Is there nowhere that my love of turkey reubens won’t take me?

This recipe is basically a turkey reuben sandwich in a bowl, except that it’s better than a sandwich because instead of bread you have a big bowl of pasta and you still get the rye bread taste thanks to the caraway seeds.

You might notice that the ratio of ingredients seems a little different from most mac & cheese recipes – that’s because the sauce is less of a sauce and more of a big, gooey pile of melted cheese.  <– oh yeah!

I know I haven’t been posting single meals much because of the weekly recaps (one’s coming tomorrow!) but this dinner was too good not to share immediately.

Turkey Reuben Mac & Cheese; serves 4 – 6

• 7 oz macaroni noodles
• 1 Tbsp dried caraway seeds
• 5 oz thin sliced roasted turkey deli meat
• 1 cup sauerkraut
• 2 Tbsp butter
• 2 Tbsp all-purpose flour
• 1 cup fat-free milk
• 6 oz shredded swiss cheese
• 6 oz shredded gruyere

1. Cook pasta according to package directions, then drain and set aside.
2. While pasta is boiling, prep the rest of your ingredients.  Toast the caraway seeds, 1 – 2 minutes in a dry skillet over medium heat.  Dice the turkey into 1/2 inch squares; it’s easiest to stack the slices and cut them all at once.  Squeeze as much liquid as you can out of the sauerkraut.
3. Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat, swirling to coat the bottom of the pan.  Whisk flour into melted butter, then cook an additional 2 -3 minutes to get rid of the “raw” taste.  You are looking for the roux to take on a slightly brown color and start to smell amazing.
4. Working in 4 batches, whisk the milk into the roux, whisking out all of the lumps.  Raise the heat slightly and bring the sauce to a simmer.
5. Stir the swiss and gruyere into the sauce.  When the cheese has melted remove the pan from the heat.
6. Fold cooked macaroni, sauerkraut, toasted caraway seeds, and diced turkey into the cheese.

Potential Alterations:

• If your family eats beef, you couldn’t go wrong subbing out the turkey for some corned beef like the original reuben
• As it’s written, this recipe is very thick and gooey; you can add up to an additional cup of skim milk if you like your sauce a little looser
• I didn’t want to squeeze any more calories into this, but stirring a little thousand island dressing into the sauce definitely wouldn’t be a bad thing