Vegan Pastrami Sandwich
Do you want to learn how to make a homemade vegan pastrami sandwich? It will be based on some of New York’s most legendary pastrami sandwiches. I recently went to Charlie’s Steakhouse, in Orlando, and I got to try the vegan chunk steak. It is by far, the closest meat replica I have tried. Chunk Foods Reached out to me to send me some samples of their product, and one that they sent me was the chunk slab. They assured me that I could treat it just like beef. So let’s make our vegan pastrami sandwich! If you like this recipe, check out this one too! and this one!
Brine
First we are going to have to brine the slab overnight. For our brines’ spice, we are going to toast one teaspoon of coriander seeds, a teaspoon of black peppercorns and a teaspoon of mustard seeds. After that becomes a little fragrant I mix it with one teaspoon of red chili flakes, a teaspoon of allspice, a teaspoon of whole cloves, a half teaspoon of ground ginger, a half teaspoon of ground mace and a cinnamon stick. I also crushed some bay leaves into this.
Overnight
Now in a saucepan, I’m going to add four cups of water, a half cup of sugar, a quarter cup of kosher salt, and one teaspoon of pink curing salt. Bring that to a boil then transfer it over to a baking dish, I add a little ice so that it cools down. In a small cup I’m going to add a half cup of water with a tablespoon of beetroot powder, whisk that together. Add this to the brine. Now I lay out a couple chopsticks, then set the slab over top of them. This keeps the bottom of the slab open to the brine. Time to cover this up, toss it in the fridge, and let it rest overnight.
Coating The Meat
The next morning I remove the slab from the brine mixture and rinse it off. Once it has been rinsed I toss it into a bit of cold water, let it soak for about thirty minutes. In the meantime, we can prepare the rub. In a small container I add a bunch of fresh cracked black pepper, some ground coriander, and garlic powder. Now that the slab has rested, pull it out, pat it dry, then I rub it down with some of my Not Steak Sauce. When it is completely covered in the sauce, I then also cover it in the seasoning mixture. I put a heavy coat of seasoning on each side of the meat.
Grill Time
While we let it rest I fire up the grill. I have some wood charcoal on the grill, but I do have these wood chunks that I soaked overnight. This will make it easier to smoke and give it a nice smokey flavor. Now pour the water off the wood chunks, get the grill up to about 250ºf/300ºf. I add some of those wood chunks right onto the hot coals. I add a probe into my slab so that I can check the temperature. It needs to get to about 165ºf internally. I toss it onto the grill, close the lid most of the way. That took about an hour.
I bring it inside and wrap it up in a sheet of parchment paper. Then wrap it really tightly in some foil, once it’s wrapped tightly I’m going to toss it into the oven that has been preheated to 250ºf. I let it get to 200ºf. But then I pull it out, unwrap it, and it looks amazing. I’m going to make my own mustard for my sandwich. I start with a half cup of cold water along with a little more than a quarter cup of dry mustard powder, a big pinch of kosher salt, some turmeric, paprika, garlic powder, now bring that to a boil. Let that bubble and thicken up for about fifteen minutes or so. Then I add about a quarter cup of white vinegar, whisk that up.
Taste Test
Let it sit for another five or ten minutes then add in some Not Steak Sauce and mix. Now the mustard is done, I transfer it over to a little dish. Time to slice up the pastrami, add some onto my jewish rye bread, coat one of the sides with mustard, slice it, and it looks phenomenal! The meat on its own is delicious. It tastes like real, juicy, smokey, meat and has a nice little spice flavor. There is not a meat eater who would second guess this. It is so tender, it pulls apart and has an amazing bite. You should give it a try! Watch the full video here!
Recreating Famous Katz Deli Sandwiches But Made From Plants
Ingredients
- 3 pound vegan chunk steak
- 1 tsp coriander seeds
- 1 tsp black peppercorns
- 1 tsp mustard seeds
- 1 tsp red chili flakes
- 1 tsp allspice
- 1 tsp whole cloves
- .5 tsp ground ginger
- .5 tsp ground mace
- 1 cinnamon stick
- bay leaves
- black pepper
- ground coriander
- .5 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup kosher salt
- 1 tsp pink curing salt
- 1 tbsp beetroot powder
- garlic powder
- Not Steak Sauce
Instructions
- Toast the coriander seeds, black peppercorns, and mustard seeds. Put them in a bowl and add red chili flakes, allspice, whole cloves, ground ginger, ground mace, bay leaves and a cinnamon stick. Ground that up together.
- In a saucepan add water, sugar, kosher salt, and pink curing salt. Bring to a boil then transfer over to a baking dish.
- In a small cup I add water and beetroot powder and whisk. Add this to the brine once it cools.
- I lay out a couple chopsticks overtop the brine then set the meat onto the chopsticks so it doesn't sit at the bottom. Cover it up, toss it in the fridge and let it sit overnight.
- Remove meat from brine and rinse it off. Add meat to bowl of cold water for about thirty minutes.
- In small container add black pepper, ground coriander, and garlic powder.
- Pull out the slab, pat it dry, then rub it with Not Steak sauce. Cover it in the seasoning.
- Get your grill to 250ºf/300ºf. Grill the slab for about an hour. Wrap it in parchment paper then in foil, then toss into the oven. Preheated at 250ºf.
- Pull it out, slice it, add it to your bread with some mustard and enjoy!