Vegan sandwich fillings from Jack Monroe

Three filling, plant-based spins on popular sandwiches.

Breakfast MuckMuffin

I started with a standard McMuffin as my point of reference for this recipe, thinking I would recreate the beef patty and egg in a white muffin with a slice of American cheese. It's not where I ended up. Lentils and onions and veg gave way to a haggis-style patty, and the rest was history. For the 'cheese', I use either Follow Your Heart American Style slices, or Violife Cheddar-flavour slices. FYH are more authentically processed-tasting, whereas the Violife veers more towards firm cheese, so it depends on your palate. For the purposes of this recipe, I want filth and goo, but you may think otherwise. Serve in a white muffin, lightly toasted, with a generous dollop of ketchup.

INGREDIENTS

• 2 large onions
• 2 large carrots
• 10 meaty mushrooms – chestnuts, shiitakes or baby portobellos
• 4 fat cloves of garlic
• 1 tbsp light cooking oil, plus extra for frying and greasing
• ½ tsp grated nutmeg
• ½ tsp ground allspice
• a few pinches of salt and a generous grind of black pepper
• 220ml chicken-style or vegetable stock
• 75g dried red lentils
• 75g dried brown lentils
• 75g porridge oats
• 2-4 tbsp stuffing mix
• 1 tbsp chopped sage leaves
• 1 tbsp nutritional yeast (optional)
• plain flour, for dusting

To serve

• 4 white muffins, sliced in half
• 8 slices of vegan 'cheese'
• tomato ketchup

METHOD

1. Finely grate or very finely dice the onions, and wash and finely grate the carrots into a large mixing bowl. Grate the mushrooms, and peel and finely chop the garlic. If you have a small bullet blender or food processor, you can speed up this part simply by roughly chopping the onion and garlic and halving the carrots, slinging them all in with the mushrooms and blitzing everything to smithereens.
2. Add all the vegetables to a large non-stick frypan, and measure in the oil, nutmeg, allspice, salt and pepper. Cook on the smallest hob ring on a very low heat for 15 minutes, until the onion starts to soften but not brown at all, and stir intermittently to disturb it and prevent it sticking and burning.
3. Pour over the stock. Thoroughly rinse the lentils in a sieve or colander, under a cold tap, and add to the pan. Bring to the boil, then reduce to a simmer, and cook for 40 minutes until the lentils are very soft and swollen. Add the porridge oats, stuffing mix, sage and nutritional yeast, if using, and cook for 10 minutes more, stirring to combine. The oats and lentils will absorb the liquid so you may need to add a splash more, but too much will make the patty mixture too sloppy, so try not to go overboard.
4. When the porridge oats and stuffing mix are cooked and the mixture is thick, remove from the heat and tip into a mixing bowl. Allow to cool and then transfer to the fridge to firm up for an hour, or overnight.
5. When the mixture is cool and firm, remove it from the fridge. Heat a little oil in a non-stick frypan. Break off a piece with lightly floured hands, the size of an average egg. Roll it in your hands to form a ball, adding a little more flour if it sticks to your palms. You want a patty the width of your muffin, and quite thin – this helps it to crisp up and cook through on both sides, and stops the dreaded 'soft middle' that vegetarian and vegan patties can fall victim to. You will be putting two patties in each muffin for the 'double muckmuffin' experience, so don't worry if they look a little flimsy at this stage.
6. If cooking for a crowd, preheat your oven to 160C (140C fan) and place a lightly greased baking tray on the middle shelf, and one on the shelf above. Fry each patty on a medium-high heat for 6 minutes on one side, and 4 minutes on the other. Remove and transfer to the oven, and repeat until all the mixture is used up.
7. Place your muffins on the top shelf of the oven for a few minutes to toast. Remove and assemble: bottom half of the muffin on the plate, patty, 'cheese', patty, 'cheese', ketchup, top half. Enjoy!

Serves 4-6

The Jack Reuben

I've eaten a lot of salt beef sandwiches in my life: fat heavy numbers from cafes that I could barely get my sizeable jaw around, midnight bagels in taxis, New York food trucks, and supermarket pretenders that didn't quite hit the spot but were better than not having one at all.

This is the undisputed king of all sandwiches, so I set about trying to create a vegan version that would be just as delicious in its own right, while staying as faithful as possible to the original. This took a few tries; I marinated in beer, in powdered mushroom stock, in dark hoppy ales and gravy granules, before I decided to just let the flavours speak for themselves and stop trying to imitate the actual beef.

The result is crisp but tender, dry enough but with a juicy bite and a tangy, salty, peppery familiarity, something that's equally at home in a toasted white bagel as a hunk of dark, sweet rye bread.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 x 400g tin of jackfruit in brine
• 1 cooked small red beetroot
• 1 tsp vinegar – any clear kind
• 1 tsp each of salt and black pepper
• ½ tsp smoked paprika
• 2 tbsp light cooking oil, plus extra for frying

For the dressing

• 1 tsp finely chopped dill pickle
• 1 tsp finely chopped onion
• 2 tbsp vegan mayo
• 2 tbsp ketchup
• 1 tsp horseradish, if available, or English mustard
• a dash of hot sauce

To serve

• 2 bagels, sliced, or 4 slices rye bread
• sauerkraut
• dill pickles, thinly sliced
• 2 slices smoked vegan 'cheese'

METHOD

1. Drain your jackfruit through a fine-mesh sieve. Squeeze the excess liquid using your hands to push it against the sieve, until the fruit feels fairly dry, then pop it into a large mixing bowl.
2. Finely grate the beetroot over the top. Add the vinegar, salt and pepper, paprika and oil. Break up the jackfruit with a fork or spoon into tiny shreds so the marinade soaks right in. Leave for an hour in the fridge.
3. Meanwhile, make your dressing. Place the dill pickle in a small bowl with the onion. Add the Vegan Mayo, ketchup, horseradish or mustard and hot sauce, and stir well to combine. Put it in the fridge until required.
4. When the jackfruit is well marinated, tip it into a large non-stick frying pan. I prefer to do mine in a wok, but that's because I like the space to shove it all around a bit. A normal frypan will do just fine. Add a splash of oil and cook on a high heat for a few minutes until it starts to sizzle, then reduce to a medium heat and cook for 15-20 minutes more, stirring occasionally to disturb it. You want the jackfruit to be slightly crisp at some of its edges, with a dry-but-juicy texture to imitate the salt beef.
5. Toast your bread – whether a bagel or rye bread – lightly on both sides. Now you need to move quickly. Smother the base layer with your jackfruit. Pile it high. Add sauerkraut, pickles and 'cheese'. Top with dressing. Pop the other slice on top. Halve it if you please – I prefer not to. Devour, over a plate, to catch all that will inevitably plop out the other side as soon as you take a bite. If it's not leaking, it's not full enough. There is no gracious way to eat this, you just have to get on with it!

Makes 2

Nasu dengaku buns

Nasu dengaku is one of my favourite dishes to cook at home – simple, sweet, tangy and delicious, while still tasting fresh and healthy, it works well atop a pile of fluffy rice, cold as a salad, as a snack or, my favourite, stuffed into soft white bread rolls with a heap of salad and some pickles and devoured warm, sticky, sweet and indulgent. If you can't find rice wine vinegar in the supermarket, use half the amount of a light white wine vinegar instead.

INGREDIENTS

• 4 tbsp white miso paste
• 2 tbsp Japanese rice wine vinegar
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tsp freshly grated ginger
• oil, for greasing
• 1 large purple or black eggplant
• 1 tbsp sesame seeds
• 2 soft white bread rolls, sliced
• salad leaves and pickles, to serve

METHOD

1. First make your glaze. Measure the miso, rice wine vinegar, sugar and soy sauce into a small bowl and beat well with a fork to combine. Add the ginger and set to one side.
2. Lightly grease a baking tray and heat your oven to 190C (170C fan). Cut your eggplant into slices around 8mm thick, and lay the slices on the baking tray. Brush generously with the glaze. Place the tray on the middle shelf of the oven and cook for 20 minutes.
3. Remove, and turn over the eggplant slices. Brush again with the glaze and top with a sprinkle of sesame seeds and return to the oven for 15 minutes.
4. Remove from the oven and pile into soft white bread rolls. Add salad leaves and pickles, and serve.

Makes 2 generous buns

This is an edited extract from Vegan(ish) by Jack Monroe, published by Bluebird, RRP $34.99, photography by Patricia Niven