Veganization: Shrooben at Plan B

A well-made sandwich can be a bit of a balancing act, a vegetarian sandwich perhaps more of a challenge. A person with sandwich crafting skill understands that you need to pair mild flavors with bold condiments, soft textures with crispiness or crunchiness, lest you end up with a sandwich that is either monotonous or competing with itself. I think this may present a quandary in my quest to find vegetarian reubens and veganize them, in that a really good vegetarian sandwich, where the combination has been carefully considered and tested, is automatically going to be somewhat lacking in a vegan version, unless you can replace those non-vegan elements somehow. This was basically what the friendly bartender told me when I walked into Plan B and told him I wanted the Shrooben (a mushroom and onion reuben, complete with Swiss cheese, sauerkraut and Thousand Islands) but I needed it vegan.

"The vegan Shrooben," he emphasized, "is boring."

However, he appreciated my mandate and offered to grill the bread with some herbs and olive oil to make the sandwich less dry and increase the flavor. He also told me that the caramelized onions would help. I didn't tell him that I'd ordered the Shrooben before, vegan, and found it fairly tasty. But I have to admit, upon careful consideration, I conclude that he was on the right track.

B. ordered the Shrooben with no omissions or substitutions. We both got the side salad instead of fries, with vinaigrette (the obvious vegan option). I have to admit, I was looking forward to the salad as much as the sandwich. I remembered it from my last visit. It's pretty hearty for a side salad, not just a tiny pile of leaves tucked in the corner as an afterthought, but a small bowl of spinach, baby greens, black olives, mushrooms, sunflower seeds and chopped tomato and bell pepper. This and the sandwich is a pretty good deal at 7 bucks.

B. was very pleased with his non-vegan Shrooben, and I was quite happy with my choice as well. Marbled rye piled generously with sauerkraut, and onions and mushrooms straight from the grill. The sandwich was the perfect temperature all the way through, and the bread was nice and crunchy. It held together perfectly on my end, though I didn't have any sauce to contend with. A few bites in, I had to admit, it was a tiny bit bland. I'm a big 'shroom fan, but I couldn't help but notice that the mushrooms appeared to be cooked without any additional seasoning. This is where I started to see the bartender's point. On the non-vegan Shrooben, seasoning the mushrooms probably wouldn't contribute much, and might even be overdoing it, because the point of the dressing and the sharp cheese is the heavy flavors they impart. A toasty, juicy sandwich of simple mushrooms, onions and sauerkraut is great in my book, but there was potential for something more interesting. Probably next time, and there probably will be a next time, I'll ask for some mustard on the side (which, incidentally, could very well have been what I did last time I had the same sandwich). At least until Plan B comes up with a vegan Thousand Islands.

Plan B is dark and pleasant, without being too cozy, has a pretty good booze selection, and a pretty extensive, inventive and reasonably priced food menu. (I think their happy hour is late night with a limited menu). There are at least two expressedly vegan options on the menu -- a BBQ tempeh sandwich I hope to try someday, and a vegan chili dog. The bartender said they are planning to expand the menu, to include more vegan options as well as more choices for those who eat meat and dairy.

I give the veganized Shrooben a 3.5 out of 5, but not because it wasn't crafted with skill and care.



Plan B
SE 8th and Main
Shrooben: $7. To make it vegan, ask for no cheese, no dressing. Request mustard. Comes with side salad or fries. And little pickles! This is a bar (with a spacious back patio, by the way), and smoke-free inside. Go for dinner and a pint, you probably won't be disappointed.

Not really groovin' (or a TRUEBEN)

Earlier this week we were a bit too busy to hit up a restaurant and test another reuben for the blog, so we thought we'd compromise and pick up the Groovin' Reuben I posted about just a little while ago, and pair it with some home made sides. I went to People's to snag one, and gave the ingredients a read again (this is also because I'm giving up refined sugar for Lent--don't ask), and I saw, to my dismay, that the Groovin' Reuben is not technically vegan, by most vegan standards.

The bread they use contains honey.

How annoying! I know some vegans eat honey, but I also know some vegans scan ingredient labels for a certain red food coloring made from ground up beetle wings, so I didn't feel that I could review this sandwich and really call it vegan. If any of you more lenient vegans (or omnis, for that matter) want to give it a try and leave me a post with your verdict, I'd welcome it, and I saw today that People's currently has a few half-off. They are also available at the Alberta Co-op, if you live in NE.

Meanwhile, maybe I'll write a disappointed note to Holy Cow. I wanted to review your sandwich, I really did.

Abiqua Farm Bakery

In my last post, I mentioned that we used the Caraway Rye from the New Seasons Market bakery when making the VWAV Tempeh Reuben, and that I would have liked a darker, more flavorful bread. I would like to someday make a reuben using Dave's Killer Bread, he makes a Rockin' Rye, but apparently I'll have to go by his bakery store because none of the grocery stores seem to carry it. Maybe it doesn't sell as well as his other varieties. Anyway, I was excited to see that New Seasons carries another locally baked (somewhat--in Silverton, OR) vegan rye bread, and this one apparently as dark and dense as all get out.

Abiqua Farm Bakery doesn't have a website, but I'll let you know how their rye is the next time we whip up some vegan reubens in the kitchen.

If you have any tips for locally-made vegan rye or caraway breads, leave 'em in the comments!

In the Kitchen: Tempeh Reuben from Vegan With a Vengeance

I've owned the cookbook "Vegan with a Vengeance" for awhile, and I don't know how I didn't get around to trying this recipe until now. Maybe it was because of the number of ingredients, or the fact that many of them are sort of "specialty" items that you can't really substitute with whatever you have at home. More likely it just never occurred to me I should use a recipe for a sandwich. I own many vegan cookbooks, and I love to "try out" new recipes, but I'm horrible in that I rarely actually follow the recipe to the letter. Even if I use all the ingredients called for, I often don't measure appropriately (unless baking), especially for something like a marinade, which this recipe requires. However, I decided that this blog would be a good excuse to end my silly ways---Because how can you really test a recipe if you don't even follow it appropriately?

Well, I can say I'm a convert, both to following recipes as written, and to the VWAV Tempeh Reuben.






I don't want to post the recipe online, at least not just yet, because I feel guilty posting recipes that have only yet been published in books. But I can tell you that the recipe calls for marinating tempeh and then cooking it on a grill pan (We had to use a skillet, lacking a grill pan. I imagine it might work well on a Foreman grill, if you have one). There's no cheese analog, but there is avocado, which seemed unusual to me, but who doesn't like avocado? There's also a vegan dressing that involves vegan mayo, ketchup, lemon juice, capers and other good stuff. Above is a picture of everything that was used in this recipe. That's white wine, balsamic vinegar and soy sauce (though the recipe called for Bragg's or tamari) in the back. We used New Seasons Caraway Rye, because I got it at a steal, I normally prefer something darker, and Isa suggests pumpernickel. The Turtle Island tempeh was also on sale at New Seasons, and was just the right amount for two people, though I should have sliced it into thinner slabs. As you can see, it made quite a tall sandwich, and it probably would have marinated better in smaller pieces.



So how was it? I have to say I was impressed. Especially with the underwhelming Vita Cafe reuben as a basis for comparison. The list of ingredients for the sandwich topping and dressing seems like overkill at first (Capers? Dill pickles? Avocado, and sauerkraut?) but the flavors and textures combine wonderfully. "Mouth-feel," along with the use of "plate" as a verb, is something you will never see on this food blog, but I will say that the dill pickle slices gave the sandwich a nice crunch, a good contrast to the tempeh and creamy dressing. The fact that you grill the bread in a skillet before constructing the sandwich doesn't hurt the texture, either.

Over all, I found nothing to dislike about this sandwich, aside from the fact it was a little messy to eat. But that was probably mostly my fault. Our dressing turned out a little watery because my jar of Veganaise was almost exhausted and so what was in the jar was a bit runny, and slicing the tempeh thinner would have resulted in a more effective and flavorful marinating as well as a easier sandwich to hold. But the bottom line is, this sandwich is full of delicious fats and variety of salty garnishes -- and what else do you need in a reuben?

B. and I both give it 4 out of 5.

There's a fourth category?!?

So, originally, I figured this blog would have essentially three kinds of posts: vegan reubens in restaurants, vegan reubens made at home, and vegetarian reubens adapted to be vegan (in restaurants). Yesterday I was shopping at People's, and what did I see staring out at me from the refrigerator near the entrance, next to the bottles of kombucha? The Groovin' Reuben. I googled it today and found that it is in fact a TRUEBEN. This is the first deli-case TRUEBEN I've ever encountered. Apparently, it's made by a cafe called Holy Cow located on the University of Oregon campus in Eugene. So if you're ever in Eugene craving a vegan reuben, you know where to go (or at least, somewhere to go). Expect a review of the deli-case variation later on. That is, unless People's decides to stop carrying it. Why is it suddenly so hard to find vital wheat gluten in bulk in this part of town? How am I supposed to make a corned seitan reuben for my readers when everyone is discontinuing it?

Edit: 2/15/08: For an update about why the Groovin' Reuben isn't really vegan, see this post.

Also, thanks to Portland Hamburgers for the nod. Speaking of "narrow lens" though, you should check out Semicircular Vegan (which I recently added to the links to your right). Since I am dedicated to keeping this blog to a narrow focus, I have refrained from listing all my favorite vegan food blogs (not to mention how much space that would take up), but I just had to include Semicircular Vegan, since her focus is even narrower than mine, perhaps (or maybe not, I mean, the possibilities are endless). Seriously, it's awesome, give it a look.

Tempeh reubens to drool over...

We probably won't be posting another reuben for another week or so, so to tide you over, here are some delectable pictures from a couple vegan bloggers out there. Note the awesome food photography skills I can only aspire to.

From SwellVegan:



And this from "What the hell does a vegan eat anyway?":

TRUEBEN*: Vita Cafe

* See the note later on about cheese.

This was our first meal of the day, and being a Sunday afternoon there was a bit of a wait, so after snapping a few pictures we attacked the reuben pretty quickly. Everyone knows food tastes better when you're superhungry, so I wonder if this sandwich came off as extra-satisfying because of this. It was a fairly solid sandwich--pleasantly warm throughout (even the sauerkraut), a generous slab of tempeh, a single slice of vegan cheese, and a creamy vegan Thousand Islands dressing.

The dressing was easily the most impressive aspect of this reuben, substantial with bits of chives. But I'm a fan of spicy, tangy condiments and almost reached for the Aardvark hot sauce. I did ultimately think the sandwich was disappointingly bland. Though I'm not a devotee of store-bought fake cheeses, and in this case the cheese was basically undetectable, I have to give a place points for having vegan versions of all the traditional reuben components. Unfortunately, this seemed like a case where having all the traditional components wasn't enough. The dressing was not quite flavorful enough to compensate for the mild cheese and the tempeh, which seemed to be simply steamed and not marinated or spiced (I should note for those unfamiliar with tempeh that is does have a pleasant, nutty flavor on its own that many find quite meat-like, so it often works plain, especially in a sandwich---though you always want to cook it). But nothing really stood out about this sandwich. It probably would have benefited from a more pungent dark rye, instead of the marbled rye it was served on. As for the bread, the sandwich came warm off the grill, but the bread was still rather soft, and didn't hold together too well. Fortunately, the sandwich wasn't so juicy that it disintegrated, so I didn't find myself reaching for extra napkins.

Though many of Vita Cafe's portions are hearty, fries or a salad with your sandwich can run a couple bucks extra. $7 doesn't strike me as unreasonable for a reuben, but some other places will include a side for that much or just slightly more. As the menu listed the sandwich as including Swiss cheese, and the Vita Cafe isn't 100% vegan, I specified vegan cheese, and wasn't charged any extra. Though the wait was long (which you might expect on a wintry Sunday afternoon when the patio seating isn't available), the service was friendly and the food came pretty quickly. I enjoy the Vita Cafe and have always had pretty good experiences there, but I'd likely point my friends to the Great Grain Salad, Chicken-Fried Tempeh or Corn Cakes before recommending this sandwich.

B. split the sandwich with me (his second experience with a tempeh reuben) and thought it was decent, aside from the bread, which fell apart on him. As my partner in this endeavor, he knew what to expect, but even a great vegan reuben can be an unpleasant surprise for a meat-eating reuben aficionado. I don't think this sandwich is going to convert any omnis anytime soon.

We both gave this reuben 3 out of 5.

Vita Cafe
3024 NE Alberta
Reuben: $7. Restaurant offers a variety of vegan and non-vegan options, for breakfast, lunch or dinner.

Summary: Pluses - nice temperature, good filling ratios, extra points for a house-made dressing. Minuses - no sides or tasty garnishes (read: pickle), marbled rye didn't work so well, could have been more inventively seasoned.

Stay tuned in the coming weeks for a reuben recipe test and what will be the first of many experiments in ordering a "vegetarian" reuben vegan.