Roast beef sandwich with braised cabbage slaw

Who loves sandwiches? I do! I have no prejudices against any sandwich; if you're a sandwich I will eat you. Only last year I tried my first corned beef Reuben and thought, why haven't I had this before?? Today I'm making a roast beef sandwich version of a Reuben with braised cabbage slaw (reminiscent of sauerkraut) topped with Russian dressing. 

Open Faced Roast Beef Sandwich with Braised Cabbage Slaw and Russian Dressing

Recipe from Cooking Light

Cooking time: 30 minutes

Yield: 6 servings

Ingredients

1 tbsp olive oil

1 cup thinly sliced onion

1 1/2 cups thinly sliced peeled Fuji apple

5 cups thinly sliced green cabbage

1/4 cup water

2 tsp white wine vinegar

1/4 tsp caraway seeds, crushed

1/4 tsp salt

2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley

2 tbsp plain 2% reduced-fat Greek yogurt

1 1/2 tbsp canola mayo

1 tbsp prepared horseradish

1 tbsp ketchup

1 tsp stone-ground mustard

1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

1/2 tsp fresh lemon juice

1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp sweet paprika

dash of ground red pepper

1 lb thinly sliced low-sodium deli roast beef

6 (1-ounce) slices rye bread, lightly toasted

Directions

1. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onion to pan; cook 10 minutes or until golden, stirring occasionally. Add apple; cook 1 minute. Add cabbage and next 3 ingredients; cover and cook 10 minutes or until cabbage is crisp-tender, stirring occasionally. Uncover and add 1/4 tsp salt; cook 6 minutes or until liquid evaporates. Remove from heat; stir in parsley. 
2. Combine yogurt and next 10 ingredients in a small bowl; stir well with a whisk.
3. Divide roast beef evenly among rye toasts; top each serving with 2/3 cup slaw. Drizzle about 1 tbsp dressing over cabbage. 

Nutritional Analysis:
per sandwich:  286 calories, 8.6g fat (1.7g saturated, 0.7g polyunsaturated, 2.3g monounsaturated), 27.8g carbohydrates, 4g fiber, 23.8g protein.

**Helpful tips and common mistakes

This recipe is very easy to prepare; it is a sandwich after all. The only cooking required is the slaw itself. Regarding the ingredients, I didn't have caraway seeds so I used celery salt instead. According to the internet, caraway seeds have a similar taste to cumin so you can also substitute with ground cumin. I also used granny smith apples instead of Fuji.

When you are cooking the onions for the slaw, make sure to get them nice and golden. Stir occasionally to prevent the onions on the bottom from burning. The goal is to get the onions almost (almost!) caramelized.

Don't worry if you think there is too much cabbage; it will cook down. My pot full of cabbage shrank to fill only 1/4 of the pot. After tasting the cabbage, I found it to be bland so I added more vinegar, salt, and 1 tsp more of the celery salt. 

I made no changes to the Russian dressing except using regular paprika instead of sweet paprika, only because I didn't have sweet paprika. Don't worry about following the ingredients exactly ie you can use regular mayo instead of canola mayo, and plain yogurt instead of Greek yogurt. 

I thought this sandwich needed something more than just the roast beef and slaw so I served it with sliced Swiss cheese and sliced tomatoes. I topped the bottom half of the bread with roast beef and the cheese and melted it in the oven at 350 for 5 minutes or until the cheese melted. Two slices of tomatoes were placed on top of the cheese, followed by the slaw and a large dollop of the Russian dressing. I also chose not to make this an open faced sandwich since it seemed quite messy.

Once the sandwich is assembled together, wow is it good! The combination of the flavors worked perfectly together. The sandwich is not as salty or greasy as a Reuben (even better!) but the flavors are similar to one another. One bite and my eyes opened wide, surprised at just how good this sandwich came out. A definite repeat!