This loaded sandwich has been everywhere on my feed and never have I seen a sandwich get so popular. So I had to do it for the culture! There are multiple variations of the grinder sandwich but they have a few things in common: there’s lots of melted cheese on a long bread, cold meats, tomato slices and a salad heaped on top. It’s quite delicious and I think this would be a great meal prep for a work lunch.
I used Swiss cheese but I’ve seen others use Parmesan, or mozzarella or a mixture of multiple cheeses. I used an entire 11-slice pack of cheese on the sandwich. For the salad, I used half an iceberg lettuce but it still made a huge serving so you will have tons leftover. It’s getting hot so salads are in season so you can serve any leftover salad at lunch or dinner. I chose a Italian bread with a firm crust because I didn’t want it to get soggy. You can start with making the salad first before prepping the bread. I used Italian dressing sauce, mustard, mayonnaise, pickled hot banana peppers, red onion, iceberg lettuce and a bit of seasoning for the salad.
For the cold meats, I used lots of ham, pepperoni and salami slices because they were sold in a pack together at Walmart. They have good options for deli meat with great combinations in one. However, I think that prosciutto or pastrami would be really great in this grinder sandwich because they are salty and flavorful.
If you love salad sandwiches check out these recipes:
Ingredients
1 long loaf, cut in half lengthwise
11-12 slices Swiss cheese (or other cheese you prefer)
1/2 cup Italian dressing (or any other salad dressing you prefer)
1/4 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon table salt
1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon garlic powder or minced garlic
1/2 iceberg lettuce, cut thinly
1 red onion, diced
1 cup banana peppers
1 large tomato, thinly sliced
6 slices ham
6 slices pepperoni (deli-style)
6 slices salami
Instructions
- Stack the cheese slices in an overlap fashion on the inside part of the bread and let it melt in the microwave or oven.
- Mix the Italian dressing, mayonnaise, mustard, red wine vinegar, salt, Italian seasoning, black pepper and garlic in a big mixing bowl.
- Mix in the sliced lettuce, onion, banana peppers into this same bowl in the previous step. This is your salad.
- Arrange the cold meats (ham, pepperoni and salami) on the melted cheese on the bread as well as the tomato slices.
- Then add a generous scoop of salad on top. You don't have to use all the salad you made as it will simply fall out of the bread. You can store the salad as leftovers to serve later.
- Place the other bread half on top to form a sandwich.
- Insert 3 toothpicks into the bread to hold it in place firmly before slicing it in half or thirds.
- Serve with your favorite dipping sauce.