Kid Friendly Vegetarian Lentil Sloppy Joe Sandwich Recipe

Our ongoing hunt for delicious kid-friendly meatless Monday recipes continues with our vegetarian sloppy joe recipe. We've cracked open the bag of lentils and are diving into this simple dinner dish. When I first thought about making vegetarian recipes my mind went to two main ingredients - tofu and lentils. Two ingredients that I knew very little about and that I was very afraid of. Truthfully, I still haven't tackled tofu...I'll get there. But, with this recipe I am using lentils and I was super impressed with how easy they were to cook and how delicious they are. Are you afraid of lentils? I bet a lot of you are. Yes, I have always loved lentils in soups, but I'm talking about trying to convince my kids that lentils are a good substitute for ground meat.  This sloppy joe recipe is a great place to start. It's super flavourful and everyone loves a good sandwich recipe. What surprised me most was how quickly this dish came together. In the 20 minutes it took the lentils to cook, I made the sloppy joe sauce. So it all came together in about 30 minutes. Seriously. Another added bonus is that this lentil sloppy joe sauce could easily be used to top pasta, too. Why not? The kids did love it. We served a simple coleslaw on our sloppy joe sandwiches and a side of pickles. The lentils add lots of protein to the dish - we really didn't miss the meat.

Vegetarian Lentil Sloppy Joe Recipe

1 tablespoon olive oil 1 shallot, finely chopped 1 red pepper, finely chopped 1 garlic clove - whole 1 cup green lentils 4 cups vegetable stock 3 tablespoon tomato paste 1 teaspoon cumin 1 tablespoon chilli powder 1 ½ cups tomato sauce (one 389 ml can) 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar 1 teaspoon brown sugar 1 teaspoon soy sauce Begin by cooking the lentils. Bring a pot of vegetable stock to the boil. Pour in the lentils and simmer for 20 minutes - until the lentils are tender and most, if not all of the liquid has been absorbed. If the lentils are tender and you still have liquid - drain the lentils. While the lentils are simmering away it's time to start the sauce.  Add the olive oil, shallot, pepper and garlic to a large skillet, over medium high heat. Cook until the peppers have softened. Remove the garlic clove - I remove the garlic clove at this point so the dish isn't too garlicy. This is primarily for those picky kiddos out there. Feel free to leave the garlic, if that works for your family. Stir in the cumin, chili powder, brown sugar, soy sauce and cider vinegar.  Once the spices are mixed in, drop the tomato paste into the pan. Cook the tomato paste until it starts to turn brown. Cooking the tomato paste will bring out the flavour of the tomatoes and build the base of the sloppy joe sauce. Once the tomato paste is browned, pour in the tomato sauce and the cooked lentils. Let the sloppy joe sauce simmer over medium heat for 5 minutes and then it's ready to serve. We served our sloppy joe sandwiches on a nice fresh bun with a simple coleslaw piled on top. Don't forget a dill pickle on the side. Some folks like cheese on top too.

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