Description
Moist, rich, tender, and meaty, this Vegan Pastrami is the ultimate sandwich filling. Packed with protein and more importantly FLAVOR.
Ingredients
Scale
- 1 batch prepared vegan corned beef(see note 1)
- 4 cups hot water
- 1 ½ tbsp Better Than Bouillon Vegan BEEF Base (see note 3)
- ¼ cup apple cider vinegar
- ¼ cup maple syrup or other sugar
- 3 tbsp spicy brown mustard (or any mustard)
- Remainder of the rub from corned beef recipe (if none left, remake half the amount)
- 1-2 tbsp sea salt (you won’t be eating this much, it’s just to flavor the seitan)
- More freshly cracked black pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Make the seitan: Obviously the first step is to make, steam, and bake your pastrami in the vegan corned beef recipe (or marinate a replacement, if doing that (see above)). Make sure your pastrami has rested and been sliced thinly. While it’s resting you can bring the simmering liquid to… well, a simmer.
- Make the simmering liquid: Add all ingredients for the simmering liquid into a large pot (enough room to fit all your sliced pastrami, and a bit of breathing room for them so they can soak in that delicious liquid) and whisk together until the spices, mustard, and bouillon paste or cubes have dissolved.
- Simmer the seitan: Once the liquid is hot and simmering, carefully add the seitan pastrami slices one at a time, so they each have a chance to soak up the liquid. Let it simmer, stirring occasionally, for about 10-15 minutes, or until the pastrami is completely reheated. Test a piece, it should be delicious and melt-in-your-mouth tender. Feel free to simmer a bit longer if desired, but don’t exceed 25-30 minutes.
- Serve: Serve that vegan pastrami up on an amazing vegan reuben (details below) or with anything you like. It would be especially amazing as a double down sandwich with two latkes.
- Make a vegan reuben: If making a reuben, use toasted rye bread, vegan provolone or swiss cheese, sauerkraut, this vegan pastrami, and vegan Russian dressing. Serve with a big pickle spear and some salt and vinegar chips.
- Store: Store leftover pastrami WITH some of that simmering liquid (enough to cover), to keep it moist and delicious.
Notes
- Note 1: Seeing as this recipe is just the extra step you’ll need to turn my corned beef into pastrami, you’ll need your hunk of vegan corned beef that’s been cooked and sliced thinly. I made them 2 separate recipes because some people just want vegan corned beef and I didn’t want to overcomplicate it. If making pastrami, make sure to add black pepper into your spice rub, though, as that’s a great part of pastrami flavor. If you forget, add the black pepper to your simmering liquid.
- Note 2: So this is NOT gluten-free. However, you could use this marinade on tempeh (make sure your brand is GF), sliced eggplant, or tofu if you want that pastrami flavor but can’t have gluten. You could even go and use the spices from the corned beef.
- Note 3: I prefer to use Better Than Bouillon Vegan BEEF Base but you can also use vegan beef bouillon cubes. The Better Than Bouillon brand is much more economical than prepared broth, has better flavor in my personal opinion, and lasts forever in the fridge. If you cannot find any of these, just use vegetable broth but you’ll need to go heavier on the other spices--you’ll need to add salt too. I recommend adding a bit of soy sauce for flavor if you use the vegetable broth.
- Note 4: As noted above, you could use some of the leftover broth as the base of a vegan beef soup, and add your favorite veggies.
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Category: Entree
- Method: Stove top
- Cuisine: American, Jewish
Keywords: Vegan, Oil-Free, Nut-Free, Soy-Free, Vegan Pastrami