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No more boring, flat sandwiches! These Soup Can Sandwiches stand upright and everything stays in when you bite into them. Great for kids or a crowd!
Featured with this recipe
What’s NOT to love about these cylindrical sandwiches? You can eat them without all the contents spilling out the back, they stand upright on your plate, you can eat them with one hand, and they just look cool. Guests will be impressed and kids will love them!
I got this idea from eating at one of my favorite sandwich places in Washington called Staggering Ox. I thought the cylindrical bread was such a fun idea and I just had to duplicate it! This particular recipe that I am sharing with you today is a variation of my favorite sandwich on their menu. My favorite part is the Creamy Basil Dressing (which I shared with you a couple weeks ago).
Methods Behind the Goodness
There are so many ways you can prepare these sandwiches. My favorite way is to cut up all the ingredients, put them in a large bowl with some dressing, and toss it all together before adding it to the middle of your sandwich. Another way is to spread the dressing around the inside of the cylinder and then stuff the other ingredients in.
If you want to make a hot sandwich, make a vertical cut down the middle (top to bottom) to make two halves, THEN hollow out the centers to make 2 “boats”. Put a little meat and cheese in each “boat” and melt in the oven for a few minutes. Add your toppings and then put the two halves back together (it should look like a cylinder again but it won’t stand upright). Delicious! You can do anything from chicken salad sandwiches to meatball sandwiches to just a plain ol’ ham & cheese. As noted in the recipe below, if you aren’t going to eat the sandwich right away or if you are making them for lunchboxes, line with cheese first. Make sure you get good coverage all over the inside and especially the bottom so the bread doesn’t get soggy. ALSO, be sure to serve the dressing on the side (you don’t want the lettuce to get soggy either).
Ingredients in Soup Can Sandwiches
- Loaf of Rhodes frozen bread dough – not the rolls, the actual bread loaf
- Avocado
- Prolovone cheese
- Swiss cheese
- Sliced deli turkey
- Pineapple tidbits
- Sliced red or green bell pepper – optional
- Olives
- Lettuce
- Creamy Basil Dressing
What Cans Should I Use?
For the soup cans, you will want to get the “family-size”(26 oz.) soup cans and empty out the contents (feel free to serve the soup with your sandwiches!) You can make “kid-sized” soup can sandwiches by using a regular 10.5oz. soup can or even a little fruit can. Use a small tomato paste can (the small and skinny one) to make appetizers for a party (it looks so fancy when you have a bunch of them standing up on a tray, way better than little, flat sandwich squares). The possibilities are ENDLESS! Go nuts!
Frequently Asked Questions
It depends on the type of sandwich you have and the flavor and taste you are going for, but you can never go wrong with a hot tomato soup and sandwich combo! I love to dip my sandwich into my soup. Another great soup is French onion soup. It’s made with caramelized onions and beef stock. It’s lightly sweet from the onions and is so delicious. It usually has a layer of gooey cheese on top that is irresistible. Vegetable soup is also delicious and classic, as are any type of potato soups. The moral of the story: you can’t go wrong with homemade soup and a sandwich. Whatever your preference, you’ll find something to enjoy.
The longer the time between making the sandwich and enjoying it the larger the chance it has for becoming soggy. To try and combat this, we suggest that you line the inside of your bread with cheese to keep the toppings from touching the bread itself. Also, to keep the dressing off the sandwich until ready to serve.
Read More: 35+ Easy Lunch Ideas (Quick, Easy & Healthy)
Other Great Sandwiches
If you love a good sandwich, we’ve got you covered for every day of the week! Try these sandwiches, I know you’ll find a new favorite:
How to Make Soup Can Sandwiches
Soup Can Sandwiches
Equipment
- Soup cans
Ingredients
- 1 loaf Rhodes frozen bread dough not the rolls, the actual bread loaf
- 1 avocado peeled, pitted, and mashed
- 2 slices provolone cheese
- 2 slices Swiss cheese
- 1/2 pound sliced deli turkey cut or torn into smaller pieces
- 1/2 cup pineapple tidbits
- 1/2 cup sliced red or green bell pepper optional
- 1/3 cup olives sliced
- 1-2 cups lettuce coarsely chopped
- 1/3 cup Creamy Basil Dressing
Instructions
- Thaw dough according to package directions (of course you can use homemade bread dough.. I am just lazy when it comes to sandwiches). Slice loaf into 3 equal sections and knead into balls. Rinse out soup cans (3) and spray with cooking spray. Place a dough ball in each soup can (it should take up about ⅓ – ½ of the can), cover with a kitchen cloth and let rise until bread starts to come out over the top of the can.
- Preheat oven to 350-degrees. Place the cans on a baking sheet and bake for appx. 15-20 minutes or until the top of the bread becomes golden brown. Adjust baking times if you are using different-sized cans. Remove from oven and remove bread from cans. If the bread seems too doughy, place back on the baking sheet (not in the can) and bake another few minutes.
- When bread has cooled a little, slice the “dome” off the top and hollow out the bread using your hand or a spoon. Don’t hollow it out too much because you don’t want the sides to get too thin. If you need to, just hollow out a little bit and press the bread outward toward the sides to make the sides more sturdy.
- Spread mashed avocado around the inside of each bread cylinder** and line with sliced cheeses. Combine remaining ingredients in a large bowl and toss to coat evenly with dressing. Fill each bread cylinder with the mixture– pressing the mixture down a little bit to get a nice filling.
- **If you aren’t going to eat the sandwich right away or if you are making them for lunchboxes, line with cheese first. Make sure you get good coverage all over the inside and especially the bottom so the bread doesn’t get soggy. ALSO, be sure to serve the dressing on the side (you don’t want the lettuce to get soggy either).
These look so fun! I am going to make this coming up this week with my kiddos.
Such a fun idea! First time making these! These are amazing!! Loved it 🙂
What a great idea!! You can pack so much in them & you are right, that basil dressing is so good!!
Another idea for all of the hollowed-out bread would be to make bread pudding with it. When our Sunday School class had extra muffins and bagels leftover, I used to freeze them until I had enough to make a big batch of bread pudding. Talk about delicious! Sometimes there’d be cinnamon-apple bread with chocolate muffins and blueberry bagels in a single batch. Positively lovely!
great idea! Way to be creative! 😀
I think I know which location of the Stagger Ox you’re talking about that you visited cause I live in Eastern Washington but unfortunately they no longer have Staggering Ox here 🙁 The only locations they now have are in Montana. I’m still bummed about this.
We used to have a Staggering Ox here in Great Falls, MT (closed down due to poor location), and they told us they use coffee cans. They hollow out the bread and use the hollowed out pieces as kind of like breadsticks with your choice of sauce. They call them “Bread Guts”. Hahaha.
haha love it! I know they serve the “breat guts” with their soup… YUM! I didn’t know they used coffee cans! That makes sense… I wonder if coffee cans don’t have that lining in them/ If not, they would probably be a better choice to use!
What about baking in mason jars. Would that work?
I haven’t tried that but I don’t see why not?
G’day! What a GREAT idea, true!
I now have this on my list to do!
Cheers! Joanne
Now on FB too http://www.facebook.com/whatsonthelist
I just wondered instead of filling the can wrap the dough around the outside before baking, this way you can make many more with the same amount of dough and not have to hollow out the bread.?
You can sure try it– haven’t tried it like that before! I like to serve these with soup and dip the hollowed out bread in it so it doesn’t go to waste.
LOVE this idea!! Such a fun and creative way to serve sandwiches! I wanted to let you know that I featured them in a blog post today as one of my favorite pins of the week! 🙂 http://chattingoverchocolate.blogspot.com/2013/04/oh-how-pinteresting-2.html … Have a fabulous day! 🙂
Aren’t soup cans lined with BPA? And isn’t that a bad thing? I certainly wouldn’t be baking in them!
If you are concerned about BPA being in your soup can.. here is a list of tin cans that DO NOT LINE their cans with BPA:
I would suggest getting a few of these and just keeping them with your baking pans so you always have them. You can re-use them over and over!
Eden Foods: All 33 of its organic beans, chili, rice & beans, refried, and flavored.
Trader Joe’s Brand: Canned corn, tomatoes, beans (except baked beans), tunafish, anchovies, poultry, beef, coconut milk, fruit (except mandarins) and vegetables (except artichokes).
Hunt’s Tomato Products: Only their plain tomatoes
Whole Foods: 27% of its store-brand canned goods. No specifics given! Ask an associate..
Amy’s: As of March, 2012 all products in non-bpa cans. Look for: NB, for Non-BPA on the bottom of each can.
Bionaturae: Canned tomatoes
Campbell’s Soups: It has been announced that they are going BPA free but it hasn’t happened yet. Keep checking the news.
Muir Glen: Canned tomato products only
Native Factor: Coconut Water
Native Forest: Organic coconut milk, artichokes, asparagus, mushrooms, hearts of palm and all of their canned fruits
If you are STILL worried about using cans that have liners — line the inside really well with aluminum foil OR you can probably just go to your local craft store and buy a can that isn’t lined at all. Just a plain tin/aluminum can.
Or you can go online and get a specially-made can that is specific for baking. Someone commented above with a link…
I have always just used the soup cans.. I make these maybe once a year so I figure it’s probably ok (I could see why you would be concerned if you were making them ALL the time).. but that’s just me!
What about this???
http://browncookie.com/products/round-cylinder-pain-de-mie-pan
This is great. I wonder though if there might be a better alternative to the soup cans. Most cans actually have a plastic liner in them, usually containing BPA. And that is most definitely not something you want to be cooking with. Heating BPA, and probably some of the other plastic materials they line the BPA-free cans in, is very bad for you.
what a cool idea! gotta try this recipe out-definitely would be a fun meal night switch up 🙂
Isn’t the Staggering Ox in Montana? Like 1000 miles from Washington? Huh? I don’t believe you eaten there. What did you have?
There used to be a Staggering Ox in Spokane, WA when I lived there! Sadly, it is now closed.