Black Bean Sloppy Joes

Sandwiches for dinner on Monday. We had a busy afternoon, finally having enough energy to take down the Christmas tree and put all the decorations away. After that we both dozed off while watching an old Vincent Price/Agnes Moorehead movie. Good thing I already planned for this quickie meal, because I really didn't feel like cooking up a big dinner. 

The recipe is by Mary McDougall and comes from a number of published sources, most recently in the McDougall Quick and Easy Cookbook.

Black Bean Sloppy Joes
Servings: 6
Preparation Time: 10 minutes
Cooking Time: 10 minutes

  1                     onion -- chopped
  1                     green bell pepper -- diced
     1/3           cup  water
  15            ounces  canned black beans -- drained and rinsed
  8             ounces  tomato sauce
     1/4           cup  rolled oats -- quick-cooking
  1         tablespoon  soy sauce
     1/2    tablespoon  prepared mustard
  1           teaspoon  honey
  1           teaspoon  chili powder
  6                     whole wheat buns -- *see Note

Place the onion and bell pepper in a saucepan with the water. Cook, stirring frequently, until the vegetables soften, about 5 minutes.
Meanwhile, mash the beans with a bean or potato masher (do not use a food processor). Add the beans and remaining ingredients, except the buns. Cook over low heat until heated through, about 5 minutes.
Serve on the buns with your choice of accompaniments, such as onions, tomatoes, lettuce, pickles, mustard, and ketchup.

Recipe Hint: Try this over toast, potatoes, or grains. Canned pinto beans also work well in this recipe.
McDougall Quick and Easy Cookbook
page 134

Oatmeal? Sounds like a weird ingredient to put into sloppy joes. Also, only 1 can of beans and such a small amount of sauce. This will never be enough for 6 sandwiches, right?

In a medium sized saucepan

Wrong. The oatmeal made this a thick mixture, not a watery, sloppy, one, and added a bit of volume, too. With regular sloppy joes, you have a lot of sauce with the little bits (veggies, lentils, etc.) swimming around in it. To get enough bits onto your sandwich you had to ladle on a pretty large amount. With this mixture, everything is in a nice neat package so one smaller scoop is all you need.

On Kaiser rolls

I had to quickly take the photo. My husband already started eating one of his sandwiches while my back was turned (upper left corner). Since he ate my whole wheat Kaiser roll for his breakfast earlier in the day, I wound up having mine on the same whole grain panini bread I raved on about in previous posts. Look at how nice and neat it sits there on the bread!

Piled around a half inch high

Another comment I can make about this sloppy joe recipe is that the flavor is a bit bland. Kids, and other people who don't go for highly spiced food (like me), will love it! My husband liked the texture but wanted it spicier (especially after eating leftover Lazy Sunday Stew for lunch) so shook on some sriracha sauce, but I loved it just the way it was. 

We got 5 hearty sandwiches out of it. It's hard to see in these photos but those babies were piled up high! My husband ate 3 on kaiser rolls, I had one on the bread, and I have another sandwich already made in the refrigerator for today's lunch. I really scooped a lot on each one, so this could easily make 6 or more sandwiches with less on each one. So much for one can of beans not being enough.