Sous vide roast beef, baby arugula, sweet and sour caramelized onions, provolone cheese, horseradish dijonnaise, and homemade pumpernickel.
I have been dreaming about this sandwich for a while now, and I am pretty happy with how it came out. Tender roast beef, rich rye bread, sweet-briny onions, creamy horseradish sauce, and melty cheese a delicious hearty sandwich.
When I was in grade school, a friend of mine would come to lunch with a roast beef sandwich with creamy horseradish on pumpernickel bread. She never seemed too happy about it. I don’t know if she didn’t like pumpernickel or was just tired of eating the same thing. But I would often trade my lunch for hers. To this day, I think about how simple and delicious the sandwich was, and that memory was the inspiration for this post.
To build on that memory and give the sandwich an update, I used homemade pumpernickel with sous vide roast beef. Which is kind of a lot of work. So feel free to substitute store-bought. I caramelized onions with dill and vinegar to give them a pickle like flavor that I thought would go well with the rye bread. For the cheese, I used provolone, but a swiss or Havarti would be tasty. It just needs to be sharp and melty. A roast beef sandwich just isn’t complete without horseradish, but I also wanted a little spice and some twang. So I whipped up a simple horseradish dijonnaise, using vinegar-based hot sauce for the spice and mustard for the twang.
Roast Beef Sandwich
Ingredients
Sweet and Sour Caramelized Onions
- 1 onion sliced thin 2 cups
- 1/2 tsp brown sugar
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 1 pinch pepper
- 1 sprig dill
- 1 sprig thyme
- 1 clove garlic minced 1/2 tsp
- 1 tbsp butter
- 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
Horseradish Dijonnaise
- 2 tsp mayo
- 2 tsp horseradish
- 1/4 tsp hot sauce
- 1/4 tsp Dijon or spicy brown mustard
- 1/8 tsp Worcestershire
Sandwich
- 4 slices pumpernickel
- 2-4 slices provolone
- 8 slices roast beef
- 1/2 cup arugula or greens
- 2 tbsp butter
Instructions
Sweet and Sour Caramelized Onions
- Heat a skillet over medium heat. Melt the butter in the skillet and add the onions. Cook until soft, then add the sugar, salt, pepper, thyme and dill. Cook until the onions are completely brown. Add the garlic cook another 1-2 minutes and add the vinegar. Remove from heat, discard the herb stems, and set aside until ready to use.
Horseradish Dijonnaise
- Mix all the ingredients and refrigerate until ready to use.
Sandwich
- Heat a large skillet over medium high heat. Brush the bread with butter. Toast the bread and remove from pan. Stack the roast beef in two piles and add to the skillet. Warm one side and flip. Add the cheese to the roast beef to melt. Remove from heat. Spread the dijonnaise on the bread slices. Add arugula to half of the bread, top with roast beef and cheese. Divide the onions between the two sandwiches and top with the remaining bread.
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