Swap Turkey With Roast Beef For A Heartier Club Sandwich

A club sandwich usually consists of sliced turkey with bacon, lettuce, tomato, and mayonnaise slathered between three slices of bread — but how can this American classic be upgraded into a heartier lunch? Start by swapping that turkey with roast beef. The red meat will give your club sandwich much more umami than the poultry counterpart, and it will probably make you fuller.

When it comes to what roast beef to use for the sandwich, you have a few options. Your first choice is to head to the deli and order freshly cut roast beef, preferably thinly sliced, because it will have the ideal texture to match the other ingredients in every bite. If your roast beef is too thick, there will be too much chewing involved. Another option is to buy packaged roast beef because it's usually cheaper and easier to come across at grocery stores. And if you recently made roast beef for dinner (lucky you!) and have leftovers, this updated version of the club sandwich is a great way to use that extra meat and prevent food waste.

You might be asking yourself if you should use the other standard ingredients in your roast beef club sandwich or switch things up. The answer is really up to you. Keeping the other ingredients like bacon, lettuce, tomato, and mayonnaise will result in delicious flavor combinations with roast beef instead of turkey. If you want to exemplify the rich flavors of roast beef, you can swap regular mayonnaise for horseradish mayonnaise because the two ingredients are a powerful combination.

You can also opt for arugula instead of regular lettuce because arugula's peppery flavors combine great with red meat like roast beef. Cheese doesn't typically belong on a club sandwich, but we're shaking things up already, so why not use some crumbed blue cheese or a sharp cheddar? It's guaranteed to complement that roast beef we've been discussing. And if you're worried about the double dose of red meat, you can skip the bacon — or go for turkey bacon to make up for taking the sliced turkey out of your club sandwich equation.