Keto Reuben Casserole

Where the Reuben comes from

A classic Reuben is corned beef, sauerkraut, Swiss cheese and Russian or Thousand Island dressing, grilled between slices of rye bread. Nobody agrees on who invented it. One story puts it in Omaha, Nebraska, at a weekly poker game at the Blackstone Hotel, where a grocer named Reuben Kulakofsky supposedly asked for a corned beef and sauerkraut sandwich. Another puts it in New York City, at Arnold Reuben’s delicatessen, around 1914. I like that the argument has never been settled. It makes the sandwich feel like something a lot of people claim as their own.

What every version agrees on is the balance: salty, tender beef, sour cabbage, nutty cheese and a sweet-tangy dressing to tie it together. The bread was only ever the carrier. Take it away and you lose nothing a casserole dish can’t give back.

At our table

In my house, a casserole is what I reach for when the evening is already too full. My two kids fight over the last scoop of my cheesesteak casserole and have no idea it’s low carb, and I wanted another dish like that for the cold months, something that smells like a deli and makes people drift into the kitchen asking what’s in the oven.

This is the one I make as the weather turns and the holiday season starts filling the calendar. It bakes in about half an hour, it holds well on the counter while everyone finds a seat, and it sits happily next to something green. My creamed spinach is the side I pair it with, because the tang of the sauerkraut and the rich cream sauce answer each other nicely. If your crew likes the layered, beefy kind of dinner, my keto Big Mac casserole is the other casserole I make most often.

How it became low carb and high protein

The sandwich gets nearly all of its carbs from the bread and from a sugary dressing. So the bread is gone, and the dressing is made from mayonnaise, a little cream cheese, tomato paste, chopped dill pickle, a splash of vinegar and a teaspoon of alcohol-free Worcestershire sauce. There’s no added sugar anywhere. Caraway seeds go in because they are what makes rye taste like rye, and a teaspoon brings back the flavor the bread used to give.

Each serving has 32 grams of protein and about 3 grams of net carbs. The card shows 6 grams of total carbs and 2 grams of fiber, and the net number comes from the unrounded USDA math. It is a rich dish at 608 calories a serving, so a normal portion goes a long way. It counts as keto because it comes in well under 10 grams of net carbs for a main, with no bread, sugar, flour or potatoes in it.

One thing to know: deli corned beef and sauerkraut are both salty. The CDC notes that most of the sodium we eat comes from processed and restaurant foods, and deli meat is one of those, so I don’t add any extra salt to the dressing.