10 Minute Skinny Cuban Sandwich

This 10-minute skinny Cuban Sandwich has officially entered our permanent rotation! As you might have caught on, we have some kind of shredded pork in our fridge pretty much at all times… and as one of the easiest and leanest proteins, I don’t see it going anywhere.  So I love to find new ways to repurpose it…  that make it feel like we’re never eating leftovers!

Enter this beauty. What was once Mexican carnitas, is easily transformed into Cuban pork. No big deal since the carnitas’ main flavors are onion and garlic… and honestly I can’t think of a meal I don’t want onion and garlic in. Another thing you may have noticed- ha. Nobody try and kiss me.

It would also work beautifully with the Instant Pot Greek Pork!

Ok but this is my favorite thing about the pork.  It’s all done and waiting in your fridge so it allows you the time and energy to be creative with the REST of the meal.  I decided to get wild and quick pickle some red onions for the first time, five minutes of work ahead of time, and they’re a game changer! I feel like I’m late to this party but I WILL NEVER GO A DAY WITHOUT THEM IN MY FRIDGE NOW.  But we’ve already established I’m an onion lover so maybe that’s just me… but if so I’m glad I’m me because they’re sewwww gooood.

Besides that, I just quickly mixed some garlic, cilantro, and mint into some fat free sour cream (light mayo or greek yogurt would work too I’m sure) to bring in those Cuban “mojo” flavors that are supposed to be in the pork.  I’m cool with faking it like that.  And it totally did the trick.  And while a classic Cuban can be simple with just pork, ham, mustard, and pickles…. obviously I had to add green stuff.  Because I love green stuff. Especially this green stuff. This sandwich was amazing.

10 Minute Skinny Cuban Sandwich

A spin on the classic Cuban with leftover instant pot or slow cooker crispy carnitas… quick to throw together and DELISH!

• Author: Lillie
• Prep Time: 10 min
• Cook Time: 5
• Total Time: 15 minutes
• Yield: 1 1x
• Category: Sandwich
• Method: Stovetop
• Cuisine: Cuban

Scale 1x2x3x

Ingredients

For the Cuban Sandwich

• 1 Bolillo roll (hollowed out to save carbs*)
• 2 tbs “mojo mayo” *recipe below
• 1 tbs yellow mustard
• 1 tsp honey mustard
• 21g lite swiss (I buy jarlsberg lite at the deli and have them slice it thin)
• 120 g leftover salsa verde carnitas (heated in a pan with a sprinkle of garlic salt and an optional squeeze of orange juice.)
• 35 g deli honey cured ham
• Thinly sliced pickles (I prefer to slice a whole pickle to get it thinner than already sliced pickles- I’m actually not a huge fan of pickles and will probably just skip them and do solely pepperoncinis next time… but they are a classic element so I didn’t dare leave them out!)
• 15 g pepperoncinis or mild banana pepper rings– (also or instead of pickles)
• 30 g quick pickled onions *optional- recipe below (regular red onions would be great too)
• Big pinch of fresh cilantro
• Arugula *optional (not traditional but I always want greens on my sandwich!)

For the Quick Pickled Onions: Mix first three ingredients and then mix with water in a jar to dissolve, add onion, soak for 1 hr at room temp. Drain to use.

• 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1 tbs sugar
• 1.5 tsp kosher salt
• 1 cup water
• 1 medium red onion sliced thinly

For the “Mojo Mayo”- Simply mix together:

• 1/2 cup fat free sour cream, light mayo, or greek yogurt (I used the sour cream… if you’ve got room for fat obviously full fat mayo would be amazing.)
• 2 cloves garlic (frozen dorot cubes for me! Find them at your grocery store.)
• 1–2 tbs fresh chopped mint
• 1/2 tbs fresh chopped cilantro
• pinch of salt and pepper

Instructions

1. Cut Bolillo roll in half (if watching carbs, cut the bottom extra thin, then hollow out the top.)
2. Spread with “mayo”, and mustards, top with cheese first, then pork, ham, pickles and/or pepperoncinis, pickled onions, cilantro, and arugula.
3. Top with other half of roll. Spray each side with cooking olive oil spray and cook in panini press OR:
4. Heat a skillet over medium high heat. Spray with cooking spray and add sandwich.
5. Press with a heavy skillet on top until the bottom is golden brown. Spray top with olive spray and flip. Repeat.
6. Enjoy!

Notes

• * I like to slice the bottom of the Bolillo really thin and hollow out the top to reduce weight/carbs but get all the sandwich surface area.  After you hollow it, weigh your final product and search “bolillo roll g” on My Fitness Pal to find an option you can log in grams. If you have to– choose a “pane roll g” or “kaiser roll g”- or even “french bread g” –they all ring in pretty similar.

• A note on logging the pickled onions: I’ve always been nervous to try these because of the sugar. I assumed it would add up AND wasn’t sure how to account for it. But this is my take on it.  I weighed the pickling juice before and after the onions soaked and it hardly changed at all. Unless there’s some science I don’t understand where the onions pull all of the sugar from the water, the amount soaked up was so negligible. Not even worth tracking. If anything, the onions take on water and weigh more which means 30 grams of pickled onions might only be like 20 grams of raw onions which would make them LOWER in carbs in theory than raw.  Also they’re just onions. HA.  So I’m calling it even and I’ll be logging raw onions every time I use these babies.

Nutrition

• Serving Size: 1 Sandwich
• Calories: 463
• Sugar: 10.04
• Fat: 7.3
• Saturated Fat: 2.6
• Carbohydrates: 50.7
• Protein: 48.5