Sandwiches are an American staple food. From long ago to modern times, not many children went to school without having at least one PB&J sandwich in a lunchbox. Even grownup lunches and brown bags fall back on the sturdy, yummy sandwich.
Yet for traditional lunches and meals, the sandwich — a true comfort food — is often overlooked. It shouldn’t be overlooked. Sandwiches are easy, quick, and inexpensive ways to lunch, not to mention they are quite healthy if done properly. Sandwiches served with bread, meat, cheese, a condiment, lettuce, tomato, and onion have a little something from all the food groups. Served up in one neat convenient package, they are easy to hold in one hand, easy to pack, and hold up well.
Whether they complement a cup of soup or a salad, are served as a meal, or as just a quick snack, keeping some sandwich fixings around, like Hillshire Farm Deli Select Ultra Thin meats, can help stretch a food budget, make a great-tasting sandwich, and elevate lunch to a whole new level.
After all, sandwiches don’t have to be PB&J or bologna sandwiches anymore. Hillshire Farm Deli Select meat cuts can help create a unique, gourmet sandwich experience, and one that I frequently use to bribe my teenaged son with when I need to coax some chores out of him.
“Hey, son…. I’ll make you a melted sandwich if you’ll put the screening up on the porch…”
He asks, “The sandwich with the really thin sliced meat and melted cheese?”
“That’s the one.”
“Okay,” he says.
See how easy that is? Here is my recipe for a gourmet sandwich using Hillshire Farm Deli Select lunch meat — our favorite is the pastrami, which is lightly salted (some pastrami is too salty, but their pastrami has the perfect amount of saltiness to it).
Ingredients:
Hillshire Farm Deli Select Ultra Thin Pastrami (though you can use other varieties)
Favorite bread (we use whole grain, no sugar added, multi-grain bread)
Favorite shredded cheese (not American cheese slices, but rather, real cheese, shredded)
Dash of salt
Dash of garlic powder
Dash of cracked pepper
Spring greens salad mix
Roma tomato
Red onion slices
Condiments:
Mayonnaise
Mustard
Sweet pickle relish
Ketchup
1. In a small mixing bowl, mix one tablespoon of mayo, one tablespoon of mustard, one tablespoon of sweet pick release and one small squirt of ketchup until blended and the color is smooth. Set aside.
2. Toast two pieces of whatever bread you decide to use.
3. Spread the condiment mixture onto both pieces of bread.
4. Heap a generous portion of Hillshire Farm Deli Select Ultra Thin Pastrami onto one open face of the sandwich bread, on top of the condiment. Do this by delicately laying one thin piece of Hillshire Farm Pastrami on the open face of the bread and bunching it up, then adding another piece, and another, until the desired amount of luncheon meat is piled on the toast.
5. Lightly press the meat down to pack it into place a little bit, then sprinkle the shredded cheese of choice on top of the meat. The preferred cheeses include mozzarella, Swiss, havarti or any other soft, mild cheese.
6. Place the open face of the sandwich in a small toaster or convection oven. Turn the oven to broil so that the overhead coils come on and glow orange. Leave the open face of the sandwich in the toaster oven until the cheese melts and begins to bubble.
7. Remove the open face of the sandwich from the toaster oven and lightly sprinkle with sea salt, cracked pepper and a touch of garlic powder.
8. Next, add sliced tomatoes, purple onions and spring mix greens to the sandwich and close the sandwich with the other piece of condiment-spread toast. Press the sandwich down lightly to help it all adhere together some, and then cut lengthwise, diagonally from one corner of the bread to the other corner.
Congratulations! You just made a gourmet Hillshire Farm Deli Select pastrami sandwich that anyone would be proud to have in a lunchbox, brown bag or paper sack, even though it’s a gourmet sandwich fit to serve alongside the best and finest soups and salads. Lobster bisque and pastrami… hey, it could catch on.
Enjoy!
Disclosure: The author was compensated for writing the article. While Hillshire Farm provided a free coupon to try their deli meats so the author could write this recipe and review, the opinions here are her own and are unbiased.