Make the most of your leftovers by making this epic Leftover Roast Beef Sandwich. Slices of melt in your mouth roast beef in between your favourite bread with spicy horseradish sauce, brie and cheddar, gherkins, spinach and sun-dried tomatoes. It is everything you could possibly want from a sandwich, but easy to adapt too.
What's the best thing about making a huge roast dinner? The leftovers! We love a leftover sandwich, as they are easy to adapt with whatever you have in the fridge and they only take a couple of minutes to throw together. It's perfect for Christmas Day when you don't want to be away from the TV for long.
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Why should you try it?
- The perfect way to use up leftovers
- Quick and filling
- Easy to adapt
- A must for the day after Christmas Day
What you will need
- Bread - Any bread will work. We like something really sturdy like sourdough, as there is lots of filling in this sandwich.
- Roast beef - The star of this sandwich. We used leftovers from our Slow Cooker Roast Beef, but you could use leftovers from any roast beef.
- Sauce - Beef and horseradish sauce are the perfect match. But if horseradish has a bit too much of a kick for you, then you could swap it. Try a mild mustard like wholegrain, or even use a chutney like caramelised onion or tomato and chilli.
- Greens - We love anything that we can give a green boost to. We put spinach in for an iron boost, but you can use any salad greens. Iceberg, rocket, frisse, they all work.
- Cheese - We went double cheese and added slices of brie and cheddar. However, you could use gruyere, goats cheese, Wensleydale, Swiss or stilton. Really, anything that you would find on a cheese board.
- Toppings - This is where you can really adapt things and use up whatever you have left in the fridge. We used sun-dried tomatoes and gherkins (pickles). But you could also add olives, artichokes or roast up some cherry tomatoes in garlic.
Step by step
One: Butter the bread and add a layer of spinach.
Two: Add the leftover roast beef and spread with with horseradish sauce.
Three: Top with sun-dried tomatoes, gherkins and cheese.
Four: Top with another slice of bread and enjoy.
Roast Beef
The roast beef really is the star of this sandwich, so you need to make sure it's really special. I mean, you could buy ready cooked slices from the deli if you are wanting to save time, but the beauty of this sandwich is that it makes use of leftovers from a Sunday roast.
This recipe uses leftovers from our Slow Cooker Roast Beef. Tender, melt in your mouth slices of beef in gravy, makes the perfect filling for a sandwich. So, make more than you think you need so you can put leftovers in this sandwich.
How to adapt
The great thing about a sandwich like this is how easy it is to adapt. Ours is perhaps a bit random, but it was born out of whatever we had left in the fridge. That's the best thing about a leftovers sandwich.
When it comes to bread, we are big fans of sourdough. It's sturdy, which is a must for a fully loaded sandwich like this. However, you can you your favourite loaf. Something like tiger bread would work well, as it is nice and buttery. You could even do something a little different and use ciabatta, bagel or a croissant.
Greens give some much needed colour to this sandwich, and we used spinach to make it an iron packed meal along with the beef. You could use any lettuce, however we wouldn't recommend using rocket (arugula), unless you like really peppery flavours, as alongside the horseradish it might be a bit too much. Something like iceberg is nice as it has some crunch to it.
What is a sandwich without cheese? We have gone all out and added brie and cheddar. Seeing as this is a leftovers sandwich, why not use it as an opportunity to use leftovers from the Christmas cheeseboard.
We then added slices of gherkins (pickles) and some sun-dried tomatoes for a burst of flavour. You could add roasted tomatoes or olives, caramelised onions and artichokes. It really is a great way to use up leftovers from the Christmas buffet.
FAQs
If you have trimmed all the fat off the beef and you are careful about what else goes in to the sandwich, then this can be a healthy option. Add a thin layer of sauce and loads of greens to make it vitamin packed.
You can store all the individual parts of the sandwich separately, but the sandwich itself should be made from fresh. The leftover roast beef will keep in an air tight container for up to 5 days. Try to use really fresh bread, as you don't want the whole sandwich falling apart as you try to bite in to it.
No, this sandwich would not freeze well.
This is a pretty filling sandwich by itself, however if you did want to serve it with anything then we recommend our Homemade Garlic Crisps or Sweet Potato Fries.
Extra tips
- If you really like peppery flavours, then add some slices of radish to this sandwich.
- Sliced pickled beetroot is also a great addition to this sandwich.
- If you want to keep it simple when it comes to the sauce, then you can just add mayo. Or maybe something a little more special like truffle mayo.
- A thin layer of gravy on the bread also really works well as a sauce. Kind of like in that episode of Friends with Ross' sandwich.
- Any greens work, but something like spinach or kale would add a real vitamin boost.
- Slices of avocado add a nice layer of creaminess and a boost of healthy fats.
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Recipe
Leftover Roast Beef Sandwich
Ingredients
- 4 slice sourdough bread
- 4 slice roast beef
- 40 g butter
- 30 g spinach
- 4 tsp horseradish sauce
- 6 sun-dried tomatoes
- 4 gherkins sliced
- 100 g cheese slices
- 40 g brie
Instructions
- Butter the bread and add a layer of spinach.
- Add the leftover roast beef and spread with with horseradish sauce.
- Top with sun-dried tomatoes, gherkins and cheese.
- Top with another slice of bread and enjoy.
Notes
- If you really like peppery flavours, then add some slices of radish to this sandwich.
- Sliced pickled beetroot is also a great addition to this sandwich.
- If you want to keep it simple when it comes to the sauce, then you can just add mayo. Or maybe something a little more special like truffle mayo.
- A thin layer of gravy on the bread also really works well as a sauce. Kind of like in that episode of Friends with Ross' sandwich.
- Any greens work, but something like spinach or kale would add a real vitamin boost.
- Slices of avocado add a nice layer of creaminess and a boost of healthy fats.
Jess
Made these yesterday with my leftover roast. Such a perfect way to use up the leftovers. Delish!
Amanda Wren-Grimwood
This sandwich is packed full of my favourite things - perfect treat!
Mahy
I love stocking on recipes using leftovers. It always helps whenever I need to plan in advance and don't have enough time. Great sandwich!
Alison
That spicy horseradish sauce is everything! It really makes leftover roast beef transform into something spectacular!
Michelle
The perfect yummy way to use up leftovers!
Healing Tomato
I love that you made a sandwich out of a leftover beef! This looks so amazing and hearty. Bookmarking this to share with my friends.
Alina
This is such a good lunch idea! This is the best and easiest idea on using leftover roast after holidays.
Julia
This is my kind of a sandwich! I have some leftover roasted pork tenderloin so I will be making this for our dinner tonight :)
Julie Menghini
We have a roast that I'm cooking this weekend so this is the perfect timing. Nothing about this sandwich speaks leftovers. It speaks 5-star deli! I never think to put pickles in my sandwich. What a great addition!
Jen
Oh my goodness, I love you idea of roasted tomatoes and olives for this sandwich! I know we'll all be fighting over the leftovers.
Claudia Lamascolo
What a great addition the pickles really made this leftover beef go from 1 to 10 in flavor! Great idea!
Emmeline
Couldn't agree more - leftovers are the best! Especially when you can have them on this sandwich... yum!