VeganMoFo Day 24 - Sloppy Joes

Like mac & cheese, everybody has their own favorite version of this family favorite, too.

Here's the one I thought Mary McDougall has in the heart book:

Sloppy Lentil Joes
Prep: 15 minutes | Cook: 1 hour • Serves 8 to 10

1 onion, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 1/2 cups dried brown lentils
1 can (15 ounces) crushed tomatoes
2 tablespoons regular or reduced-sodium soy sauce
2 tablespoons prepared mustard
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon rice wine vinegar
1 teaspoon vegetarian Worcestershire sauce
Freshly ground black pepper
Whole wheat buns and condiments, for serving

Put 1/3 cup of water into a large saucepan and add the onion and bell pepper. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the onion softens, about 5 minutes. Stir in the chili powder.

Add the lentils, tomatoes, soy sauce, mustard, brown sugar, vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, pepper to taste, and 3 cups of water; mix well. Bring the mixture to a boil, reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer slowly for 55 minutes, stirring occasionally.

To serve, ladle the mixture over split whole wheat buns.


As it turned out, it wasn't. The heart book one used red lentils, ketchup and honey. That's what I get for taking somebody else's word for it rather than type it out myself. This is still a Mary McDougall recipe, though, but from a newsletter.

But back to the recipe at hand. I made a few changes:
For the onion and green peppers I again used the frozen bag of tiny diced onion and peppers, half a bag, about a cup.

I misread the recipe and thought it said a cup and a half of cooked lentils and that was all I had ready when getting the dish together. Another oops. I still had some Lightlife Smart Ground crumbles in the freezer so took out a ziplock bag of them and defrosted them in the nuker. I know they're no longer McDougall acceptable, but as little as half a cup adds a heck of a punch to a pound of spaghetti. When I buy a box I measure it out to 3, half-cup amounts, double-wrap in freezer bags, and pop them in the freezer for just such occasions. So I added this now defrosted half cup of crumbles to the cup and a half of lentils. It probably still didn't make the entire amount originally called for, but was good enough for us.

For the vinegar, I had rice vinegar, and I had wine vinegar, but no rice wine vinegar. I used the rice vinegar.

My husband and I both checked the shelves in the supermarket and the health food store and there is no such creature as 15 ounce (or smaller) cans of crushed tomatoes. I could find gigantic 28-32 ounce cans, but nothing smaller, and since I had no reason to use the other 15 ounces from the giant sized can and no freezer room left to store it after our shopping trip, I picked up a can of petite diced no-salt added ones. All the other sloppy joe recipes I've used called for tomato sauce, or, as I mentioned above, ketchup.

So, while the crumbles were defrosting I tossed all the rest of the ingredients together in the saucepan, then stirred in the crumbles when they were defrosted enough to break apart. Popped the lid on, sliced up the rolls, cooked a big bag of baby carrots with 1/4 cup of maple syrup in the microwave, and in less than 10 minutes had everything on the table.

I would have had a photo of the plated food, but my husband just grabbed and started eating when I went for the camera. I made his so nice and neat so it would look good, too. Mine I just plopped on and lived up to its name. Oh, well, you'll have to do with this pic of the stuff in the pot.

I don't know if it was because we were so hungry, or because the rolls were as soft as a baby's butt for the first time in a long time, or just the different recipe ingredients, but these sloppy joes tasted much better than others I had made in the past, including Isa's Snobby Joes recipe. I guess this will be my go-to recipe from now on. 

I only have one bag of crumbles left in the freezer, though, and when it's gone, I'll start making up and freezing Engine Two's Coach Ami's crumbles, instead. It took a while but the local HFS finally got the bulgur back so I can make these. Let's see if he can tell the difference. I already had the two types of lentils called for. It'll be nice not to feel guilty about using crumbles again. :)