, $8.95. Choice of coleslaw, potatoes or cup of soup. Also comes with pickle spears and a tiny salad. Many other sandwich and salad options available, as well as various beverages. Buffet everyday from 11am to 3 pm (think it tends towards lunch during the week and brunch on Saturday).