Celebrate National Sándwich Cubano Day with a classic Cubano Sandwich, but vegan! With roasted jackfruit as pernil, vegan ham, vegan swiss cheese, mustard, and lots of pickles.
Vegan | Nut-free
The Cubano Sandwich is an extremely simple delicacy to prepare. It has been served for breakfast and/or lunch, at home, in cafés, and bakeries, for over 200 years. Today is National Sándwich Cubano Day, and I’m honoring it in the best way VeggieJeva knows how: by Veganizing it.
Have you ever heard the saying “Cuba y Puerto Rico son de un pájaro las dos alas”? That’s right! Puerto Rico and Cuba are similar in many things; like two peas in a pod.
Even though I’m not Cuban, Cuban Sandwiches are very popular in Puerto Rico. Like I said before, Cuba and Puerto Rico have many similarities, one of them being our cuisines. Cubano Sandwiches were very common as a weekend brunch when I was growing up. I remember having one of these after my ballet classes, from our neighborhood panadería while my mom worked at her small business.
The Story Behind
This sandwich is obviously named after the island where it was invented. The history of the Cubano Sandwich dates back to the early 20th century, when workers in tobacco factories and sugar mills ate it for breakfast and/or lunch. Even though it has been part of the menus of Cuban restaurants and panaderías for years, it was the Cuban community in Florida that popularized this sandwich for the world.
Veganizing the Cubano Sandwich
The Cubano Sandwich is made with water-based bread, also known as Cuban bread and/or Puerto Rican (Criollo) bread. You can find this type of bread in any Latinx panadería. However, be advised that not all water-based bread is vegan. For it to be vegan the main (and only) ingredients should be: water, vegetable shortening (manteca), vegetable oil, and flour. Luckily, there are a couple of vegan panadería-style bread that you can find in most supermarkets. Moving on, the bread is filled with roasted pernil (pork), ham, pickles, swiss (or white) cheese, butter, and mustard.
Think of it as the grown-up version of the classic ham & cheese sandwich.
So how do we veganize it? For the bread, you can choose either vegan water-based bread or a classic sobao (vegan). Luckily, VeggieJeva already has a Vegan Pernil recipe, and the rest is just easy substitutions. For this sandwich, I subbed ham for Yves Veggie Ham and swiss cheese for Chao Garden Herb Cheese, but feel free to use any other vegan swiss cheese if you like. The rest of the ingredients are already vegan.
Variations
- Vegan salami instead of vegan ham, or both together
- Lettuce, tomatoes, and vegan mayonnaise
- Vegan sourdough bread instead of the water-based bread
Notes:
- If you live in Puerto Rico, you can find the vegan cheese & ham in places like Freshmart, Descubra, Naturopathic, etc.
- If you live in a place were Criollo bread or Cuban bread aren’t accesible, you can use French baguette instead.
- It’s not a Cuban Sandwich if it doesn’t have pickles & mustard, so make sure your sandwich has both.
Recipe: Vegan Cubano Sandwich
Ingredients:
- 1 loaf of Criollo, Cuban or Sobao bread (usually 1lb)
- Jackfruit Pernil
- 5-10 slices vegan ham
- 2-4 slices vegan sliced white cheese
- Pickles, sliced
- 2 tbsp vegan butter
- ½ tbsp minced garlic
- Yellow or dijon mustard
Procedure:
- Prepare vegan the pork, according to my Jackfruit Pernil recipe.
- In a small bowl, mix vegan butter & minced garlic, to create garlic butter.
- Split the bread. To one side spread mustard liberally and on the other side spread the garlic butter. On the mustard side layer cheese slices & the jackfruit pork, and on the garlic butter side layer vegan ham and pickles.
- When assembled, cut into even pieces. Depending on how much you eat, from 1lb loaf of criollo bread, you can get 4-6 sandwiches.
- To cook, you can use a panini press, a cast iron, or a non-stick pan. Melt butter in the pan over medium heat, place the sandwich in the pan and use a spatula to help press the sandwich down as it cooks. Cook on each side for 5 minutes or until golden brown.
- Cut each sandwich in half, serve with your favorite sides, and ENJOY!
Did you make this recipe? I would love to know how it turned out for you! Tag me in your Instagram creations for a chance to be featured in my insta stories! Use @veggiejeva and the hashtag #veggiejevaskitchen.
When you leave feedback it helps me improve and grow, leave me a comment below.
If you have Pinterest, you can find me here and Pin the following picture, if you like!
All images & content are protected. Please do not use my images or content prior to permission. If you want to republish this blog post, please link back to this post. Thank you for supporting VeggieJeva!
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, which means that I may make a small commission if you decide to purchase something through one of my links. It’s important to mention that I will never recommend anything that I don’t use myself or strongly believe in. Don’t worry, you get the same price! This will help pay for web hosting, email delivery, domain registration, and other various fees that help keep VeggieJeva operational. I appreciate your support!
