Vegan Tofurky Roast Beef Style Sammie with "Arby's Sauce"

Vegan Roast Beef Sammie: Whole wheat bun, Vegenaise, lettuce, tomato, grilled onions, Tofurky Roast Beef Style Deli Slices (heated), homemade "Arby's Sauce"

This post has two recipes and a product review. Bonus!

I saw the new (to me) Tofurky Roast Beef Style Deli Slices at Whole Foods, and picked up a package thinking I might make a vegan Arby's Roast Beef Classic. I even found a nice copycat recipe for the Arby's sauce. (Arby's sauce is accidentally vegan, so you could just swipe some packets from there, but it has high fructose corn syrup, which I don't like, so I just decided I'd try making my own.)

First, the recipes.

Arby's Sauce
from CopyCat Recipes

INGREDIENTS
1 tablespoon corn starch
2 tablespoons water

1 cup water
1/2 cup catsup
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/4 cup white vinegar
3/4 teaspoon onion powder
3/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon paprika
3 tablespoons vegan Worcestershire sauce¹
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

DIRECTIONS
 In a small bowl, combine corn starch and 2 tablespoons of water. Mix well and set aside. Place all sauce ingredients in a blender and blend on high speed for 15-20 seconds. (I skipped the blender step and just stirred everything in the saucepan.) Pour ingredients into a small saucepan, heat on medium low. Simmer gently for twenty minutes, stirring several times. After twenty minutes add cornstarch mixture, stir well. When sauce begins to thickens let simmer on a very low temperature for ten minutes. Remove from heat and let cool. Mixture will be similar in thickness to steak sauce. Store in a covered container in the refrigerator.

My preferred products and where to find them:
1. Vegan Worcestershire Sauce- I know of two vegan products, Annie's and The Wizard's. I believe they sell both at Whole Foods. They also sell The Wizard's at Green in their little pantry section. And I "think" they have the Annie's Worcestershire< at Sprouts and Fry's Marketplace in the natural foods section. You can also get one or the other at the online vegan grocers like Vegan Essentials , Food Fight!, and Pangea.

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The Tofurky Roast Beef Style Deli Slices package had a recipe for a similar sauce on the back. I didn't notice it until I had already made my Arby's sauce, so I haven't tried it, but here it is. Also, I can't recommend any vegan horseradsh products, I never use it, so I haven't looked for any.

Horseradish Sauce

INGREDIENTS

1 1/2 tablespoons vegan prepared horseradish
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1/4 cup vegan mayonnaise
1 tablespoon plain soy yogurt
Sprinkle of garlic powder

DIRECTIONS

Whisk together the horseradish, mustard, mayonnaise, yogurt, and garlic powder. Dress sandwich.

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I haven't had an Arby's Roast Beef Sandwich in over 20 years, so the memory isn't so fresh and I can't reliably compare the taste. But I definitely liked this sandwich. The sauce was a nice addition, and the Roast Beef Style slices were a nice change of flavor from the Oven Roasted Chicken Style slices I sometimes eat.

That said, I am not entirely sure these slices taste anything like roast beef, which is a mixed blessing, I suppose. They were okay on their own, but I really liked them hot and dipped in Arby's sauce. I probably won't eat these unless I have a batch homemade Arby's sauce handy.

Mmmm!

[The sandwich gets ****, the slices get ***.]


Tofurky Roast Beef Style Deli Slices
Ranking: ***

***** awesome! Highly recommended.
**** hey, this is pretty dang good.
*** not bad at all.
** eh.
* bad. Keep looking for alternatives.


[Tofurky Deli Slices can be found at Whole Foods, and possibly Sunflower Market and Trader Joe's.]