The Reuben sandwich is something that I had a love-hate relationship with for a long time. Growing up outside NYC it was a favorite sandwich of my grandfather, but my aversion to sauerkraut won over the sandwich. He’d usually let me have the dill pickle; the one thing I was excited about.

Since then, I’ve come to love sauerkraut (and even make my own) and I felt that this salad would be a fun way to mix things up. Other than the marbled rye, the only thing this salad is missing is Swiss cheese. If you take well to dairy and can find some quality sourced Swiss, it would probably be amazing. This recipe definitely takes some planning to make corned beef, homemade ketchup, and mayo, but I promise it won’t disappoint.

Ingredients

Homemade Russian Dressing

1/2 C mayonnaise

2 Tbsp ketchup

1/2 Tbsp drained horseradish

1/4 tsp dill pickle brine

1/4 tsp coconut aminos

Salad Fixings

1 1/2 – 2 heads romaine lettuce

3/4 C sauerkraut

2 Tbsp dill pickle relish (or minced dill pickle)

1/2 lb corned beef, shredded

Method

While cooking your corned beef (we used Wellshire Farms), go ahead and combine the ingredients for the dressing and mix thoroughly. If you need to make ketchup or mayonnaise, do so now. Our corned beef took just about 2 1/2 hours of time simmering on the stovetop, so there’s time here to prep the other materials.

Allow this to sit in the refrigerator for at least an hour for flavors to mingle.

Chop romaine into approximately 1/2 inch segments and toss in a large bowl. If you are mincing pickles to make a relish, mince them at this point.

Upon shredding the corned beef, add to bowl with sauerkraut, relish, and romaine. We tried putting the salad together in a “deconstructed” Cobb salad style.

Then we said, “forget that” and just mixed it all together. Both were delicious.

Or, just mix in one big bowl and set dressing aside for people to dress as they please. This fed us twice, so it will likely serve 4 well.

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