How to Make Italian Vegan Cheesesteak Sliders
PLEASE DROP EVERYTHING YOU ARE DOING AND MAKE THESE BAD BOYS IMMEDIATELY! These Italian vegan cheesesteak sliders are pillowy, chewy, saucy, cheesy, and meaty. They are out of this world delicious and way easier to make than they look! It’s a win, win, WIN!
What is inside of the vegan cheesesteak sliders?
These vegan cheesesteak sliders start with my pillowy, bouncy Best Ever Homemade Classic Burger Buns. I turn that dough into the perfect slider bun size and bake them snuggly together in a cast-iron skillet. I then spread the insides of the sliders with a super simple Japanese-like mayo and then layer in vegan mozzarella, Italian sausage, sauteed green bell peppers and onions, and provolone cheese. Once they’re perfectly baked, I generously brush the tops with garlic-parsley butter. Now, if that doesn’t all sound like absolute food heaven to you, I don’t know what will!
Most of the magic happens in the oven!
The oven is where all of the ingredients and flavors marry together. The cheese gets oh so ooey-gooey and melty. The insides of the buns soak up the sauce from the sauteed peppers and onions. And, the tops get a slight crispness from the garlic-parsley butter. I don’t want to brag or anything, but holy cow, these are PHENOMENAL and are perfect for a party, potluck, or game day! Heck, you don’t even have to share these with anyone if you don’t want to! I don’t judge!
HEY! Make sure to read my “tiparooskis,” located below the written recipe, for some tips and substitutions!
If you make Italian vegan cheesesteak sliders, don’t forget to post a picture to Instagram, tag me @chefsummerstorm, and #gardengrub so I can see your recreation!
How to Make Italian Vegan Cheesesteak Sliders
Ingredients
Filling
- Two 8 ounce packages Blackbird Foods Italian sausage (Use code 'SUMMERSTORM10' at checkout to receive 10% off your entire order!)
- 4 tbsp olive oil, extra virgin
- 2 cups yellow onion, thinly julienned (roughly one medium-large onion)
- 2 cups large green bell pepper, thinly julienned (roughly one large pepper)
- 1/4 tsp kosher salt
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1/4 tsp dried oregano
- 1 tbsp vegan Worcestershire sauce
Mayo Sauce
- 1/2 cup vegan mayonnaise
- 1 tbsp rice vinegar
- 2 tsp organic cane sugar
Garlic Butter
- 1 tbsp vegan butter
- 1 tbsp olive oil, extra virgin
- 1 tbsp light agave nectar
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1/8 tsp kosher salt
- 2 tbsp fresh parsley, finely chopped
You Will Also Need
- Vegan butter, for greasing the pan
- 12 slider buns
- 1 1/2 cups shredded vegan mozzarella
- 7 slices vegan provolone cheese
Instructions
Filling
- Place a large saute pan over medium-high heat. Once hot, add in 2 tablespoons of olive oil, followed by the onions and bell peppers. Saute for 3-4 minutes, just until they are slightly soft but with a little bit of crunch left. Stir occasionally.
- Turn the heat down to medium-low and in the add salt, pepper, garlic powder, oregano, and Worcestershire sauce. Stir well and cook for one more minute.
- Dump the onions and peppers into a bowl and place the pan back over medium-low heat. Once hot, add 2 tablespoons of olive oil into the pan. Crumble the sausage into the pan and cook for around 4-5 minutes, just until hot. Do not overcook, or you can make the sausage dry.
Mayo Sauce
- Add the ingredients into a small bowl and whisk until completely smooth.
Garlic Butter
- Place a small saucepan over low heat. Add all of the ingredients into the pan except for the parsley. Stir occasionally until the garlic powder and salt are somewhat dissolved.
- Remove the pan from the heat and add in the parsley. Stir well.
How to Assemble and Bake the Sliders
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Grease a 10-inch cast-iron skillet (or a baking/casserole dish of the same size) with vegan butter.
- Place the bottom halves of the slider buns down.
- Spread across half of the mayo sauce.
- Sprinkle across the shredded mozzarella, then the sausage, then the sauteed onions and bell peppers.
- Layer across the provolone cheese slices.
- Spread the other half of the mayo sauce onto the inside of the top half of the slider buns. Then flip this over onto the rest of the dish to cover it.
- Cover the sliders with tin foil and bake them on the middle rack for 25 minutes, rotating them halfway through.
- Remove and discard the foil, then brush the entire tops and edges of the buns with the garlic butter. Pop them back into the oven for another 10 minutes, rotating them halfway through. Please keep a close eye on them, so the tops of the buns do not burn. If they begin getting too dark, you can remove them from the oven before the 10 minutes are up.
Tiparooskis
Welcome to my tip section of the sliders recipe! Here I provide my top tips to help you perfect the recipe. Sometimes, I also give substitute suggestions that I think you may find helpful.
- You can use regular-sized burger buns instead of sliders. If you do not have time to make slider buns or cannot find any in stores, you can use six regular-sized burger buns instead. Doing this would be perfect if you wanted to make these as a main course for dinner, instead of an appetizer. You can use store-bought buns, but I genuinely think my homemade buns play a delicious part in these vegan cheesesteak sliders, and I think making them is worth the extra steps if you have a little bit of time.
- If you are unable to purchase the sausage I featured in this post, another option you can find in many grocery stores is the Hot Italian sausage by Beyond Meat. Use two packages and make sure to remove and discard the outer casing on the links. Largely crumble the sausage and saute it until fully cooked through. Proceed with the rest of the recipe as usual! And, if you cannot find the Beyond Meat sausage, feel free to use whatever Italian-like sausage you can get your hands on.
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2 Comments
RW
Holy freaking…crap…these right here….AMAZING! I made these for Thanksgiving (because I was only cooking for myself/didn’t feel like making a huge spread for one person/I do what I want) and I am so happy I did! I had socially distanced dinner with my omnivore family and they even loved them. I even overheard my extremely picky mom raving on the phone about these to some of our extended family members. She actually ate several of my sliders instead of eating turkey on Thanksgiving!
I used impossible burger instead of sausage and just seasoned it with Worcestershire, no-beef bullion, A1 sauce, and the spices listed. I used So Delicious mozz and Chao for the provolone. Otherwise I followed the rest of the recipe as written. It was everything you would think something like this would taste like and more. Savory, satisfying, cheesy…yum! 10/10 would recommend.
When outside is safe and open again, I cannot wait to bring these to a vegan potluck!
garden grub
RW, thank you SO much for leaving such a lovely comment! It makes me so happy to hear that not only you but also your omnivore family loved these sliders! It is awesome that your mom chose to eat these over turkey; wow, I love that. Your substitutions sound delicious, and I am glad it all worked out perfect in the end. Also, I am with you on that one; I will definitely be making these for a future vegan potluck, too! 🙂