Vegan Primanti's Sandwich

I have been waiting three years for this recipe!!

And today is the day!!

If you’re not quite sure what you’re looking at, my guess is that you’ve never been to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

That’s alright. I love you anyway.

A Primanti’s Sandwich is the food anthem of this city. And if you can’t already tell from the pictures, it’s a complete hot mess of a sandwich.

If you’re sitting there thinking, “What in the heck is Alexa doing right now,” I get it. This is so not “Fooduzzi food.”

In fact, quite the opposite.

But I make exceptions for nostalgic foods. And there is none more nostalgic than the Primanti’s Sandwich.

Some of my most vivid food memories growing up were at Primanti’s. At the outlet mall with my mom, at a Pens game, with my co-workers in high school…

If you ever come to the city and ask a random Pittsburgher for the one place you should eat while you’re here, 99.9% of the time you’ll get the same answer: Primanti’s. And the other .1% is lying.

It is Pittsburgh in food form, and I couldn’t be more proud that this pile of complete and total madness is what we’re talking about today.

If you couldn’t already guess, Primanti’s the kind of place where even the bread isn’t vegan. But that’s okay.

I’ve got your back.

As sacrilegious as it might seem to the most die-hard yinzer, we’re making Primanti’s vegan. And I pinky promise you that it’s going to be the perfect substitute to this Steel City staple.

By definition, a typical Primanti’s Sandwich is made up of two thick slices of Italian white bread, a huge ol’ pile of meat, cheese, french fries, coleslaw, and tomatoes. Yes, all on one sandwich.

You can add eggs, you can substitute the meat, but if you go there, you’re getting some variation on the classic equation.

To vegan it, we’re (surprisingly) keeping most of it: light and fluffy Italian bread, a vinegar-based slaw, crispy fried fries, and tomatoes. To make it easy, I bought frozen fries from Whole Foods. Feel free to fry your own. Or you can bake them! I really love this recipe.

And then comes the meat. Remember that recipe of the extremely unphotogenic log of seitan I shared last week? Yep. Slice it paper thin. So thin it’s practically one-sided. And pile it high on your sammich.

I like adding hot sauce to my sandwich (they use Red Devil; I used Franks), but eat it as-is for the quintessential Pittsburgh experience, made vegan in your very own home.

I can’t exactly tell you why this recipe works, but it does. The tangy slaw, the salty fries, and the meaty seitan are the perfect complements to soft white bread.

It’s a mess, but a big beautiful Pittsburgh-flavored mess. And I love it.

So make this Vegan Primanti’s Sandwich. Be a Pittsburgher for a day. We’d be honored to have you as our neighbor.