Lentil Sloppy Joes!
Seeing as I’ve posted recipes for both Healthy Oreos and Healthy Butterfingers this week, I figured a non-dessert post was in order. After all, a person can’t live on chocolate, cookies, and candy, alone. We can come close…
Anywhoos, so last night I made these:
Thinking of sloppy joes brings me back to high school.
My mom always placed high importance on family dinner nights, and she’d somehow manage to make a big meal even on days we were super busy. (We were always super busy!)
My sister and I played on the school’s varsity tennis team, with long practices each day, and Friday nights were particularly animated: we’d board a bus in the afternoon, then play intense matches until well after dark. Intense might not be a strong enough word… we sometimes played against China’s future Olympic team!
Ever the supportive parent, my mom attended almost every match. Yet, when we’d finally drag our tired (and hungry) bodies off the courts, there it would magically sit, waiting for us:
A home-cooked meal.
Sloppy joes became one of our favorite Friday-night dinners, and one of our mom’s favorites as well, because she could make them in the morning in the crock pot. Her recipe is actually meatless (I’ve been a vegetarian since high school), but it calls for a few ingredients one can’t buy in the US. So last night I changed it up, and I incorporated lentils into my new creation.
Although I didn’t use a crock pot for this recipe, I imagine you could. The recipe comes together very quickly, and there’s even a microwave option!
Did you sit down to family meals when you were growing up?
Or do you try to have family meals with your own kids? My family tried to all eat together whenever we could. Sometimes after-school activities got in the way; and sometimes we were forced to eat in the car, en route to soccer practice or art class. But when we got the opportunity to sit down as a family, we took advantage.
I don’t remember ever eating dinner in front of the television, unless it was a special “movie night.”
Lentil Sloppy Joes
(Sloppy Loes)
- 2 15-oz cans lentils, drained and rinsed (about 3 cups cooked lentils)
- 1 tbsp minced garlic
- 1 1/4 tsp chili powder
- 1 tbsp ground cumin
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 3/4 tsp cinnamon
- 1-2 stevia packets, or 3-5 tsp sugar or sweetener of choice, or to taste
- 14 oz tomato sauce (I used no-salt-added)
- up to 1 cup water
- 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 2 tbsp soy sauce (or soy-free alternative)
- optional: 1/2 an onion (diced) and 2 tsp oil
Lentil sloppy joes: If making these on the stovetop: sauté the onion and garlic in the oil until onion is translucent. Add lentils and spices, stir, then add all other ingredients and cook uncovered (stirring occasionally) until thick like sloppy joe filling. If making this in the microwave: add all ingredients to a large microwave-safe dish (minus the onion and oil, which you won’t use with this method). Microwave until it boils, stir, then repeat the process until it is thick like sloppy joe filling. Makes about 5 cups.
View Sloppy Joes Nutrition Facts
Link Of The Day:
Lentils are awesome! Thanks for sharing this recipe.
Katie
Here’s how old I am–we didn’t have “movie night” when I was a kid because there was no such thing as a VCR, let alone Netflix on demand! Now the kids and I eat together in the kitchen, but we watch too much tv during meals. I love a good hot sandwich and definitely will try yours.
Thanks
Ann
I made this tonight and ate it on jalapeño cheese rolls. Yum!! I changed the recipe a tad by cooking the lentils separately (1 cup uncooked with 1 1/2 cups water) then adding an addition teaspoon chili powder and a teaspoon of cayenne-I like it spicy! Great recipe, thanks! 🙂
yummy, I gotta make these, I love love love to eat lentils!!!!
and my favorite spice is cumin 🙂
Please credit your sources. This is delicious but has been around forever. We vegans need to support each other, not poach each other’s original ideas.
http://www.theppk.com/2009/11/snobby-joes/
Hi Amy,
I’m not sure why you assumed I was inspired by that recipe. I clicked on your link and although it looks delicious (anything by Isa must be delicious), it doesn’t look anything like my recipe, save for the fact that we both used lentils.
Really now, Joann Stepaniak did lentil sloppy joes way before this linked recipe, and there are many bean based sloppy joe recipes that have been around for years. So your comment is just uncalled for and rude.
Amy, if you read the recipes, than you’d see they are different. But besides that, just because one blogger posts a recipe for something “first”, doesn’t mean nobody else is ever allowed to create something of the same nature. I don’t understand why you even felt like you needed to make that comment.
So every time “Amy” makes a chocolate chip cookie, I hope she credits Tollhouse for the inspiration. Because obviously everyone who’s ever made a chocolate chip cookie must have gotten their inspiration from the Tollhouse recipe. *Rolls eyes at Amy*
Amy, get a life, stop trolling. Not that ‘Amy’ is going to read any of these comments as cowards usually post nasty things and then don’t check back for the responses out of fear of facing some really loud music. And if you DO decide to check back, I’m all ears, sweetheart. I’m loud-tempered German with little tolerance for human ignorance and disrespect. MOVING ON…
Katie, these were super yummy…like, really. I shamelessly LOVED Sloppy Joes as a kid. Yes, the awful kind that came from the can, lol. And now that I’ve been about 85% meatless for a few years (still include some wild-caught seafood from time to time as my thyroid does function better when I get some very grounding protein in my body–veggie proteins unfortunately don’t always supplement for me, and I’m sure if my thyroid functioned properly this wouldn’t even be an issue…anyway…), I do confess to missing comfort foods like this one. I had some leftover lentils in the freezer, so this came together SUPER QUICK. I just used granulated onion and garlic powder to save time and mixed tomato past with water for the sauce. Very filling and satisfying, loved it!
We always have roast dinner together at the table 🙂 And try to eat together at the table atleast once a week!
Hi Katie, we will be away visiting family for nearly a fortnight from mid-week, so I did not really feel like stocking up on groceries this weekend. I got your email with this recipe this morning, and thought, I’ve got all the ingredients, why not give it a go for dinner…so simple but sooo good! We have leftovers so we’ll be having it for lunch tomorrow too. Thanks, Katie, for making life for our family just a little bit easier this week 🙂
Thank you for trying them! 🙂
u r just sooooo hrdworkin!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! u inspire me <3 <3
Katie, you could call these Sloppy Lenny’s! 🙂 I think that is what I will call them! 🙂 Thanks for the recipe!
I made these for dinner last night and it came out so good! I really like the addition of the cinnamon, it brings out a great unique flavor! Definitely keeping this in my book of recipes 🙂