Did everyone have a good St. Patrick's day? I had a traditional St. Patrick's day dinner with family, and it was awesome. We had corned beef and cabbage, mashed potatoes, and Irish soda bread (it was my first time making it, and it was super easy & delicious!)
Anyway, it's always exciting to have leftover corned beef, because that means homemade reuben sandwiches!
Have you had them before? They're traditionally a grilled sandwich made with corned beef, swiss cheese, sauerkraut, thousand island dressing, and served on rye bread. So good!
Here's how I like to make them:
Reuben Sandwiches
(makes 2 sandwiches)
- 2 large, thick slices corned beef
- 1 cup sauerkraut (I recommend Claussen Premium Crisp Sauerkraut)
- Sliced swiss cheese
- Thousand Island Dressing (recipe below)
- 4 slices rye bread
Easy Thousand Island Dressing
- 2 Tbsp. mayonnaise
- 1/3 cup light sour cream or greek yogurt
- 1/4 cup ketchup, or more to taste
- 1/2 tsp. Dijon mustard
- 1 heaping Tbsp. sweet pickle relish (again, I recommend the Claussen brand)
- 1/8 tsp. garlic powder
- salt & pepper to taste
Normally, this sandwich is grilled, so you would just butter the outside bread, layer the ingredients, and grill it like a regular grilled cheese sandwich. Or, if you have a panini press, that would be great, too!
I don't have a panini press, and I wanted to eliminate the butter (there's already cheese and a creamy dressing going on, so butter seemed sort of unnecessary).
Anyway, here's what I did:
I toasted the rye bread, and set it aside. I quickly made up that batch of thousand island dressing (just add all the ingredients to a small bowl & mix well).
Next, I thinly sliced the corned beef, and cooked it/heated it up in a non-stick skillet. After cooking for a few minutes on medium heat, I flipped the corned beef, and layered on the slices of swiss cheese. Meanwhile, I heated up the sauerkraut in the microwave until hot.
Once the swiss cheese was starting to melt, I assembled the sandwiches! Layer both slices of bread with the dressing, then add the corned beef & melted swiss. Layer on the sauerkraut (I like a lot, but feel free to add less if you're not a fan of it), and add the other slice of bread.
Cut in half, and enjoy!!
I love this version because you get all of the great flavors of a reuben, but without the greasy, buttery outside (of course, that version is good, too!)
If you celebrated St. Patrick's day and happen to have leftover corned beef, I recommend giving this a try! It's a great lunch or dinner sandwich.
Happy Tuesday!
