For most of my life, the Reuben was a sandwich I knew of but never ate, put off by the corned beef even when I was eating meat. That all changed when I was introduced to a vegetarian replacement for the core layer, as I explain this week in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon.

With smoked beets standing in for corned beef, this Reuben retains its classic layers of contrasting flavors: earthy rye bread, a creamy and zesty dressing, puckery sauerkraut, and nutty cheese. The beets impart their own rich smoky flavor when you make this sandwich with store-bought ingredients, but the layers taste even more delicious when you make some or all of them using recipes I’ve shared in my column and The Complete Guide to Pickling.

The Russian dressing is the easiest homemade upgrade. Despite its name, this sauce is an American invention that typically relies on ketchup and mayonnaise, spiked with horseradish. The recipe I developed—and share in this week’s column, along with other from-scratch fillings with long shelf lives—mixes the horseradish with yogurt or sour cream, vinegar, and Smoky Homemade Chili Paste for extra zing.

Learn more about homemade sandwich layers and get the complete recipe for Vegetarian Smoked-Beet Reuben in my column.

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Twice as Tasty

Whether you go big with all of my homemade Reuben layers or simply feel inspired to make the standard corned beef sandwich, I encourage you to try out my replacement for Russian and Thousand Island dressing. Just as in my tuna salad upgrade that I recently shared at Simply Recipes, tangy plain yogurt gives the Reuben’s dressing creaminess without that heavy, eggy mayo feel. Ketchup also tends to be overpowering and overly sweet, whereas vinegar and chili paste are pure zing.

You’ll have extra dressing if you build a single Reuben sandwich, but that’s not a problem: It keeps well in the refrigerator for a couple of weeks and has many other uses as a dressing, sauce, spread, or dip. Here are just a few other recipes on the blog taste delicious when you swap in or add on Russian dressing. You can find more in the recipe index.

• Black Bean Veggie Burgers
• Cheese- and Bacon-Stuffed Burgers
• Grilled Portobello Mushrooms
• Potato Salad with Pickles and Creamy Dressing
• Brine-Braised Breakfast Potatoes
• Fried Green Tomatoes

If you have extra smoked beets, they’re also delicious in other sandwiches and in salads. And to my eye, a Reuben looks lonely on its plate without one of the fermented cucumber pickles from my pickling cookbook.

Want more Twice as Tasty recipes? Get my books! Click here to order a personally signed, packaged, and shipped copy of The Complete Guide to Pickling directly from me. I also share tasty ways to use pickles in The Pickled Picnic; it’s only available here.