Sloppy Joes
Inspired by a dish that my friend @cakes_by_drea made few days ago, I decided to test a few #sloppyjoe recipes.
Classically, Sloppy Joes are a fragrant-sweet concoction of ground beef, peppers, onions, tomato sauce, ketchup , brown sugar, herbs, and acid. Although these are all tasty ingredients, their nutritional value isn’t top notch! I wanted to create something a little less sweet with a big burst of flavorful nutrition. I tested this recipe with extra firm tofu, turkey, and grass-fed ground beef. All three results were quite tasty.
I scaled back the sweetness by using mixture of tomato paste and sauce , then coaxed back some of it with the addition of a small amount of iron-rich black strap molasses, balsamic vinegar, and a whiff of ground cloves.
Finally, why not see how many extra veggies I could incorporate before it resembled a vegetable stew ? I folded spinach leaves and a little chopped parsley in at the end (the latter not technically a vegetable, but it counts for nutritional purposes.)
- Yield: 6 servings
- Category: Main Dish
Ingredients
- 2 Tbsp oil (we used avocado oil), divided
- 1 lb ground turkey, extra firm tofu cut into 1/2 inch cubes or grass fed ground beef
- 1/2 cup finely diced yellow onion
- 1/2 cup finely diced celery
- 1/2 cup grated carrot
- 1 cup small diced red or green bell pepper
- 1/2-1 cup water
- 2 cloves of garlic, minced or 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 3 ounces tomato paste (1/2 of a 6 ounce can)
- 7-8 ounces tomato sauce (about half a 15 ounce can)
- Half a pinch of ground cloves
- 1-2 Tbsp blackstrap molasses
- 1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
- 1/8th tsp cayenne pepper
- 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
- 4 cups spinach leaves
- 1/2 cup finely chopped parsley leaves
Instructions
- Over medium-high heat, heat 1 Tbsp of the oil in a large sauté pan over
- Sauté the turkey, beef or tofu until browned and cooked though
- Remove from the pan
- Add the remaining oil. Add the onions, celery, carrots and bell pepper and cook for 2 minutes. Splash in 1-2 Tbsp of water to steam and soften the vegetables
- When vegetable are softened, add the garlic and cook for a minute
- Add the tomato paste and cook for a minute or two
- Add the tomato sauce and all of the other ingredients with the exception of the spinach and parsley. Cook, while stirring, another 5 minutes
- Just before serving, add the spinach and parsley and stir just until the spinach is wilted.
Nutrition
- Calories: 312
- Sugar: 11.3 g
- Sodium: 691 mg
- Fat: 15.5 g
- Saturated Fat: 2.9 g
- Carbohydrates: 24.3 g
- Fiber: 7.7 g
- Protein: 25.5 g
- Cholesterol: 77 mg
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