Vegan Tempeh & Avocado Ruebens

Thanks to Dani Adelman, Member-Owner, for sharing this recipe.

Because we published Dani’s recipe, Dani will receive a $25 gift card to the Co-op. You can win a gift card by sharing your recipe, too. If we publish it, we will give you a gift card! Submit recipes to marketing@peoples.coop

This recipe is mostly my husband's creation, with inspiration from others. It's evolved quite a bit over the years. We love to pair this with a fresh butter lettuce salad with oil, balsamic and vegan brazil nut parmesan. It's also great with a side of roasted potatoes. I used quite a few People's Co-op ingredients, including most of the bulk spices and others.

Ingredients

Serves: 4

Sandwiches and fixin’s

8 slices of Ezekiel bread (or your favorite)

Sauerkraut (preferably homemade!)

Pickled onions (preferably homemade!)

Vegan butter

Tempeh

8 oz tempeh (preferably in bulk from People’s Co-op!)

1/2 cup veggie broth

1/2 tsp garlic powder or 1 garlic clove, grated

1 tsp liquid smoke

1 tsp smoked paprika

1 tsp onion powder

1 tsp caraway seeds (optional)

2 tsp tamari, shoyu or soy sauce

1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar

1 Tbsp vegan worcestershire

Sauce

3/4 tsp coriander

1 1/4 tsp hot sauce and/or 1/2-1 tsp apple cider vinegar or lemon

3 Tbsp Ketchup

3 Tbsp Vegenaise

Avocado Spread

1 large avocado

1/2 tsp garlic salt (use less to start and adjust to your taste)

1-2 Tbsp Nutritional yeast (use less to start and adjust to your taste)

Squeeze of lemon

Directions

Mix all tempeh ingredients except the tempeh in a liquid measuring cup or bowl.

Cut the tempeh in half vertically so you have 2 rectangular pieces. Then cut the rectangular pieces in half through the middle so you end up with 4 thinner pieces. Cut remaining pieces into whatever shapes you’d like (triangles or squares) — you should have about 8 total pieces.

Put the tempeh pieces into a shallow container and add the marinade. Make sure all the tempeh gets coated. Let it sit for 30 min.

In the meantime, mix all sauce ingredients together in a small bowl. Set aside in the fridge.

Then, make your avocado spread. Mash avocado in a bowl. Add garlic salt, nutritional yeast and lemon and mix it up. Set aside in the fridge.

When the tempeh is ready, heat a large pan on medium heat. Add 1 Tbsp oil. Once hot, add the tempeh (reserve the marinade for later!) and cook until browning — about 3-5 min. Flip and cook the same on the other side. Add more oil if necessary. Toward the end of the cooking, add the reserved marinade and cook until it’s all been absorbed.

Remove tempeh from pan and set on a paper towel lined plate. Wipe out your pan as best you can.

Now it’s time to assemble the Reubens!

Lightly butter both sides of all 8 slices of bread. Place 4 slices on the skillet and cook for 3-4 minutes, until browned. Flip and add 1/2 of your sauce to the cooked side of all 4 slices. Add sauerkraut and pickled onions to two of the slices and top with two pieces of tempeh each. Add 1/2 of the avocado spread to the other two slices of bread and let it finish browning.

Flip the avocado slices onto the tempeh/sauerkraut slices to form your sandwiches and cook another couple minutes on each side until everything is nice and brown. Really press it down to get it cooking and held together.

Repeat this process if making 4 sandwiches.

Cut sandwiches in half and enjoy!