Mostly putting this down here so I have the recipe for myself. I put it in the Musa Publishing blog once, but since Musa has shut down I don’t expect that blog to hang around forever. So, from me to you, one of the few things I make that could properly be considered a specialty: vegetarian* sloppy joes!
Ingredients:
- 1 cup brown or green lentils
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- 3 cloves garlic
- 1 small onion
- 1 red bell pepper
- 3 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
- 1 can tomato sauce
- 1 8oz can tomato paste
- ½ tsp. salt
- chili powder and/or paprika to taste
- If you like it hot, add cayenne pepper or some sriracha to taste
Process:
Rinse lentils, put in a pot and cover with about an inch or two of water. Bring to a boil, cover, and reduce heat to simmer. Cook until water is about 90% absorbed.
Chop onions and garlic in food processor. Strain out excess liquid.**
Heat a pan over medium-high heat with a spritz of oil or cooking spray. Sauté onions with garlic until translucent.
Chop red pepper in food processor; strain out excess liquid.**
Reduce heat to medium and add red pepper, tomato sauce and paste, Worcestershire sauce, and spices to sauce. Let simmer, covered, for about 5 minutes, until the sauce is heated through.
Add the sauce and veggies to the nearly-cooked lentils and simmer until the just the right amount of sloppiness has been achieved.
Plop the sloppy mess on your starch of choice and enjoy! I prefer putting them on King’s Hawaiian Rolls, myself.
* – It’s really easy to transform these from vegetarian to truly vegan. All you have to do is buy or make some vegan Worcestershire sauce, and you are good to go.
** – the straining out the extra liquid step is incredibly important. So important. If you don’t, you end up with soup that you can’t really put on a bun. I’d recommend either using cheese cloth and giving it a good squeeze, or dumping your finely chopped mush into a strainer and pressing it with a spoon to get out as much water as humanly possible.