We’ve been attempting to clean out the freezer and pantry, so I haven’t made many new recipes lately, but since it’s fall, I made a variation on Rachael Ray’s Turkey Kielbasa Reubens last night. The original recipe was in her 2-4-6-8 cookbook. Here’s our version:
1 teaspoon Caraway seeds
1 can sauerkraut drained
1/4 spicy brown mustard
1 cup Pumpkin Beer (we used Harvest Moon)
2 sticks skinless Turkey Sausage or Turkey Kielbasa
8 slices pumpernickel bread
4 deli slices provolone cheese
butter or margarine
- Toast caraway seeds in non-stick skillet over medium heat for 2-3 minutes.
- Stir in sauerkraut, beer, and mustard and let simmer about 10 minutes.
- Cut kielbasa links in half and then split each portion down the middle (8 pieces total).
- In separate skillet, cook kielbasa until crispy on both sides (if you are using a very lean kielbasa, you may need to add a tiny bit of oil to the pan).
- Butter one side of each slice of bread and layer cheese, sauerkraut mixture, and kielbasa (butter side out).
- Grill in same skillet as kielbasa until crispy.
Notes: The first time I made these, they were very soggy and very hard to flip when grilling. This time I used tongs to drain some of the liquid off the sauerkraut mixture before building the sandwich, and it worked much better. We always end up throwing out some of the sauerkraut mixture because it makes so much, so this recipe could easily make more than 4 sandwiches.